Most calves in the U.S. are born in late winter to spring, so now is a great time to begin building health and resilience in your calves. I recommend scheduling spring processing to coincide with “fly season.” The timing will vary depending on your location, but a good rule is to process when your adult cows have about 200 horn flies on them. More on this later.

If bull calves were not banded/castrated at birth, now if the time to do this. There are hundreds of studies that show that calves castrated early in life (before 3 months of age) have many advantages versus calves castrated later. When we compare a calf castrated before 3 moths versus later, we see improved health and growth after weaning. There are exactly zero studies that show that calves castrated later in life have improved health or growth. It is a fallacy that “the testosterone effect” allows significantly improved weaning weight for bulls versus steers. Testosterone does not appreciably affect growth until the calf is about 10 months old and castrating a calf that old leads to higher sickness, death loss and tougher meat. Castrate early!

This is a perfect time to give calves a growth implant. Be sure to use a “low-dose” product (Ralgro, Synovex-C, Component E-C). All steers should receive an implant. On heifers, I recommend implanting as follows: Non-replacement (feedlot) heifers – implant; possible keeper heifers – implant; absolute replacement heifers – do not implant. The implant can cause a tiny (0-4 percent) reduction in fertility, so there is no reason to implant the ones you know you are going to keep. Implants are the ultimate “green” technology as they cause the animal to be much more efficient at adding muscle growth. An implanted calf eats a similar amount versus a non-implanted calf and gains more weight. Implanted calves weigh about 23 pounds more at weaning versus non-implanted calves. The implant costs less than $2, and at today’s prices, returns about $50. Try asking your banker if you can invest $2 and then four months later collect $50. I don’t think so.

If you are concerned about hormones in beef, here are the facts. A non-implanted steer has 1.2 nanograms (1 billionth of a gram) of estrogen and an implanted steer will have a whooping 1.6 nanograms in four ounces of beef. For comparison, four ounces of pinto beans has 216,000 nanograms of estrogen and the average adult male and female produces 100,000 ng and 5 million ng respectively. Stop worrying about added hormones in beef.

I mentioned fly control earlier and it is best to wait to apply fly control until we have a significant fly population. That may seem counterintuitive. Pour-on insecticides and fly tags have their greatest effect soon after application and decrease in effectiveness over time. If we apply fly control too early, we have the highest concentration of insecticide at a time when fly pressure is minimal. In central Indiana, May 25- June 15 would be a typical window to initiate fly control. Read the label for exact recommendations. Most fly tags call for two tags in adults and one in calves. There are differences in quality of products, so check with your herd health veterinarian on which brand to purchase.

Springtime is an ideal time to give calves their first vaccinations. Using a modified live vaccine (MLV) to help prevent bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a core vaccine for these calves. Blackleg vaccine would also be considered core with all calves needing this product. There are other vaccines like those against “pasteurella” and “pinkeye” that you should also get recommendations from your herd health veterinarian. The last time I checked there were 147 different vaccines on the market for BRD. Guessing on the best one(s) for your cattle business seems like a bad idea to me.

Veterinarians have moved away from deworming calves in the spring as they tend to pick up very few parasites early in the grazing season. Conversely, deworming calves in the fall should nearly always be cost-effective. Our recommendations on deworming cows have changed over the years. Most veterinarians would suggest only deworming cows less than 4 years of age along with any cow in Body Condition Score (BCS) 4 or below. Mature cows in great BCS may have some internal parasites, but they are not likely to cause economic damage. If you have dewormed “every cow every year,” take the $$ savings and take your spouse out for a nice steak dinner.

Spring is the perfect time to work your cows and especially your calves. Call your herd health veterinarian today to discuss what needs to be done and then make an appointment to make it happen.