2 year old heifer

[ncboy34]

Have a few 2 year old heifers that had still born calves. I'm not wanting to breed them again and am trying to figure out the best way to market them. I'm leaning toward stocking them through the winter and selling as freezer beef but have considered going ahead and taking them to the sale barn. Will they grade as a feeder heifer or cull cow at that age?

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Cull cow I expect.

 

[A.J.]

She would sell with the cull cows here.

 

[Bright Raven]

You might want to have a blood panel ran on one of the heifers to determine if the cause is a pathogen. If this is a prevalent problem, you might have something going on that you can address.

The test will measure the titers (antibodies) for the group of pathogens that cause abortions and still births. If you vaccinate for fetal protection pathogens, it will take two blood tests to differentiate between antibodies due to vaccine immunity and clinical disease.

 

[DCA farm]

I see a lot of 2-3 year old open cows in kill pen some are thin some actually look nice but are marked as open they were unchecked when they got brought in

 

[ccr]

curious what caused still born calves from 2 or more heifers. like ron, would want to test to see what's going on.

 

[snoopdog]

Cull cow probably, but if you sell in january, the market should be pretty good. I don't know if it would pay to feed them till then....

 

[farmerjan]

When did they have the still born calves? (stage of pregnancy?) Did they udder up? If there is little/no indication of them calving, here they would go in a pen where there are similar open heifers and they will bring considerably more than a straight cull cow. Sold 2 this past spring that came up open for the 2nd time, one out of a cow that was a problem breeder, the other had been checked preg and slipped it, and they brought about twice the cull cow price. They were in very good flesh but not globby fat. No udders to speak of.

I would worry about still born calves if they were full term or close to it. Only had problems with some dead calves, it was the winter of all the cold rain/snow and freezing temps; some were probably born alive and we just didn't find them soon enough and they got chilled and died before they could get up and suck. Lost 4 I think. But to just have a few stillborns would worry me like others have said.

Why not just do freezer beef now?