Spring on the Western Canadian Prairies brings a kind of energy you can feel. Snow recedes, days stretch longer, and the first green shoots push through last year’s stubble. For our ranching families, it also means something else: calving season. At Prairie Ranchers Beef, our calves are born in spring, and that’s not an accident. It’s one of the ways we work with the rhythm of the seasons to give them the healthiest start.
Why Timing Matters
A cow’s nutritional needs aren’t constant throughout the year. When she’s carrying a calf but not yet nursing, her requirements are relatively modest. But once that calf arrives and she begins producing milk, her energy and protein needs spike dramatically.
This is where timing becomes important.
When calves are born in late spring, that surge in the mother’s nutritional demands coincides with the prairie coming back to life. Fresh, actively growing grasses are at their most nutritious, rich in the protein and energy that lactating cows need. Peak milk production typically occurs about two months after calving, and by timing births to align with the growing season, we can let the land do much of the nutritional heavy lifting.
Calving earlier in winter or very early spring, when pastures are still dormant, means working against the natural cycle rather than with it. It’s one reason we’ve chosen the timing we have.
A Gentler Start to Life
There’s another benefit to spring calving that’s just as important: the calves themselves get a gentler start to life.
Newborn calves are vulnerable. If they’re born into harsh winter conditions, they face cold stress that can weaken their immune systems and make them more susceptible to illness.
Early calving in harsh conditions often means more challenges for both cow and calf — and unfortunately, more losses across the industry. It’s a reality that drives many ranchers to reconsider their calving schedules. When calves arrive in milder spring weather, they’re born into conditions their bodies can handle. They can get up, nurse, and begin thriving without fighting the elements. The cows, having wintered on lower-energy diets appropriate to their needs during pregnancy, enter calving season in good body condition, which means better colostrum quality and stronger, healthier calves.
How It All Connects
Spring calving is one piece of a larger approach to ranching that we’re committed to learning more about. It connects directly to the regenerative principles that guide how we manage our land and animals.
When our cattle graze actively growing pastures during the summer months, they’re part of a cycle that benefits the soil beneath their hooves. Their grazing stimulates plant growth. Their manure returns nutrients to the ground when the living soil is most active and able to absorb them. The timing of it all — when calves are born, when cattle move across the land, when the grass is growing — creates a system where each part supports the others.
This isn’t about perfection. It’s about paying attention to how natural systems work and trying to fit our practices within those patterns. Wild ruminants have always calved when the grass begins growing in their region. There’s wisdom in that timing, and we’re learning to follow it.
What This Means for You
When you purchase beef from Prairie Ranchers, you’re choosing meat from animals raised within a system designed to work with the land. Spring calving is just one example of how the practices behind your food connect to something larger — healthier animals, healthier soil, and a more resilient way of producing food.
It’s not always the easiest path, but we believe it’s the right one.
At Prairie Ranchers Beef, our calves are born each spring and weaned in the fall, around seven to eight months of age. This timing gives them the healthiest start possible while allowing our cows to thrive on the nutrition the prairie provides.
