DUC calving workshop a win for producers, livestock and wildlife

Chase Waters has been around cattle for much of his life. Born in Alberta then moving to Saskatchewan as a teenager in 2000, Waters helped with his family’s custom yearling and grazing business before moving away for school and a few years of work off-farm.

But as they say, once a cattleman, always a cattleman, and in 2013, Waters and his wife took over his dad’s ranch north of Cupar, Sask. Together, they launched Pursuit Land & Cattle Service, a 170-head cow-calf operation.

On February 4, Waters was one of two dozen farmers and ranchers who filled the Legion Hall in Kelliher, Sask. – some traveling well over two hours – to attend a producer workshop hosted by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC).

The session called “Calving, Feeding, & Funding” featured several livestock and forage experts and aimed to equip cattle producers with information and resources to help improve calf success.

Expert advice welcomed

It was only fitting that guest speaker and veterinarian, Zachary Johnson, had been called to a farm earlier in the day and wound up delivering twin calves before making his way to Kelliher for the workshop.

Johnson has been co-owner of Melville Veterinary Clinic since 2016, a mixed animal practice he and his wife have grown from five to 18 staff, including five veterinarians. Last year, their clinic was recognized by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association as Practice of the Year, the first in Saskatchewan to receive this honour.

Johnson presented a wealth of calving tips and tricks acquired through over a decade of experience and exposure to the full gamut of calving scenarios. He shared his top picks for products and items to include in a calving kit along with best ways to store them, information Waters found useful.

“Zack’s talk was a great reminder that calving season’s coming up fast, that now’s the time to check on your supplies and locate and service your equipment,” Waters said. He expects his first calves will start arriving around the third week of April. In terms of the annual cycle of a ranch, that’s right around the corner.

Much of Johnson’s presentation focused on dystocia, or difficult calving; how to recognize it, why that’s important, and when intervention by a veterinarian may be necessary.

“Calves with dystocia are over twice as likely to have complications and illness later on, things like scours or pneumonia,” Johnson explained, “We all want to increase the chance of a good healthy calf that’s not stressed out.”

“Do your monitoring so you can intervene at the right time,” he advised, highlighting potential pitfalls of delaying intervention, not just to the health of the calf, but to that of the cow, too. Johnson shared research that found that 20-30% of cows that experienced dystocia took longer to return into calf the next season.

Another key message from the afternoon was the importance of good nutrition to cows and calves alike. Breanna ​Sentes, ruminant nutrition specialist with BeefSmart Consulting Inc., emphasized that a cow with good body condition scores going into calving can help lower the risk of illness.

Sentes demonstrated that strategic investment in nutrition can pay off in a number of ways. When beef cows are provided with optimal energy, protein and trace minerals through the annual cycle, calf birth weight, colostrum production and quality, and the overall reproductive performance of the cows can all benefit.

Working together for resilient land, healthy cows

Across the working landscapes of Saskatchewan, livestock producers like the Waters own and sustainably manage many of the wetlands and grasslands needed by wildlife.

Waters’ Pursuit Land & Cattle Service alone encompasses 10 quarter sections of farmland, the majority kept in pasture or hay. Acre for acre, native and tame grasslands punch above their weight in terms of the  environmental benefits they contribute: carbon storage, nutrient filtration and habitat for diverse species, from big game to nesting waterfowl to tiny pollinators, to name a few.

Recognizing that a prosperous beef industry is central to healthy land, vibrant rural communities and abundant wildlife populations, DUC has been offering farm programs that provide real value to livestock producers – in the form of forage, cash incentives and more – for over three decades. At the workshop, these program opportunities were also shared with attendees.

Jodie Horvath, DUC extension specialist and workshop organizer, capped off the day with news of demonstration projects running at DUC’s Touchwood Hills Conservation Ranch. These projects point to a promising role for new technology in ranching, including virtual fence and the use of UAVs for herbicide spraying and brush control of fence lines.

Cattle production is a business, plain and simple, but it was clear from those in the room that a sense of responsibility for their land and for the health and well-being of their animals goes hand in hoof with this.

This year will mark Waters’ seventh calving season on his own ranch and he anticipates that one or two cows out of his 170 may experience calving difficulties. While this is well below the average beef cattle dystocia rate of 5-10%, every bad ending is still hard to take.

Since starting their own ranch, Waters and his wife have become parents themselves, a turn of events that’s cast a new light on the ups and downs of calving. As he explains, “We have a whole new avenue of respect for mothers.”