cypressfarms
Well-known member
Those of you who've seen me post over the years know that many times I post asking "what if" questions. Please follow the logic below, and give your honest opinion...
O.k., we all know most cows have a gestation cycle of 283 days. Sure some are shorter and some are longer, but for the sake of argument let's say that all are 283 days. In addition we also know that a cow needs time for her reproductive tract to "heal" before she will begin to cycle and can again become pregnant. The overwhelming school of thought (I'm not judging here) is that the best way is to put the bulls in with the cows for a short certain period of time. There are many reasons to support this. Two of the bigger have always been a more uniform calf crop and knowing which cows were not fertile enough, thus culling them.
Here's where I'm going to interject some hairbrain stuff. I love being the "devil's advocate", maybe it's the natural debator in me coming out. So here goes:
Keeping a bull all year round will actually show the producer which of his cows is really the most fertile. If all cows are exposed to a bull for a certain time, then they could not possibly become pregnant before this time. However, if the bull was with the cows year round, the producer would notice the most fertile cows moving their calving date up every year. (I've had some move up large amounts in just a couple of years). So with the assumption that you have a cow that is "super fertile" and she constantly moves her date up, could the following be possible?
"Super fertile" cow is bred as a heifer on Jan 1 of year 1. Oct 10 of year 1 she would calve. Let's assume that mrs. super fertile takes a month for her reproductive tract to recover and can rebreed one month from calf birth. This would mean that s.f.w. (super fertile cow) would rebreed Nov 10
of year 1. Year 2 on August 19th she would have her 2nd calf. Again one month later, on September 19th the year round bull would rebreed her and she would have her 3rd calf June 28th of year 3. Again one month of recovery would mean that she rebreeds July 28 to calve again May 6 of year 4. So up to now our sfc has had 4 calves in 4 years. June 6th she rebreeds in year 4 and calves March 15 of year 5, with her 5th calf. Again one month later she rebreeds April 15 of year 5 to calve January 22 of year 6 with her 6th calf. Again one month later she rebreeds Feb 22; low and behold she has her 7th calf Dec 1 in her 6th calendar year of production.
We've just made a whole year cycle in 6 years. Does that mean that a cow can actually have 7 calves in 6 calendar years. I suppose that one really fertile cow could. The odds would be against it. Somewhere along the way Murphy's law would catch up and you'd lose a few weeks here or there. I find it intersting to ponder though.
I know, this would mean having dreaded "summer claves", and our friends in the far north probably could not do this due to inclement weather. But what about down in the deep south?
Opinions please!
O.k., we all know most cows have a gestation cycle of 283 days. Sure some are shorter and some are longer, but for the sake of argument let's say that all are 283 days. In addition we also know that a cow needs time for her reproductive tract to "heal" before she will begin to cycle and can again become pregnant. The overwhelming school of thought (I'm not judging here) is that the best way is to put the bulls in with the cows for a short certain period of time. There are many reasons to support this. Two of the bigger have always been a more uniform calf crop and knowing which cows were not fertile enough, thus culling them.
Here's where I'm going to interject some hairbrain stuff. I love being the "devil's advocate", maybe it's the natural debator in me coming out. So here goes:
Keeping a bull all year round will actually show the producer which of his cows is really the most fertile. If all cows are exposed to a bull for a certain time, then they could not possibly become pregnant before this time. However, if the bull was with the cows year round, the producer would notice the most fertile cows moving their calving date up every year. (I've had some move up large amounts in just a couple of years). So with the assumption that you have a cow that is "super fertile" and she constantly moves her date up, could the following be possible?
"Super fertile" cow is bred as a heifer on Jan 1 of year 1. Oct 10 of year 1 she would calve. Let's assume that mrs. super fertile takes a month for her reproductive tract to recover and can rebreed one month from calf birth. This would mean that s.f.w. (super fertile cow) would rebreed Nov 10
of year 1. Year 2 on August 19th she would have her 2nd calf. Again one month later, on September 19th the year round bull would rebreed her and she would have her 3rd calf June 28th of year 3. Again one month of recovery would mean that she rebreeds July 28 to calve again May 6 of year 4. So up to now our sfc has had 4 calves in 4 years. June 6th she rebreeds in year 4 and calves March 15 of year 5, with her 5th calf. Again one month later she rebreeds April 15 of year 5 to calve January 22 of year 6 with her 6th calf. Again one month later she rebreeds Feb 22; low and behold she has her 7th calf Dec 1 in her 6th calendar year of production.
We've just made a whole year cycle in 6 years. Does that mean that a cow can actually have 7 calves in 6 calendar years. I suppose that one really fertile cow could. The odds would be against it. Somewhere along the way Murphy's law would catch up and you'd lose a few weeks here or there. I find it intersting to ponder though.
I know, this would mean having dreaded "summer claves", and our friends in the far north probably could not do this due to inclement weather. But what about down in the deep south?
Opinions please!