On our family dairy farm, we rang in the new year with a surplus of newborn calves. November and December have been some of our busiest calving months traditionally, and 2024 did not disappoint in that area (or maybe it did, depending how you look at all the extra work and time new calves and fresh cows take up).
We utilize artificial insemination (A.I.) on our entire dairy herd (including all milk cows and replacement heifers) for the safety of our cows and those of us working with them. So, while we do have the ability to time and plan how many cows are bred each day, we do not skip any breedings if the cow is healthy, is in a strong heat, and has undergone our standard 60-day voluntary waiting period (the time after calving when we don’t breed them in order for their reproductive tract to return to normal). After those 60 days, holding off on breeding them for the sake of spacing out calves doesn’t make sense for the sake of efficiency and profitability.
Given that information, yes, we do end up with a surge in new calves during certain months of every year (traditionally, August and November through December are the busiest). Hence, we ended up with more than 50 calves being born during the month of December (we milk about 320 cows for reference). Between holiday gatherings, visitors, winter weather implications, shuffling cows to the calving pen, keeping track of fresh cows to milk and move into the main milking herd, and feeding extra calf bottles — the end of the year was a busy time in more ways than one.
At eight months pregnant myself, working with all these calves and fresh cows is both an exhausting and fun experience. An excessive number of new calves is such a double-edged sword on the dairy farm. While it can be stressful and a lot of work, it’s also essential for the health and longevity of our family farm. Maintaining quality replacement heifers to enter the milking herd in the future are vital, and there would be no long-term future without them. But the dairy steers and crossbreds (we breed a certain percentage to be Angus-Holstein crosses) help us diversify income by taking advantage of the market for finished beef.
Here's to another year of lots of healthy calves and cows!
The author dairy farms with her parents and brother near Hawkeye, Iowa. The family milks approximately 300 head of grade Holstein cows at Windsor Valley Dairy LLC — split half and half between a double-eight parallel milking parlor and four robotic milking units. In the spring of 2020, Molly decided to take a leap and fully embrace her love for the industry by returning full time to her family’s dairy.
