WHITEWOOD, Sask. – Les and Janet Blackstock know some people accuse them of pampering their cattle.
They don’t mind.
Since they bought their first couple of cows about 14 years ago – just to keep the grass down around the farmyard – they’ve been handling their animals with the respect they believe the animals deserve.
“They’re not just a four-legged paycheque,” said Les.
They think careful attention right from calving, and selecting cows for handling ease, pays off later, although they’ve never had any feedback from the auction mart or purchasers. But Janet said an animal that is used to being handled and can be put through a chute without becoming agitated has got to be a bonus.
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“I don’t intend to get killed by a cow,” she said. “The way things are going, we’ll probably be handling this on our own in our 80s.”
The Blackstocks believe February and March are the logical calving months. It is cold, but cleaner and drier than later in spring. It also fits into Les’s work as a custom seeder, sprayer and harvester. Janet works three days a week as a librarian.
Forty-six cows will calve over the next couple of months. The first had yet to arrive last week.
As Janet took a walk through the pen of expectant mothers, most of them Simmental-Red Angus crosses, she noted a few would be delivering very soon.
“We do a walkthrough every two hours around the clock,” she said.
Janet is the night owl, pulling the midnight, 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. checks. She said it’s quite easy to get out of bed when she remembers a newborn might be depending on her.
Blackstock cows calve outside, unless it is extremely cold or a blizzard is blowing. Janet said the cows seem to be happier in their natural environment.
After birth, the calf is taken by plastic sled to the shop, which is converted into a calving barn for February and March. The cow follows behind and is allowed time to mother her calf.
The calf is then placed in a plywood hotbox which Les, who also works as a carpenter, constructed from material he had on hand. The box is about 1.2 metres high and wide. On the ceiling, Les attached a vented heat lamp and an interior car warmer.
The box has double front doors, which makes it easy to put the calf inside. A Plexiglas window allows both the Blackstocks and the cows to look inside.
“We tried everything,” Janet said. “Bale huts, tarps, heat lamps, a hair dryer, a paint blower. You can do all these things and they can still freeze their ears.”
Their version of a hotbox is on skids, and they can load it into the back of a truck for a trip to the vet.
“I don’t really like calves in the front seat of my truck,” Les said. “And you don’t have to put them into a cold cattle trailer.”
The calves usually spend about two hours in the hotbox – long enough to get warm and dry and be given colostrum if necessary.
Learn from others
The Blackstocks say they’ve picked up most of the things they do from other livestock producers. Compared to many in their area, they are still amateurs.
“We had no reputation to maintain so we asked a lot of questions,” Janet said.
She admires American livestock behavior specialist Temple Grandin’s ideas and has begun to incorporate some of them, such as curved handling facilities, into their operation.
They believe a lot of other producers treat their animals in similar ways.
“We earn our living off them. They deserve our respect,” Janet said.
And when it’s time to sell the calves in the fall, “we’ve done as much for them as we can.”
As their herd slowly expands, Janet said they hope to get into the female market, where handling ease will really pay off.
