If there’s one sentiment woven throughout most of the results – it’s the diversity of elements found within our readership and the industry.

Take calving for instance. We asked, “Which months of the year are you calving?” Respondents could list any month in which they were welcoming new additions to the herd.

The results showed calving patterns stretched through most of the year. Only two months – July and August – were low enough to get percentages in single digits.

As expected, the cow-calf producers who responded did the bulk of their calving between February and May. March was most popular, with 65.2 percent, and April went next at 61.9 percent.

But fall calving also made a respectable showing in the survey, with roughly 26 percent of respondents saying they calved also from September to November.

So much for historical trends. While the industry may have long followed the tradition of the spring calving window, it seems that more operations are making that window work more effectively in other times, as well.

But it also seems to suggest that with that efficiency, cow-calf producers are making systems easier for the actual livestock. As with any producer that caters to the newborn calf, that often means keeping a more vigilant eye for improved animal welfare.

Jerry Stokka, a veterinarian speaking at the Range Beef Cow Symposium in Mitchell, Nebraska, may have said it best when he presented a video, a simple one at that, proving this point.

On the screen, he showed a mama cow standing over her newborn calf, licking and nudging the animal as it slowly but feebly gained strength to stand.

“I hope you never grow tired of this when you see this event,” Stokka told the crowd, as he reviewed the first critical moments from birth to suckling calf gaining its first nourishment with colostrum.

“What an absolutely amazing event. What an honor it is to take care of these creatures.”

My gut sense would be that if a significant part of readers say they’re willing to brave the cold, survive the heat and stretch the time and resource of their operation to deliver healthy calves in most any month of the year – they don’t grow tired of the excitement of new arrivals.

That’s a pretty healthy gauge for how dedicated today’s cow-calf producers are within the beef industry. And as far as surveys go, it’s gotta be a very low margin of error.