With spring calving season approaching, most of Utah has, once again, been hit with heavy winter weather. The last time Cache Valley and other mountain valleys had this much snow (2002), it was one of the worst years in recent history for calf scours, a potentially fatal infection that causes large financial losses for ranchers.

Part of this is due to “snow yards” — feeding a large number of cows in a small area, which leads to a buildup of disease organisms that attack newborn calves, said Doug Hammon, Utah State University Extension veterinarian.

“Feeding cattle on pastures and open range becomes a challenge with deep snow cover,” Hammon said. “We are encouraging cow-calf operators to feed cattle in a manner that will spread them out during the calving season. This is critical for reducing the buildup of scours-causing organisms on calving ground. It’s also recommended that calves older than two weeks be confined in pastures separate from newborn calves.”

This can be accomplished using a calving management system called the Sandhills Calving System, he continued. Veterinary scientists at the University of Nebraska developed this system to help ranchers cope with persistent scours outbreaks and to minimize or eliminate performance losses, mortality and labor and medication expenses associated with the contagious disease. This cost effective scours prevention strategy helps break the disease’s multiplication cycle.

The Sandhills Calving System uses multiple pastures during the calving season instead of housing expectant mothers near a central facility for shelter and observation purposes, Hammon said. Ranchers move pregnant cows and heifers into a new pasture every week, while cow-calf pairs stay in the pasture where the calf is born.

“The system naturally creates groups of calves born within one week of each other,” Hammon said. “This age segregation is key in preventing the spread of scours among calves.”

The Nebraska research showed calves born later in the season are at higher risk for the disease, according to David Smith, the Nebraska veterinary scientist who directed the research. “Their data confirms the observations of many producers and veterinarians.”

The Sandhills Calving System starts by turning cows into the first calving pasture when the first calves are born, Hammon said. A week later, producers move pregnant cattle to the next pasture, leaving cow-calf pairs behind. After a week in each new pasture the process is repeated. The resulting pastures contain calves within one week of age. After the youngest calf in a pasture is four weeks old, the pairs in that pasture can be commingled with the older pairs. This system has dramatically reduced calf scours.