17 month old heifer delivers healthy calf

[ny_grass]

Do you have a "calving season"? Or are they spread out quite a bit? Do you think the mature bull bred them or a older bull calf?
I sure would be checking the rest of my heifers.

Last year I hired a bull who was on the property for about 6 weeks; he was the culprit! With the exception of the bull arriving a little later than I wanted (he arrived Aug 11th; I think Aug 1st would have been better), I'll be doing the same thing this year (unless I find a good buyer for the herd - see another thread I just posted).

As it turns out, 2 of my 4 heifers were bred by the bull. They seem to be doing reasonably well, though both they and their calves are on the small side.

 

[ponypatty]

I've been waiting to write about this because I wasn't sure that I'd correctly identified the animal but it's clear: about 2 weeks ago my oldest heifer, born last year in early February, gave birth to a healthy (albeit SMALL) calf. I didn't think this was possible. Has anyone ever had a 8 month old get pregnant?

JR

Hello from south Mississippi where my heifer just delivered a healthy heifer calf at 16 months of age. We typically wean at 7 months, and move heifers and bulls
Apart. The mother, a registered black angus heifer delivered a healthy 44 lb baby with no problems, and was up nursing her when we found the pair, and thought we'd gone crazy. Not what the literature prepares you for. But-lesson learned!

 

[Travlr]

Hello from south Mississippi where my heifer just delivered a healthy heifer calf at 16 months of age. We typically wean at 7 months, and move heifers and bulls
Apart. The mother, a registered black angus heifer delivered a healthy 44 lb baby with no problems, and was up nursing her when we found the pair, and thought we'd gone crazy. Not what the literature prepares you for. But-lesson learned!

Pictures...

 

[A.J.]

Hello from south Mississippi where my heifer just delivered a healthy heifer calf at 16 months of age. We typically wean at 7 months, and move heifers and bulls
Apart. The mother, a registered black angus heifer delivered a healthy 44 lb baby with no problems, and was up nursing her when we found the pair, and thought we'd gone crazy. Not what the literature prepares you for. But-lesson learned!

Good deal. You couldn't have asked for a better outcome from that situation. You'll just need to give her a little TSC to help her along if you can since she's using so much fuel feeding the calf and her still with a lot of growing to do herself.

 

[Brute 23]

I had a little group of black heifers I was going to keep to play around with a couple years ago. Their mommas were quarter bloods so they were like 1/8 Brahman. When I was weaning them I had to mix them with 2 bull yearlings for a couple hours to work some bulls. The heifers were around 8mo. I hauled them to a little lease place to hang out. One of them was getting some noticeable size in the belly. When I went to drop a bull in to breed them at around 14-16mo, she was bagging.

Granted she came from a great property and was kept at a great property as far as grass. The heifers were all butterball fat. She raised a big ole bull calf and bred back with the others.

I considered myself lucky and have not mixed any since.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I sold my 11 month old, 3 month bred heifer.
Glad I did.
One less thing to worry about.

 

[Dave]

For 4 years I bought a semi load of 700-800 pound heifers. These were sale barn put together heifers not from a single source. Somewhere between 15% -20% were bred. Lute Etc aborted the majority. But every year about 5 or so would end up calving. Never lost a heifer but lost a number of the calves at birth.

 

[backhoeboogie]

One of mine calved at 17 months. Kept her and she calved on about 11 month intervals. Sold them all about 8 years back. Just have a few here at this place.

 

[TexasRancher]

Yes, it's possible. Look down the page of topics in beginners forum and see my thread Heifer Bred Too Young.

Vet said he had a guy with 13 month old heifers calve recently. One did it unassisted, the other needed a c-section. Lots of stories like that in the archives here as I've read.

Glad your heifer had a small calf. And if my math is right, she was less than 16 months old if born early Feb last year.

I'm not doubting what the VET said.... i just think these calves were hidden away for 3 to 4 months by their mothers before their owner called them a newborn or the owner got his math/months or calves mixed up. Even with a quick 9 month gestation, that would be a 4 month old calf pregnant.

 

[ClinchValley86]

This is a wild notion. I am by no means encouraging it. Just a thought I've had more than a few times.

Most of the ones I've had that calved too early were stunted. Didn't get to be as big as they should have been. That said, their genetic makeup was the same and they have raised good calves since.

Does that not create a more efficient animal. Lol. Their maintenance requirements are lower. Given, there would be lots of problems if one did this intentionally.

How would calving tok early affect DNA. The whole epigenetic thing. Would it create smaller and smaller mature size over generations?

Thoughts?

 

[Travlr]

Most of the ones I've had that calved too early were stunted. Didn't get to be as big as they should have been. That said, their genetic makeup was the same and they have raised good calves since.

Does that not create a more efficient animal. Lol. Their maintenance requirements are lower. Given, there would be lots of problems if one did this intentionally.

Had a neighbor that had a stunted cow. It looked like it had been starved early in life. Huge head and small body. But it birthed the best calves on his place and weaned them large.

 

[SDM]

This is a wild notion. I am by no means encouraging it. Just a thought I've had more than a few times.

Most of the ones I've had that calved too early were stunted. Didn't get to be as big as they should have been. That said, their genetic makeup was the same and they have raised good calves since.

Does that not create a more efficient animal. Lol. Their maintenance requirements are lower. Given, there would be lots of problems if one did this intentionally.

How would calving tok early affect DNA. The whole epigenetic thing. Would it create smaller and smaller mature size over generations?

Thoughts?

A couple years ago I bought a pair (month old steer calf) from a friend that couldn't keep them in. Black cow, arched back, roman nose, ewe neck....poorly made. Udder looks to hold maybe a quart of milk. Probably less than 1000# in good condition was maybe 800 when I got her. Calf looked good and price was right. That calf was 716# at 7.5 months. Her second calf for me was 665 at 7 months. I'm convinced that genetically she's a pretty good cow, but was malnourished when young and has kept that stunted appearance. I don't think it changes DNA. When that growing heifer starts lactating resources get diverted at the expense of her own development. Maybe her rumen doesn't develop to it's full potential, heart, lung capacity suffers, maybe skeletal growth? Of course some sorry cows are just sorry cows.

This is work done with hogs that I am somewhat familiar with. Stress the sow and her gilts perform differently. I didn't find it but I think Estienne also found effects on the 3rd generation. So, like I said I don't think it changes DNA. I think it's just lingering effects of stress on one animal during development that may show up in subsequent generations. This is just what I thought of when reading this thread.

https://www.sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/livestock/aps-08_04/aps-0406.html

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Depending on how stunted the heifer is, she may never be able to have a good size calf. She may always need to be bred to an easy calving bull. Just a thought. Never had an "oops" calf. Not saying I won't some day. Sh$t happens.

 

[TCRanch]

Most of the ones I've had that calved too early were stunted. Didn't get to be as big as they should have been. That said, their genetic makeup was the same and they have raised good calves since.

My heifer that had her Oops Baby probably would have been stunted, but I held her back and she got bred with the rest of the herd the following year. At the time, we weren't in a drought, I didn't need to cull, it wasn't her fault and she raised a huge calf, so had no problem letting her slide an extra few months. She had her 5th calf this year and definitely not stunted!

 

[Ky hills]

I've ended up with several heifers being bred when purchasing 500 lb heifers from the stockyards. Have also had a few of my home raised ones bred before weaning too.
More often than not, they have turned out ok. I watch them close, and assist when needed. Surprisingly a majority have calved on their own and raised their calves.
I do try to supplement them along. Most of the time they mature as big as anything else in the herd and remain fertile.