The joys of calving on the Hi-Line

As a scientist, Livestock Operations manager for the Northern Agricultural Research Center Cory Parsons, an Idaho native, "objectively" believes that Montana beef is superior.

No, he said he can't prove it with science or research, but he has his reasons.

"I think it's a combination of the weather, genetics and the grass. These calves," Parsons said Tuesday, "they'll go any place in the Pacific Northwest, in the Midwest, and compete in a feedlot."

Montana beef, annually, is a $1.2 to $2 million industry, said Mike Honeycutt, executive officer of the Montana Department of Livestock. Like Parsons, he too believes Montana beef producers have reason to be proud.

"Montana has a great reputation," Honeycutt said Wednesday, adding it's a testament to producers who have developed superior cattle genetics.

March is calving season in much of Big Sky country. It is also calving season at, NARC, Montana State University's satellite research center. In addition to crop research, NARC also conducts livestock breeding and research.

About 400 NARC cattle roam the 7,000 acres near the research center and in the Bear Paw Mountains, Parsons said. A large number of those cattle have calved or will be calving. By May 1, Parsons said, he expects about 380 calves to have breathed their first breath.

"It's a culmination of nine months worth of preparation," Parsons said. "Hopefully we can raise calves, wean calves, help feed Montana, help feed the nation, help feed the world."

NARC breeds Hereford, Simmental-Angus crosses and black Angus-Charolais cross cows. But not all cows are bred equally.

The research center's Hereford cattle are bred the way cows have multiplied in the world since the beginning of time, natural conception, Parsons said. The Simmental-Angus crosses, however, have been impregnated by a more contemporary way, artificial insemination, a method that is anywhere from 60 to 75 percent successful.

"When we synchronize and artificially inseminate a cow, we do it all in one day, about 300 to 350 cows in one day," Parsons said.

Although it doesn't result in 100 percent conception, those are pretty good odds, Parsons said.

Artificial insemination, Parsons said, is a "phenomenal" tool for genetic selection, for breeding cattle with "sought-after" genes.

"We're able to look through national databases of genetics, pick out bulls that we want to match the cows to for accentuating their genetic potential for offspring, buy that semen in a small straw, artificially inseminate the cows for replacement purposes, for calf purposes, for all that."

In addition to ending up with quality genetics, artificial insemination also has a cost benefit.

"We don't have to own that bull," Parsons said.

The cost of a bull can be anywhere between $20,000 to $75,000, whereas a straw of semen costs between $15 and $25, Parsons said. NARC doesn't usually splurge for the $25 straws, Parsons said. Additional expenses for owning a bull also includes all-year feed for an animal that only works about a month and a half a year.

The downside to artificial insemination, however, and part of the reason only about 10 percent of the cattle industry does it, Parsons said, is it's hard work.

"You gotta have manpower, have people around to get everything done, as opposed to turning bulls out and letting them do their jobs," Parsons said.

Bull or no bull, this season's snowy and cold winter has ensured the calving team has had to work harder than past winters.

"It's been a winter," Parsons said.

The more snow and the colder the temperatures, the higher the expenses for the livestock department.

"There's added feed costs, added labor costs, added fuel costs for all the snow removal, feeding - it just goes on and on," Parsons said.

Julia Dafoe, a NARC animal science research associate, called this winter "a bear."

Dafoe, part of the five-person calving team, said she has been at NARC nine years. A Chester native who left the family ranch to study at Colorado State, she is no stranger to cattle or Montana winters.

"Calving is my favorite time of year, but maybe not this year because with all the extra cold and everything, this is a lot of extra work. The weather is not helping us at all," Dafoe said.

The goal is to have newborn calves up and walking within 30 minutes. Within an hour, the calves should be be nursing on their mother's colostrum for its rich protein and antibodies.

The best and easiest way, Dafoe said, is to usually allow cows to calve outside in a straw pile and then let the calf get up and nurse without having to touch it for 12 hours. But the cold weather makes that more difficult, Dafoe said.

"We're having to pick them up within 30 minutes. If they don't get up right away, we're having to get them."

As she was talking Tuesday, Defoe noticed a cow causing trouble. One of the Simmental-Angus cows was trying to steal a calf that didn't belong to her. By that point she hadn't calved.

"That's a really dangerous situation," Dafoe said. "You have one cow that just calved - that calf is less than 30 minutes old - another cow that's determined to steal it. So we're doing our best to chase the one cow off. She thinks that's her baby, and she is going to protect her baby. She will run you over."

The situation was part of the job, something she's seen before. The plan was to send another associate out there with a sled, bring both cows into the barn, separate both cows into smaller pens - "where we can control the situation better" - and put the baby in with the right mother. Afterward, they'll make sure the cows end up on two different sides of the barn.

This is the good life, as far as Defoe is concerned. She said she always knew she wanted to go back to the ranch.

Dafoe said she had the fortune of graduating 10 days after Mad Cow Disease, the fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that can be passed on from cattle to humans, hit. So there were no jobs out there, she said.

To "put off life," Defoe said, she went back to school to work on a master's degree while waiting on the beef industry to recover. Then, nine years ago she learned there was need for a research associate at NARC.

"What a wonderful place to stay on top of up-and-coming research and technology and everything. Then I get to go home on the weekends and say to my folks 'I have a really good idea,'" she said.