12 month heifer bred on purpose - now what

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angus9259

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I only kept back on heifer this past crop. Big cows keep dropping her to her knees when she'd come in heat. I'd been having to keep penning her up separated. blah blah blah -

So I let a small 12 month old bull breed her. The bull I used is obviously not "proven" but good EPDS (+13 CED -3.6 BW Genomic tested). Heifer is out of a bull with top 25% CEM

Options:

1. calve her at 21 months age (she's a decent sized heifer) - I normally calve at 24 months
2. Lute/Dex in 3 months and let the same bull breed her again to calve at 24 months
 
I'd let her carry to term and calve at 21 months. There's only 3 months difference. Most of us have had an "oops baby" at some point and it usually turns out okay. Just keep an eye on her and be ready to assist. You can also have your vet pelvic measure her to give you an idea of whether she can calve unassisted.
 
I would let her have the calf, just watch her close, just in case she may need doe assistance.
I’ve have had several young heifers over the years to calve at probably anywhere from 15 months to 21 months old with very few issues.
If the heifer is decent sized, calving ease bull, then I wouldn’t be too concerned about it,
I’m assuming it’s an Angus type heifer and an Angus bull, which should be in my opinion the best case scenario as they are generally early maturing and generally calving ease.
I would not recommend trying to abort the calf, in y experience that can cause as much or more problems than calving one out especially if it’s a little ways along in the pregnancy. Even if it’s real early, I would also be hesitant to try to abort as it could cause her to not breed back in line with the others if the intended breeding tie is close.
In my experience, those young calvers can do ok, and it doesn’t hurt them in the long run either.
 
Let her calve . The last 3 months/ trimester is when the calf sizes up . Don’t over feed her . After she calves feed her good !
 
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calving at 21 months isn't that unusual. some producers have a 90 day calving season, keep some younger heifers and breed as a group for the following season. the only time that I intentionally aborted an early pregnancy, the heifer never settled after that. not sure if it had anything to do with the termination but I never did it after that.
 
Thanks folks. It's hard to get a unanimous decision on this board or anywhere in the world today so I will take it and run with it!!! :). In response to one post - both bull and heifer are registered angus. Normally I keep a small group of heifers so they all have someone to run with. This year it was only one and so she was running with the big cows and I was concerned as she was buckling under the weight of all them jumping on her when she was in heat. The young bull I had took care of that for me! Thanks again.
 

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