UNION

Though calving is just one part of the 365-day job called ranching, ensuring an optimal outcome for both mothers and babies is the top priority for ranchers.

Tim DelCurto is the superintendent of Oregon State University’s Agricultural Research Center in Union and an associate professor of animal science for OSU’s agriculture program at Eastern Oregon University.

"Calving is the apex of what a rancher does during the year," says DelCurto.

"It’s a lot more than just having calves. You’re coming out of a long winter and it’s exciting. It’s what you’ve been waiting for."

The anticipation a rancher feels prior to calving, DelCurto says, is similar to that of a farmer waiting for new field crop to come up in the spring.

"There is great satisfaction in seeing that calf crop and knowing you made the right choice on bulls," he says.

On the ranch at the ag research station in Union, herdsmen Ken and Mark Fite are already in the thick of an approximately 45-day cycle of calving.

One week ago, there were already 125 new babies on the ground.

Ken Fite is the ranch manager and has been at the station since 1993. He says caring for calves begins with healthy cows and strong bulls.

He’s proud of the breeding program put in place under his watch that has resulted in a new crop of mostly black Angus calves, produced by good-mothering and even-tempered cows and heifers.

Those cows and heifers that don’t take become pregnant or don’t make good mothers or have lousy attitudes are sold. Good producers are kept.

"We have one cow that’s 14 years old. She’s still a good calver," Ken says.

His son, Mark, 34, joined the operation six months ago, coming home to Union County after several years spent managing a 30,000-acre ranch in Rye Valley.

Mark currently lives onsite with his young family, and it’s part of his job to get up in the middle of the night to check on nervous mothers and wobbly newborns.

"Lack of sleep is definitely the hardest part of calving," he says with a slow grin.

So far, the Fites have only had to pull three calves. One was born dead. Ken believes it was due to a lack of the mineral selenium.

Veterinarian Terry McCoy of the Animal Health Center suspects the drought is causing the lack of

selenium.

"What we’re really seeing this year are nutritional issues,” McCoy says. "Selenium is already deficient in this area, but we’re really seeing a lot of it this year."

Selenium deficiency has been known by ranchers as "white muscle" for many years because it causes white striping in the muscles.

"You can see it in a calf’s tongue and muscles especially in the back end. So, if you have a weak calf that can’t get up to nurse and can’t suck …" McCoy trails off. The inevitable death sentence is obvious.

McCoy suggests there are a number of ways to supplement for selenium deficiency injections, minerals and liquid.

At the research station in Union, Ken Fite says he has been supplementing for years.

"When the calves are born, we precondition them. We give them all their shots, vitamins and minerals including selenium. We worm ’em, tag ’em and band ’em," he says.

Tagging refers to the plastic numbered identification tags attached to each newborn’s ear.

Banding refers to the process of placing rubber bands around the male calves’ testicles, causing them to drop off so that the calves become steers instead of bulls. Fite prefers banding them early over castrating them later.

The new calves will stay with their mommas all summer feeding on mom, then hay and alfalfa as soon as they are able and pasture later on.

About October at 700 pounds for the steers and 650 pounds for the heifers the calves are taken off their mommas and weaned, sold and shipped.

Fite says by then, the cows and heifers seem kind of relieved to see their hefty offspring taken off the bag, and the stress of separating them out in different pastures for a month or so is avoided.

"Not everybody agrees with doing it that way. Some wean ’em a month or so before they’re sold. But the way I see it, you can stress ’em once or stress ’em twice," he says.