Yet, Another Heifer Question

[jerry27150]

if you have regular size cattle, chances of her being bred are real slim. i'm 59 & i have only seen two heifers get bred when they were 6 months old, & unless you are creep feeding i would doubt if that bull could breed yet

[novaman]

if you have regular size cattle, chances of her being bred are real slim. i'm 59 & i have only seen two heifers get bred when they were 6 months old, & unless you are creep feeding i would doubt if that bull could breed yet

You may be 59 but how many breeds have you ran in your years? If you haven't had Gelbvieh your comments are no good.

[Cowdirt]

if you have regular size cattle, chances of her being bred are real slim. i'm 59 & i have only seen two heifers get bred when they were 6 months old, & unless you are creep feeding i would doubt if that bull could breed yet

You may be 59 but how many breeds have you ran in your years? If you haven't had Gelbvieh your comments are no good.

novaman, I think the poster said her breed was later maturing than many beef breeds. As you stated earlier; it's no big deal to lute her but my earlier suggestion not to be concerned about it, is based mainly on the law of probabilities. If there's only a 10% probability of the heifer being mature enough and a 10% chance of the bull being mature enough then the probabilty of her getting bred is the product of those two probabilities, ie, .10x.10=.0001 or .01% or 1in 10,000.
I think.

[msscamp]

msscamp, I don't doubt your experience but it is certainly different to mine. I separate replacement heifers from mom and the bull at about 7mos. My cattle are black, mostly xbred. Those that I have retained cyle closer to 10-12mos.

I'm very surprised that it takes your heifers this long to start cycling! We quit raising black angus back in the early to mid 70's, but have a number of friends who raise both Angus and Herefords. To the best of my knowledge, and that knowledge is based on conversations about cattle, none of them have had this happen. May I be bold enough to suggest you might want to look into the Murray Grey breed? I don't mean to be a smartass, nor disrespectful in any way - but I think I can pretty much guarantee that they will start cycling a whole lot sooner, be easier to handle, prettier in your pasture, and probably do better for you overall. Just a suggestion!

[Cowdirt]

msscamp, I don't doubt your experience but it is certainly different to mine. I separate replacement heifers from mom and the bull at about 7mos. My cattle are black, mostly xbred. Those that I have retained cyle closer to 10-12mos.

I'm very surprised that it takes your heifers this long to start cycling! We quit raising black angus back in the early to mid 70's, but have a number of friends who raise both Angus and Herefords. To the best of my knowledge, and that knowledge is based on conversations about cattle, none of them have had this happen. May I be bold enough to suggest you might want to look into the Murray Grey breed? I don't mean to be a smartass, nor disrespectful in any way - but I think I can pretty much guarantee that they will start cycling a whole lot sooner, be easier to handle, prettier in your pasture, and probably do better for you overall. Just a suggestion!

msscamp, according to what I've seen on this board and read other places, the Murray Greys sure have alot to offer, however, I spent too much time changing directions when I first got in this business. I however did see the preference for black calves coming in our area before many people did. I guess I'll ride the wave awhile longer. I have no doubt that it will change. Some say already has in their area.

With respect to when my heifers start cycling: All heifers except those that look like "keepers" are gone at about 7mos. age. With the keepers separated it works out well, age and size wise, by 15 mos. to breed. For my purposes I can't see any advantage to have earlier cycling.

[novaman]

With respect to when my heifers start cycling: All heifers except those that look like "keepers" are gone at about 7mos. age. With the keepers separated it works out well, age and size wise, by 15 mos. to breed. For my purposes I can't see any advantage to have earlier cycling.

I can see advantages to having heifers cycle earlier. If it takes that long for you heifers to cycle they can't be growing properly. If they aren't cycling at or before around 8 or 9 months they aren't growing out properly IMO. If the heifers aren't growing properly they aren't going to have the chance to express their potential as a cow. Just my couple pennies.