It’s been a ‘calving season from hell’

Veterinarians say many producers across the Prairies experienced higher than normal calf deaths this year, pointing to the long winter, a vitamin shortage and poor forage quality as the main culprits.While prairie- and province-wide data is unavailable, some veterinarians saw calf deaths range anywhere from normal to 10 percent. There was also at least one case where calf loss reached 25 per cent.Typical death rates average two to three percent, according to previous surveys by the University of Saskatchewan, therefore making this year the “calving season from hell” for some producers, said Dr. Eugene Janzen, a veterinarian and professor with the University of Calgary. “That’s what some producers were saying and I’ve never heard it phrased like that,” he said.“We could expect our calf crop to be severely affected.”Janzen said of the 12 to 15 herds he helped, he saw calf death rates reach 10 percent and go as high as 25 percent. Other veterinarians, however, didn’t see calf mortality reach that high.