Utilizing your 5 Senses on a Calf Ranch

“I have a very specific strategy I use when I walk cattle,” says Jarred Kopkey, a Representative for MicroBasics and longtime calf raiser.

I use all 5 senses in various ways to judge how animals are doing. With baby calves I start with sight. I start by looking at the nose, then move on to the eyes, and then to the ears, and then assess breathing rate. After that I will evaluate legs and body condition. I use the information that I gathered with my eyes to judge the animal against its neighbor.

I listen for coughing and, honestly, sometimes you can even hear scours coming from neighboring animals. If it's really noisy, calves are balling, or moving around a lot, they may be hungry or stressed. If things are quiet and calves are content and happy, things are usually going pretty well.

I really like to put my hands on the calf and feel them to help assess body condition, especially if I am buying them. But I also feel for lots of other things too like evaluating the bedding to identify if there is moisture present. Kneel in the bedding if you stand up with wet knees the calf needs new or deeper bedding.

When I was on the calf ranch and had a lot to do, I would get on the windy side and smell each row, rather than looking at each calf. There are some scours that have a distinct smell. Smell can also be used to evaluate the freshness of feed stuffs, and to evaluate how well ventilation systems are bringing in fresh air.

I have tasted just about everything you can feed a calf. Starter, milk replacer, even additive products, and electrolytes. I like to put things in my mouth to see what they taste like to get a feel of what things taste like on the calf level.

Use all your 5 senses to come up with your own subjective judgement with how a population is doing. On an individual basis you can use tools, like a thermometer, and a stethoscope. To judge the population, I like to use all my 5 senses to get feel how everything pieces together.

Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.