The easiest and most practical method of reducing nighttime calving at present is by feeding cows at dusk. Why feeding late gestating cows in the evening moves more of them to calve during the day is not known. In a Canadian study of 104 Hereford cows, 38.4% of a group fed at 8:00 a.m. and again at 3:00 p.m. delivered calves during the day versus 79.6% of a group fed at 11:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. A British study utilizing 162 cattle on four farms compared the percentages of calves born from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. to cows fed at different times. When cattle were fed at 9:00 a.m., 57% of the calves were born during the day versus 79% for those fed at 10:00 p.m. In field trials by cattlemen utilizing night feeding, when 35 cows and heifers were fed once daily between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., 74.5% of the calves were born between 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. In the most convincing study to date, when 1,331 cows on 15 farms in Iowa were fed once daily at dusk, 85% of the calves were born between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Whether cows were started on the night feeding the week before calving or two to three weeks earlier made no apparent difference on calving time. On many large ranches, it is physically impossible to feed all of the cows after 5:00 p.m. In those instances, the ranch manager should plan to feed the mature cows earlier in the day, then feed the first calf heifers at dusk. The heifers, of course, are the group of females that are of greatest need of observation during the calving season.

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