Calving Management in Beef Cattle: Watch, Wait, Go!

As the beef cattle calving season quickly approaches for most ranchers, this is an ideal time to revisit calving monitoring and assistance guidelines. Whenever I discuss calving in beef herds, I remember my early years as a veterinarian working on ranches, when this season was always one of the busiest and most demanding from a veterinary standpoint. This is often true for producers as well, since more attention has to be placed on the pregnant cows that will transition from a gestational no-lactation stage to a no-gestational lactation one. And on top of this, there will be newborn calves on the ground that producers have to keep an eye on. As I am primarily a dairy veterinarian these days, I often compare health management in the two industries and attempt to translate practices from one to the other that may be beneficial. In beef cattle, once nutritional needs are properly addressed, the risk of disease is lower compared to dairy cattle. However, during the periparturient period, the most common health issue for both is dystocia.

Dystocia, by definition, is a prolonged calving resulting in the need for personnel assistance in order to deliver the calf. There are several causes of dystocia, being the most common ones fetal malpresentation and fetal-maternal mismatch. Although when it comes to managing dystocia, the focus should be on prevention, this article will cover how to identify and manage dystocia. A key component of providing proper assistance to a cow experiencing dystocia is timing. Assisting a cow too early or too late can have a negative impact on both the dam and the newborn calf. For instance, if a cow is assisted too early before it is fully dilated, the friable soft tissue of the birth canal can be damaged, resulting in tears, or even worse, the rupture of vessels, which in severe cases can lead to death due to internal hemorrhage. Vaginal and vulvar tears greater than 2 cm have been associated with an increased risk of developing clinical metritis in dairy cattle. On the other hand, assisting a parturient cow too late can compromise the survivability of the calf, leading to weak calves, which subsequently result in low colostrum and IgG intakes, or in severe cases, stillborn calves.

When it comes to calving monitoring in beef cattle operations, the frequency is often lower than in dairy farms, where people are around calving pens most of the day. Furthermore, the common grazing non-confined system in beef cattle operations makes it more difficult (e.g., hard-to-access pens) and time-consuming to monitor cows regularly. A common strategy to monitor prepartum cows is to walk the calving pens twice or three times a day (every 8 or 12 hours). However, in this scenario, personnel may miss the window to provide timing assistance, thereby decreasing the odds of positive outcomes when assisting a dystocic cow and its calf.

While in dairy farms, it is recommended to check prepartum cow pens every hour, my advice for beef operations is to try to check the pens at least every 3 hours. The reason for this regular monitoring is to try to identify cows at the beginning of stage two or labor. Now, you may ask, why do I want to know when a cow starts labor? The short answer is to know if, and when, you may need to assist that cow. The time the cow spends in labor and the frequency of progress are the primary factors used to determine when a cow is experiencing dystocia, and they serve as landmarks to assist cows in a timely manner.

Stage two of parturition or labor starts with the appearance of the water bag (AKA amniotic sac) or calf’s hooves through the vulva and lasts on average 30-45 minutes, but it can range from 20 minutes to 4 hours. The key to determining whether a cow will last 20 minutes or 4 hours without requiring assistance is the frequency of progress during the process. Progress during labor is mainly defined by how much of the calf is visible from the vulva of the dam and the change over time. In a normal calving, progress should occur every 15-20 minutes. For instance, if the calf's hooves are visible from the vulva at the beginning of labor, after 15-20 minutes, the forearms or forearms and nose should be visible.

Let’s discuss the basis of calving assistance timing. As a general rule, based on research on dairy cows, cows that start calving and do not show any visible progress after 30-40 minutes (two 15–20-minute cycles) should be restrained and checked for dilatation and calf position. If the calf is in the proper position and the cow is pushing normally, more time can be allowed. However, if no progress is observed after 60-70 minutes (three 15–20-minute cycles), the cows should be assisted, regardless. Now, if we apply these research findings to beef operations and make them more practical to fit the management logistics, a protocol where calving progress is monitored after one hour of the beginning of labor, and assistance is provided if there is no progress after that, would be more suitable. With this protocol, practitioners may miss the possibility of early detection of fetal malpresentation when it’s not visually obvious, but research suggests that, regardless of the reason for dystocia, calf survivability decreases after 70 minutes of the start of labor. Therefore, assisting at the 60-minute mark would still be adequate to prevent stillbirth. With that being said, there are some instances when cows should be assisted immediately. Those are when the calf is visually mal-positioned or when the calf has clear signs that blood circulation is compromised (swelling of head and/or tongue, purple coloration).

Once the worker or farmer has decided that a cow is experiencing dystocia, it is time to assist the cow. The critical aspects of this process are hygiene, lubrication, and patience. Quite often, the focus is on getting an alive and healthy calf out of the birth canal, while the health of the reproductive tract of the cow or even the cow's life is put at risk. Having a hygienic technique, applying sufficient lubrication solution, and being patient (by pulling when the cow pushes and allowing time for the cow to recover between hard pulls) will increase the chances of having a healthy dam and newborn calf at the end of the process. 

The first step to assisting a dystocic calving is to bring the cow to a facility where it can be properly restrained and assisted. This step can sometimes be challenging due to inadequate facilities or their poor condition. Making the decision to invest in this component is challenging due to the high upfront cost and the low incidence of dystocia in beef operations. However, without the proper setting, there is not much a practitioner or veterinarian can do to help cows. The other important aspect of this step is animal accessibility. Quite often, warming temperatures coupled with snow in the ground and rain during late winter/early spring may turn low pastures into mud pits, making it hard to access or move animals through.

Once the animal is properly restrained, the vulva and the surrounding area, also referred to as the perineum, must be thoroughly washed with a mixed solution of disinfectant/antiseptic (e.g., iodine or chlorhexidine) and warm water. A soft brush is also very useful to remove dry manure from this area. I usually recommend performing a rectal palpation at this time to empty the caudal portion of the rectum of any manure and decrease the likelihood that the cow will defecate after cleaning is completed or during the intervention. A key aspect during this step, as well as during cow assistance, is that the practitioner must wear proper personal protective equipment (PPE). There are several zoonotic diseases that can be spread through manure, blood, or parturition fluids from cows to humans. The basic PPE should include long palpation gloves, short-latex examination gloves, eye-protective goggles, and a waterproof apron. 

After prepping the cow and yourself for assistance, the next step is assessing that the cow's birth canal is fully dilated. This can be easily achieved by placing your hand between the calf and the birth canal. The practitioner's hand should fit comfortably without feeling constricted. In some instances of poor dilation, the practitioner will only be able to place a few fingers through sections of the birth canal, such as the cervix. The practitioner should never attempt to correct calf positions or pull the calf in these cases, as severe trauma in the birth canal can occur. Instead, the cow should be released into a pen that is isolated enough to allow it to relax and continue the parturition process, but close enough to be carefully monitored. After confirming that the birth canal is fully dilated, the practitioner should assess the position of the calf. An extended forward (front legs with head on top) and backward (extended rear legs) positions are considered normal presentations, and cows can often deliver these calves without assistance. However, if mismatched maternal-fetal size (i.e., the calf being too big or the dam's birth canal being too small) is the reason for dystocia, cows will need assistance regardless of calf presentation.

Once it has been determined that intervention is needed, the first step is adding sufficient lubricant solution to the birth canal. My saying is "…There is no such thing as too much lubricant solution…". This step is critical, and it’ll make the practitioner's work much easier and decrease the risk of damaging the birth canal. After, any calf limb or extremity that is in the correct position should be fixed with an obstetric chain or head snare (only for fixing the head; the head should never be pulled). This step is important to avoid accidentally mal-positioning these extremities while correcting the mal-positioned ones.

Then, it is time to correct the mal-positioned extremities. For this step, there is no single recipe that can be applied to every case, as each case is unique and requires specific assistance. However, there are a few tips that can be applied in every dystocia case.  The first one is to gain room in the birth canal before handling the extremities. Quite often, the cow has been pushing for a while by the time the practitioner starts intervening, and the calf may be pressed against or stuck in the pelvic opening. By pushing the calf further inside the birth canal, there will be more room to manipulate and correct calf structures. The next tip is to always protect the birth canal from the calf’s sharp structures, such as the hooves and teeth, with your hand. Finally, when correcting an extremity, there is a higher chance of being successful if the extremity is moved to the middle, upward, and forward. The uterus falls down inside the abdominal cavity, and the calf extremities usually deviate to the lateral sides. By moving the extremities to the middle, upward, and forward, there is a higher chance that they will not get stuck in the birth canal's main opening, the pelvic bone.

The final step is pulling the calf. The initial pulling process, regardless of whether the calf is coming forward or backward, involves pulling one leg at a time straight backward. This strategy will help narrow the widest structures of the calf (such as the shoulders or hips) through the birth canal. A key point to note when pulling a calf that is coming backward is that the practitioner must avoid hip lock. This is when the calf's hips get stuck in the dam's hips. This can be avoided by crossing the chains when pulling the calf (this is pulling the chain attached to the right leg to the left and vice versa), so the legs drive the calf's body to a lateral position, allowing the widest part of the hips of the calf to pass through the widest part of hips of the dam. After the shoulders or hips of the calf are outside the vulva, the practitioner should pull both legs at the same time at a 45-degree angle or toward the ground. A soft laying surface (e.g., hay pile or mat) should always be below the cow, or a second practitioner should catch the calf to avoid calf injuries when falling out of the birth canal.

Following these simple steps, producers and employees can provide proper monitoring and assistance for their peri-parturient cattle. However, it is worth noting that this article provides only a description of these steps, and proper hands-on training by an experienced practitioner or veterinarian is necessary. After calving is complete, the cow and calves should be closely monitored for signs of weakness or inability to stand, and timely and proper colostrum intake should be ensured.