Breeding back first calf heifers question...

[bob g]

I have a set of Angus heifers (65) that have started calving and should be completed by mid December...How long should I wait before putting the bulls back with these girls?

Any other advice is greatly appreciated since this is my first venture into the tricky art of calving heifers...

Thanking you in advance.

Bob Graves
Winona, Ms

 

[randiliana]

They should have at least 45 days post calving. Any earlier, and you can risk them aborting if they do breed and they aren't cleaned up inside enough. If you want to keep your calving season the same, then put the bulls in about 90 days after the first ones started to calve. So for October 1 calving you would put the bulls in around Dec 20.

 

[msscamp]

How long should I wait before putting the bulls back with these girls?

Bob Graves
Winona, Ms

If you want to keep the same calving schedule - decide what day you want to start, count back 9 months and a few days, and that's when you put the bull in with them (keeping in mind that a cow can vary up to about 10 days, either direction, for actual calving date). You might think about checking with your local large-animal vet, and feed/supply companies, too, because a lot of times they have these handy dandy little pocket sized books to record calving/cow/feed/bcs/health/etc info, and they also contain a gestation table. If you're looking to move your calving schedule - I wouldn't do it all in one year, especially with heifers. I would spread it over at least two years, maybe 3 depending on the time of year, climate, forage, management, condition of the heifers, and other factors that I have probably not mentioned. I hope this helps!

 

[bob g]

Your thoughts are most helpful...got three babies on the ground...they are comming small and easy so far...keep your fingers crossed for me...hope you have a mild winter (if there is such a thing up there)

 

[msscamp]

No problem, bob g! My fingers are crossed, and I hope your calving season remains uneventful. Yes, there is such a thing as a mild winter - at least in my area, but I don't know about Canada. We've had a couple 3 years of them, though, and if this summer is any indication, I suspect we're going to get hammered this winter.