West Central Illinois | oldtiger - 3/5/2026 18:55
Fall here, first calves come Aug 10-15. Not much downside except if a cow leaves a baby in the sun on a hot day. Cows breed back good from a late flush of fall grass. Only downside is the cows take more feed in the deep of winter to nurse the babies, and the calves eat a lot of hay/feed this time of year as they are growing and decent sized. Calving needs to wrap up by Oct 1. After that the calves are little and don't weather the winter as good. No snow, no mud, no cold
Let me ask you this, do you feel you can run higher stocking rates on your pastures due to the reduced feed needs by dry cows? Or do you just stock conservatively and grow more stockpiled fescue for fall/winter grazing? Right now I'm at around 1/3 fall calving and it's really growing on me I've thought about culling a few of my spring cows that are getting up there in years and replacing with falls. I like being able to split up some of the work of my bulls and I feel I get away with not having to have an extra bull or 2 around which saves $. Spreading some of the risk marketing calves different times of the year is helpful too along with the cash flow since I don't grain farm. |
Spring vs fall calving
