How Do You Practice For Calving Season? With Life-Sized Rubber Cows

Calving season is one of the most important times for ranchers, but also can be very stressful, especially if calves aren’t perfectly positioned for birth. Practice makes perfect, so many ranchers turn to a calving simulator.

The North Dakota State University (NDSU) Extension in Ward County gave ranchers and children the opportunity to use an OpenMedis Hereford Model Dystocia Simulator during a recent calving clinic in Minot.

It’s a life-size steel-reinforced cow made of epoxy and fiberglass with a 70-pound unborn rubber calf inside.

Veterinarian Kelly Schaefer said that not only can the simulator help ranchers and their kids keep more calves alive while birthing, it was the most fun she’d had in a while.

“That was the first time we've ever used it, and it's an amazing tool,” Schaefer told Cowboy State Daily. “It’ll never be 100% accurate, but it lets people practice calving scenarios before an emergency happens. It was a huge hit.”

Copy Calf

The NDSU Animal Sciences Department acquired the simulator, which the Ward County Extension office borrowed for its calving clinic.

“They’ve had it for less than a year,” said Paige Brummund with the NDSU Extension in Ward County. “It’s housed on the NDSU campus in Fargo for their agricultural lab classes. They acquired it with a sizeable grant, as it’s not something you can pick up for a couple thousand dollars.”

Brummund couldn’t recall the exact price, but said an OpenMedis Hereford Model Dystocia Simulator can easily cost more than $50,000. Since ranchers are unlikely to buy one for themselves, NDSU decided their simulator could benefit the ranching community.

“Calf prices are so high right now,” she said. “Ranchers and veterinarians do all they can to save calves, but it can hit home a little bit more when their value is so high. You save a couple of thousand-dollar calves by letting producers practice with the simulator.”

For the $50,000 price tag, one gets a full-size Hereford cow and calf with an inflatable calf air bed support system, a functional udder with a milk tank that can simulate mastitic milk, and a replica polyurethane pelvis.

“The uterus is more like a plastic bag inside the abdomen,” Schaefer said. “The top of the cow is open so you can see inside. You can position the calf in any way you want. People can reach inside, try to orient themselves, feel how the calf is positioned, work on correcting its position, and try to deliver it.”

Life Simulator

Schaefer has delivered many calves in her career, so she has some thoughts on how well the simulator simulates the reality of a difficult calf birth. 

For one thing, the simulator is much less messy.

“I’d say it gets a 7/10 in terms of manipulating a calf,” she said. “You don’t have all the fluid, slime, and other stuff that you deal with during an actual birth. Calves are kind of rubbery, but trying to recreate exactly how the joints would move on a calf would be insanely difficult and not economical.”

Nevertheless, she found herself fully immersed during her experience with the simulator. It fully demonstrated its potential as an immensely valuable tool for ranchers, veterinarians, and anyone who wants more experience without the high stakes of a real birth.

“Even when I was practicing and reached inside, I could recognize the anatomy,” she said. “The old ranchers who were there kept making jokes about getting your brain in your hand, to realize your hands are now your eyes.

“But getting your hand to communicate with your brain and recognize exactly what part of the calf you're touching, feeling, and moving, you have to be able to visualize it. It’s hard to do that without practice and repetition, and you didn’t get those opportunities until it happened on your ranch. This simulator presents an opportunity to practice.”

Old And New

More than 60 people attended the NDSU Extension calving clinic in Minot. The attendees included old ranchers, high school students, and young kids who are already helping out on their family ranches.

Brummund and Schaefer said the calving simulator was “a big hit,” but there was only one major complaint.

“Everybody wanted more time,” Brummund said. “Not everybody had as much time as they would have liked to get that hands-on experience, but they really appreciated the ability to go in there, get the feel, and have that practice without the stress and adrenaline rush of a life-or-death situation. 

“The only negative feedback we got was that they wanted more time.”

Schaefer said everyone was there to learn and practice. She was able to give old ranchers and high-schoolers valuable insight that was unavailable to her when she was growing up on a cattle ranch.

“The kids there admitted they helped dad, mom, or grandpa pull calves, but the adult had always gotten the chains on or the calf situated the right way,” she said. “That’s how it was for me until I got into vet school. I tried to teach the kids step-by-step, and it was especially beneficial for them because they had never done anything like that, even on their own farms.”

There was even something for the professionals to learn. Brummund said many ranchers wanted to simulate the worst-case scenarios and were able to understand better methods without the pressure of real-life consequences.

“We had some producers that said they've never been able to handle a breech birth or a rear leg back on their own and asked if we could put the calf in that position to try it,” she said. “Every situation can be a little bit different, and they were able to practice those things with the simulator.”

Now, difficult calf births can be simulated repeatedly in a way that would never be possible on a working cattle ranch. Breech births can be simulated as many times as one would like. 

“How do you tell your cows I need 10 backwards calves in a row so I can feel that? It takes repetition to get your brain and hands to communicate. I can describe it all day long, but the simulator lets you feel it, learn it, and do it,” Schaefer said.

Having A Cow Over It

Not every agricultural college or university extension has $50,000 for a life-sized calving simulator. Nevertheless, Brummund would recommend they add it to their donor or grant wish list.

“It's definitely worth pursuing,” she said. “The educational aspect is just so beneficial.”

Brummund said NDSU was able to acquire another simulator with the same grant. The OpenMedis Equine Palpation/ Colic Simulator allows veterinary students to practice venipuncture and intramuscular injection and includes inflating latex intestines to mimic colic symptoms.

“We got a significant grant to acquire these simulators, but they pay for themselves in no time at all,” she said. “There are always those light-bulb moments that come out of these experiences when someone learns something new or gets to use a new science, technology, or research that creates a better way to do things.”

Schaefer was asked to lend her professional expertise to the Ward County calving clinic. She hopes to be invited back so she can continue to use the simulator as a valuable teaching tool.

“We’re trying to do more with the NDSU Extension in Ward County for 4H, agriculture clubs, and FFA,” she said. “These simulators aren’t cheap, but everybody thinks they’re very useful tools. Even the old ranchers at the clinic were saying how useful it would and could be for them.”

Of course, Schaefer has her own “assistants in training” who could benefit from more time with the simulator. On a cattle ranch, you’re never too young to learn.

“The blonde-haired little boy in the photos and videos I took is my son,” she said. “You don’t get better at anything unless you practice, and this is the only way to practice calving without the pressure.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.