Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Miles City, Montana » Livestock and Range Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #66590
Title: TIME OF FEEDING AND TIME OF CALVING

Author
item Bellows, Robert
item Staigmiller, Robert

Submitted to: Western Beef Producer
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Work summarized from the literature and results of studies at LARRL indicate time of feeding has some effect on time of day the calf is born. Overall, results agree that producers can potentially shift 10 to 15% of the births out of the midnight to 6 a.m. time period by feeding in the evening. This result is positive since it should reduce the work load occurring during an "undesirable" time period. However, evening feeding will not eliminate all calvings during the undesirable time period so producers must continue to check for calving problems over the entire 24 hours.

Technical Abstract: Work summarized from the literature and results of studies at LARRL indicate time of feeding has some effect on time of day the calf is born. Overall, results agree that producers can potentially shift 10 to 15% of the births out of the midnight to 6 a.m. time period by feeding in the evening. This result is positive since it should reduce the work load occurring during an "undesirable" time period. However, evening feeding will not eliminate all calvings during the undesirable time period so producers must continue to check for calving problems over the entire 24 hours.