19 February 2025

Calving the suckler cow: When to intervene?

Have you found yourself puzzled on a cold and wet February or March night wondering: ‘Should I intervene now or does the cow need more time to calve?’

A move to part-time suckler farming for many – although aided to a certain extent by the advent of calving alert systems and refinements in calving camera technology – has added pressures where your farming activities and off-farm work commitments battle it out for time, and generally your sleep at this time of year.

Adding a further layer of complexity to this is the financial implications of an unsuccessful calving season. Lest we forget the profitability challenges facing the sector. Although economists in Teagasc have forecast a 10% increase in gross margins per hectare on single suckling enterprises in 2025, rising to €639/ha, this is before fixed costs – the costs associated with housing, machinery operation or even the cost of keeping the lights on.

The calving season on suckler farms is unforgiving in this regard: successful and you have a chance of making a profit; unsuccessful and it leaves you with costs to recoup for carrying the cow to the point of calving and decisions to make on her future presence in the herd – replace or retain, both have costs.

Given the importance of a successful calving season to the profitability of a suckler system, Research Officer in Beef Herd Health and a Vet at Teagasc Grange, John Donlon has recently shared some key tips on the calving process and when to intervene. This tips complement knowledge sharing endeavours from the Teagasc Future Beef Programme, which include farmer-focused webinars on calving the suckler cow and calf care, and the publication of a range of factsheets for suckler farmers.

Now back to the topic of this article, when to intervene?

In the case of normal presentations and calvings, John Donlon recommends as a guide leaving two hours in the case of cows, and three hours for heifers, from when forcing or pushing commences.

“Most of the time, farmers will miss the waters breaking,” John Donlon explained, “but once you see the cow actively starting to push, if she hasn’t calved after two hours, she may need to be handled. In the case of a heifer, you might give her three hours.”

On the reasoning behind leaving two hours from the onset of pushing, he added: “The key thing is you don’t want to go in too early. If you go in very early in the second stage of calving, a lot of soft tissue in the birth canal hasn’t had the chance to relax properly and you can end up doing more damage.”

Of course there are caveats to this time guide, these include calvings where the head or leg is down, the appearance of cotyledons before the calf (the circular-shaped bumps that attach the placenta to the uterus of the cow), discoloured water bags or those stained with meconium, or the presence of a lot of fresh blood.

For further details, tips and advice from John Donlon on the calving process and when to intervene, watch the below video: