Ranchers Forced To Shoot Deformed Calves

An epidemic of deformities in calves born to beef cows is forcing Adams County ranchers to put bullets in the heads of one in about every five newborns.

Ranchers say the step is the best way to put newborns with crooked calf syndrome out of their misery. The malady leaves the animals facing an almost certain death from starvation or being eaten by coyotes.

“You have to do it. They won’t last out there but a couple of days,” said Randy Spencer, who has 400 beef cows on the 50 Ranch near Ritzville, about 60 miles southwest of Spokane.

About one-third of the 100 calves born on Spencer’s ranch in recent weeks have had the problem, and about two-thirds of those calves have had to be killed.

Some newborns have holes in the roofs of their mouths, and milk they suckle can go into their lungs instead of their stomachs. Others are born with spines and legs so crooked they can’t stand up even to suckle.

A few have to be cut up in pieces inside their mothers because their bodies are so crooked they can’t pass through the cow’s birth canal.

“That’s when it’s the worst,” Spencer said.

The deformities occur after cows eat lupine, a perennial weed, during the early months of pregnancy, said Tom Platt, a livestock specialist with the Washington State University Extension Service.

Usually, anywhere from 1 to 3 percent of the calves born on Adams County range lands every year have crooked calf syndrome.

The incidence is much higher this year because cool, wet weather last summer increased the amount of lupine on range lands, Platt said.

Cows are artificially inseminated in March for a spring birth, and turned out to graze on the range. The current calving season started in mid-February and will continue until April.

An epidemic of crooked calf syndrome last occurred in Adams County about 10 years ago, Platt said. But that doesn’t compare with this year’s problems.

Platt said he expects 4,000 - at least 30 percent - of the calves born to the county’s 12,600 beef cows this year to be born with the problem. Most of those animals will have to be killed.

No precise estimate was offered of the financial impact of the calf loss.

The epidemic has also meant troubled sleep for ranchers. Calves are usually born at night, away from the herd.

“We’ve had to put down a lot of calves in the last few days,” said Dick Coon Sr., owner of Bar U Ranch. “It’s an agonizing task.”