Breeding age of heifers

[redangus]

Would anyone own an animal that would not breed at a year old? I read down the board about a charlaois comment about not breeding them until they were 2 years old?

 

[rgv4]

I would. I try not breed heifer's until they are usually 14 to 15 months old. I have bred at 13 months before, but alot of this depends on their size and the ones that I bred at 13 months were already 1200 plus pounds.

 

[hillbilly]

They say they are later to mature than British breeds but from personal experiance I can tell you they start cycling from 10 to 14 months depending on condition.

Hillbilly

 

[Scotty]

I have a friend that waits until they are 2 to breed. He says less stress from the teeth they loose. I can't wait that long myself. Need the feed bill reimbursement. I never hear of exotic cattle breeding late but have heard of Brahman influence being later to mature.


Scotty

 

[Dana Kopp]

We want our first calf heifers to get pregnant at about 14 months, too. Though our heifers are maturing and coming into heat when they are 5-6 months old. They aren't even weaned when they get pregnant! The last two years we have had "teenage" pregnancies, one heifer each year at about 14 months old had a calf of her own!! This year we pulled our bulls out almost a month earlier, but my oldest heifer was showing heat signs that weekend!!! I have seen her in heat a couple times since so I think we are "teenage" pregnancy free!!! We have kept the girls in the herd and they both seem to have recovered well, one much quicker than the other, and both are obviously pregnant again.
I have seen some evidence of the slower maturation in bigger framed cattle even just in our herd and there is some research that has been done with a few breeds. Basically there is more energy spent on growing so sexual maturation is put off for a few months.

 

[Rustler9]

I prefer to have my heifers bred at around 15 months old. Even though some come into heat at 10-11 months old I feel that they are still maturing and have seen some have their growth stunted because their bodies are still growing and they have to start growing a baby. I did have one really nice heifer that got bred at 11 months old and had a nice calf and has done a good job raising her calf. I had a lot full of weaned heifers that I was feeding some grain and one morning my two year old bull had mysteriously appeared in there with them. I quickly put him back into his pasture and did not see any signs of heat but a few months later I noticed that one real growthy heifer was putting on extra weight and starting to bag up and then I knew that he had done his deed.
I made sure that she received some supplemental feed just to assure that she stayed in good shape and she has continued to grow and also take good care of her calf. This is why I really like to make sure that they are fairly mature before breeding. By breeding them at 15 months they are two years old when they calve.