Breeding Heifers and Calves Birthweight

[Big Cheese]

In y'alls opinions, What is the highest birthweight you would want for a first time heifer??

 

[Son of Butch]

The current average Black Angus birth weight is 78 lbs for bull calves and 74 lbs for heifers.
In 1991 the angus average was 83 lbs for bulls and 78 lbs for hfrs.
So 83 lbs would be the Max I would want to see for angus based heifers and 65 lbs [the 1972 bw for hfrs] would be over kill.

 

[Big Cheese]

We have about 30 heifers we are raising right now. We are wanting to breed them straight to our Charolais and I can't talk them out of it. Most of them are Longhorns so I'm not worried about them but we have 5 Black Angus heifers and 6 Longhorn Balancer cross Heifers that I'm worried about. We just had our first calf out one of our new Charolais bulls and it was a heifer that weighed about 75 pounds.

 

[highgrit]

Myself I wouldn't put a Charolais bull on any type of heifer.

 

[bigbull338]

i like my heifers to have calves weighing less than 75lbs.but then again i run beefmasters and they are known for calving ease.thats assuming everything goes perfect.i agree the char bulls have a rep for big calves rven if they are calving ease bulls.

 

[Big Cheese]

Believe me I throw a fit regularly to not do it and I am trying my best to get the to get a Black Angus or a Longhorn to put with them but its tough convincing a couple of hard headed uncles that say its a wasted calf lol. My argument is if you lose just ONE heifer its a waste. You not only lose the $1200 calf but you lose the $2000 momma. That's $3200 any way you look at it.

So....in yalls opinion could they handle 70-80 pound calves?? Like I said i'm not worried about the Longhorns its the beefs and the half breeds.

 

[highgrit]

To me 70-80lbs. is still a big calf for a first time heifer. If you lose a heifer and calf to me it's like losing 4-5 animals, because to replace her it's another 2 years at least. You need to make sure you have some chains and maybe a puller ready.

 

[Big Cheese]

I agree. I'm going to do my best to talk them out of it. Out of the heifers all of mine are Longhorns so I'm not worried about them because Longhorns are going to have small calves regardless. But even if its not one of mine I don't want to lose any cows especially these heifers. I'm trying to talk them into a Longhorn bull since we are in the Longhorn business but like I said its hard to convince a couple of hard headed uncles lol.

 

[Big Cheese]

This is a calf that was born yesterday out of one of our veteran black cows and the first out of one of our Charolais bulls. It weighs about 75 pounds. Just by looking at it in the picture could a heifer handle it? I just want other eyes beside mine deciding.

 

[highgrit]

Good luck Big Cheese, but I wish I had a couple of hard headed uncles to learn from.

 

[dun]

Depends on the heifer! One of the easiest ways to predict what weight/size of calf a heifer can deliver easily is to do yearling pelvic measurements, that would be before" breeding them.

 

[inyati13]

This is a calf that was born yesterday out of one of our veteran black cows and the first out of one of our Charolais bulls. It weighs about 75 pounds. Just by looking at it in the picture could a heifer handle it? I just want other eyes beside mine deciding.

Here is a heifer. Small heifer, maybe 1150 at the most. That calf was weighed by me as soon as i could get the scales to it. It was 97 pounds.

 

[Big Cheese]

She didn't have any problems with it? most of our beef heifers should be from 1000-1250 pounds I would think based off their mommas. See if we waited until the heifers were 2 years old before we bred them I don't think they would have a problem because the older farmer we get a lot of advice from about our Longhorns does that so they have their calves when they are almost 3 and usually with no problems. We don't plan on waiting that long. We decided yesterday to put a bull on them in April so that they will start calving in February 2016. All of them aren't ready to breed but about 6-10 are and that's when we decided we wanted them to calve.

 

[inyati13]

She didn't have any problems with it? most of our beef heifers should be from 1000-1250 pounds I would think based off their mommas. See if we waited until the heifers were 2 years old before we bred them I don't think they would have a problem because the older farmer we get a lot of advice from about our Longhorns does that so they have their calves when they are almost 3 and usually with no problems. We don't plan on waiting that long. We decided yesterday to put a bull on them in April so that they will start calving in February 2016. All of them aren't ready to breed but about 6-10 are and that's when we decided we wanted them to calve.

That heifer is a 5/8 Sm amd 3/8 Angus. Bred AI to Top Hand, a Select Sires Bull with a CE of almost 20 and a negative birth weight. But I am having big calves. I have built my herd with heifers. They range in mature weight from 1150 to 1600. Several have had nearly 100 pound calves. I have had no problems with the exception of one event. I had a heifer that I AIed to In Force, a Select Sires simangus bull with very good calving ease numbers. The heifer was a Milestone daughter. The calve was over 100 pounds. I base that on the vets estimate. After losing her, I started weighing my calves. She severed a uterine artery during a difficult delivery. I think part of the fault was mine. If I had it to do over, I would have had the calf delivered C-section. But that calf should have been much smaller.

BTW: The little heifer pictured, had the calf unassisted. I am new to this so don't base too much on me. I will say based on more trained eyes than mine, that I have showed the above heifer and her calf to people who know and they are surprised she got that calf out on her own.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

A heifer that can't deliver a 80 lb calf here gets wheels. Depends just as much on the heifer as it does the bull. Big birth weights or small pelvis in the heifer will cause as much problem as a bull you already have seen calves out of.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Do people think purebred breeders all breed their heifers to something small first round?

There's plenty of people breeding charolais and simmental and everything else to heifers.

80-85 is the largest I like to see see out of my heifers. But I dont want them under 70 either.

 

[HDRider]

I have a question. Maybe I am reading this wrong..

Why would you expect a young bull to make smaller calves?

I see a smaller breed bull on a larger breed heifer throwing smaller calves than might not strain the heifer.

And I see a smaller birth weight bull (via EPDs if you can trust EPDs) throwing a smaller calf.

I just do not understand the belief that a young bull throws smaller calves.

Am I reading this wrong?

 

[regolith]

I have a question. Maybe I am reading this wrong..

Why would you expect a young bull to make smaller calves?

I see a smaller breed bull on a larger breed heifer throwing smaller calves than might not strain the heifer.

And I see a smaller birth weight bull (via EPDs if you can trust EPDs) throwing a smaller calf.

I just do not understand the belief that a young bull throws smaller calves.

Am I reading this wrong?

Did someone say that? It is a common misconception, but as soon as you examine the statement logically it falls to pieces.
Young cows may deliver smaller calves because they are still growing themselves. All the bull provides is the genetic coding. The genetic coding for size doesn't change whether the bull is five months or fifteen years.

Some heifers can handle pretty big calves... bottom line is if you want to save every calf out of the heifers, someone needs to be there to see them calving and intervene if necessary as there's a lot more than just size that can go wrong with a first timer.
Thirty is a nice little number to graze behind the house for a few weeks.

 

[HDRider]

I was thinking I simply misunderstood..

 

[randiliana]

A heifer that can't deliver a 80 lb calf here gets wheels. Depends just as much on the heifer as it does the bull. Big birth weights or small pelvis in the heifer will cause as much problem as a bull you already have seen calves out of.

Same here! I want mine between 75-85 lbs, and we will have the odd one top out over 90 lbs, some we help, but most we don't