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Herd Health & Cattle CareAnnual Herd Health Calendar
A herd health calendar turns a long list of good intentions into dates on the wall. Built with your veterinarian, it keeps the right work from slipping past.
Key points
- Build the calendar around breeding, calving and weaning dates.
- Work with your veterinarian on vaccines, exams and parasite control.
- Spread weaning and health tasks so calves are not overloaded.
- Review and update the plan every year.
Why a calendar beats memory
A cow-calf year is a cycle: breeding, pregnancy, calving, nursing and weaning, with one calf per cow per year as the goal. Each stage has its own health tasks, and they change with your climate, pasture and market.
Writing the plan down helps you and everyone who works on the place. It also gives your veterinarian something to review and adjust each year.
Use a wall calendar, a spreadsheet or a phone reminder, whichever you will actually check. What matters is that the same dates are visible to everyone who works the cattle, and that someone owns each task.
Begin with your breeding and calving dates
Everything else hangs on those dates. Gestation is roughly nine months, about 283 days, so a breeding season sets the calving season. Mark them on the calendar and work forward and backward.
Then add your weaning date and the dates for cattle sales, since buyers may ask for specific preparation.
If you run more than one calving group, such as heifers a few weeks ahead of cows, give each group its own line on the calendar. Their needs and timing are not the same.
Before breeding
Plan bull breeding soundness exams, cow and heifer condition checks and vaccine work with your vet. Check mineral programs and pasture. Make sure working facilities are in good repair.
Talk with your veterinarian about the timing of vaccines and parasite control for your herd, since the right schedule depends on your location and cattle.
Leave a little slack. Weather, equipment trouble and a busy vet can push a date back, so schedule exams and vaccine work early enough that a delay does not collide with turnout.
- Bull breeding soundness exams
- Body condition scoring on the 1-to-9 scale
- Vaccination and parasite plan with your vet
- Heifer readiness checks
- Mineral and water checks
Pregnancy, calving and after
Plan pregnancy checking, sorting for winter feeding and late-pregnancy nutrition. Prepare calving supplies, lighting, pens and phone numbers before the first cow calves.
After calving, record ease, check colostrum intake and watch fresh cows and calves for problems. Ask your vet about calf vaccination timing and what to record.
Book your veterinarian for pregnancy checking and any calving clinic well ahead. Spring and fall are busy for everyone, and the open dates go first.
Weaning and preconditioning
Plan weaning, vaccinations before shipping and any buyer requirements well ahead. Weaning is stressful, so spread out tasks and give calves time to adjust. Record dates, products and weights.
Review each calf group's health record and plan culls among cows at this time.
Check that the scale, chute, headgate and sorting gates are all working before a working day, not during it. Equipment failures are one of the most common reasons good plans fall apart.
Fall and winter
Review hay supply and test it, plan winter feeding and check cows for condition. Tune up facilities, repair fences and make an emergency plan for storms and disease. Talk to your vet about winter parasite control and herd review.
Schedule the annual meeting with your veterinarian for the coming year while the herd is quiet.
Winter is a good time to review records, order tags, sort out supplies and check that vaccines have been stored correctly. It is also a good time to look at cull decisions with fresh eyes.
Review, mistakes and what to ask
Every year, review what worked and what did not. Common mistakes include writing a plan and never updating it, waiting for problems before scheduling the vet and keeping records in too many places.
Ask your veterinarian to review the calendar, ask your extension office about local disease and pasture issues, and ask your buyer about program requirements.
Keep the finished calendar from each year in a folder. A few years of them side by side show you which tasks always run late and which parts of the plan need to change.
- Never updating the plan
- Waiting for problems
- Scattered records
- Skipping the annual review
Sources and further reading
- Beef Quality Assurance
- American Association of Bovine Practitioners
- Beef Improvement Federation
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension
Organization homepages are linked so you can search them for current guidance on this topic.