Establishing an on-farm calving protocol is crucial to developing healthy, productive cows and calves.

• The cow’s water bag is visible for 2 hours and contractions have stopped

• The cow or calf show signs of severe stress including:

– Blood around the anal area of the cow

– Blood in the fetal membranes or amniotic fluid

– Signs of placenta detachment (cotyledons present)

– Purple discoloration of the calf’s tongue and a lack of reflexes

– Presence of “meconium” (yellowish-color) either on the calf or in amniotic fluid

• The cow is straining longer than 30 minutes with no visible progress

• Contractions stop for more than 20 minutes without apparent reason

• Abnormal presentation of the calf (other than both front feet first and head in between)

• Delivering twins and you must extract one of the calves  EL

By Dr. Fernando Cavazos García, ABS Mexico, Technical Service Veterinarian