If you have pregnant animals on your farm, appropriate preparation is crucial to welcome the new babies. Read our Church’s Mobile Veterinary Service team’s guide to prepare for calving, foaling, lambing, kidding, and farrowing.

Preparing for calving

Calving season is a critical time for any cow-calf operation, and being prepared is essential to ensure your new calves thrive. Tips include:

  • Assessing cow and heifer body condition — During the last 50 to 60 days before calving, the growing calf impacts the cow’s rumen capacity and can cause rapid weight loss, especially in cold conditions. Ensure your cows and heifers maintain an appropriate body condition and receive adequate nutrition.
  • Examining calving facilities — Ensure gates, pens, alleys, and head catches are structurally sound and in good working order, and replace any nonworking light bulbs to ensure good lighting.
  • Checking your calving supplies — Plastic sleeves, an obstetrical lube, calf feeding bottles, flashlights or spotlights, halters, and ropes should be available, and your fetal extractor must be clean and working properly.
  • Stocking colostrum — Approximately 85% of calves that die from infectious disease didn’t receive adequate passive transfer of colostrum. Stock colostrum or colostrum replacement products so you can ensure your calves receive the first milk in 6 to 12 hours after birth. Store purchased colostrum should be your last resort. When in doubt, milk that cow into a clean tupperware container and syringe feed the calf. 
  • Providing a clean, dry environment — Ensure your calving facilities are clean and free from mud to help decrease disease spread. 

Preparing for foaling

After 11 months of pregnancy, you and your mare are ready to welcome your new foal. Tips to prepare for your new equine include:

  • Provide a safe foaling space — Separate your mare from the herd at least a week before her foaling due date. An open grassy area with adequate space is a good foaling option, and you don’t have to worry about the mare foaling too close to the wall. If your mare will foal in a stall, ensure the stall is 14 feet by 14 feet at a minimum, clean and disinfected, and bedded with straw.  
  • Monitor your mare — Monitor your mare for signs that foaling is imminent, such as:
    • The mare’s udder fills with milk two to four weeks before foaling.
    • The vulva and croup muscles relax a few days prior to foaling.
    • The mare’s teats engorge four to six days before foaling.
    • The teats wax, producing a yellowish secretion one to four days prior to foaling.
  • Prepare your mare — When your mare starts to labor, wrap her tail with a clean non-stick wrap that is not too tight. In addition, thoroughly wash her udder, vulva, and hindquarters, with mild soap, rinsing the residue well. 
  • Know labor stages — Know how your mare’s labor is supposed to progress, so you know if you need to contact a veterinarian. Stages include:
    • Stage one — This begins when contractions start and typically lasts for one to two hours. The mare may stand, lie down, or roll during this stage. At the end of stage one, the fetal membranes may be visible at the mare’s vulva.
    • Stage two — During this stage, the foal is expelled from the vulva, which should take no more than 30 minutes. If your mare makes no significant progress for 10 or 15 minutes after her water breaks, contact our Church’s Mobile Veterinary Service team. The foal should present front feet first, followed closely by their nose, head, neck, shoulders, and hindquarters. If a red or maroon membrane emerges from your mare’s vulva, you should immediately tear open the placenta. 
    • Stage three — This stage occurs when the afterbirth is expelled, which usually takes about one to three hours. If the placenta hasn’t passed in this time frame, contact our veterinary team.

Preparing for lambing and kidding

Sheep and goats’ gestation period ranges from 144 to 150 days, but producers should be prepared for the first babies to arrive several days earlier. Tips include:

  • Maintain ewes and does at an average body condition — Ewes and does should be maintained at a 3 to 3.5 body condition on a five-point scale. Females with a higher body condition are at risk for pregnancy toxemia, while thin ewes and does require supplemental nutrition to ensure their lambs and kids are healthy and vigorous.
  • Assemble supplies — Recommended lambing and kidding supplies include 7% iodine, colostrum or colostrum replacement, plastic sleeves, lubricant, lambing and kidding straps, towels, heat lamp, bottle and nipples, and karo syrup or molasses to treat pregnancy toxemia.
  • Prepare facilities — Several weeks before the first lamb or kid is expected, move the ewes and does to a group pen for close monitoring. The facility should be clean, well ventilated, and free from drafts. If the lambing or kidding will be inside, ensure each female has her own jug for the first 24 to 48 hours after giving birth. The jug should be 5 feet by 5 feet with 3-foot-high sides. Plan on one or two jugs for every 10 females. Use straw to bed the jugs.

Preparing for farrowing

Ideal farrowing progresses smoothly and allows the sow to release large amounts of colostrum and suckle her piglets without interruption. Tips include:

  • Prepare the environment — Clean the farrowing huts, ensure they are as dry as possible, and preheat the area so the surfaces are warm.
  • Prepare the sow — Ensure the sow is in a recumbent position and appears relaxed. Then:
    • Remove feces from behind, ensuring they are loose.
    • Check the sow’s feet, providing rubber mats for sows who have problems.
    • Check her udder segments and record the number of functional teats.
    • Position first parity sows between docile multiparous sows.
    • Ensure sows can freely access clean water. 
  • Gather supplies — Recommended farrowing supplies include heat lamps, plastic sleeves, obstetrical lubricant, drying powder, and towels. 

Contact our Church’s Mobile Veterinary Service team if you have questions about your calving, foaling, lambing, kidding, or farrowing preparations.