New research from Teagasc has shown that the time of day has no bearing on when a suckler cow will calve.The data was recorded by Noeleen Brereton, Mark McGee, Peter Doyle and Bernadette Earley of the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre on the calving times of suckler cows.
New research from Teagasc has shown that the time of day has no bearing on when a suckler cow will calve.
The data was recorded by Noeleen Brereton, Mark McGee, Peter Doyle and Bernadette Earley of the Teagasc Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre on the calving times of suckler cows.
In the research, the calving times of 1,535 spring-calving suckler cows were recorded over 16 individual herd years.
When the daily calving pattern was divided equally into three eight-hour periods (11pm-7am; 7am-3pm; and 3pm-11pm), the average distribution of calving times was 33%, 35% and 32% respectively.
Research
The suckler cows were accommodated indoors each year and generally offered moderate dry matter digestibility (DMD) grass silage, with straw included occasionally, along with a mineral and vitamin supplement daily.
Feeding generally took place in the morning and within seven days of calving, the cows were moved into individual straw-bedded pens to calve.
The research found that cow breed type, calf sex, calf birth weight and calving difficulty were similar at each time of the day.
Although variation is different across individual herds or years, assisted and unassisted calvings were also evenly distributed throughout the day.
As a result, Teagasc has advised farmers managing suckler cows to be prepared for calving at any time and to maintain regular checks.
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