% bulls to heifers

[MO_cows]

Last year, we only had 3 calves. 2 were AI, one natural service. All 3 were heifers. For this year, everybody was pasture bred and the first 3 calves have again been heifers, one still to go. This was perfect for us because we're still building the herd. If we swing the other way and have all bulls next year, the timing is still perfect because this year we are cross breeding with Angus and they'll all be steers anyway.

 

[showing71]

We had 20 red angus cows get AI'd to the same bull in 3 days last year, and ended up with 17 bulls and 3 heifers. So the 50:50 thing didn't work there. We ended up with about 60% bulls all together. So if anyone needs a RA bull for next year I have plenty.

 

[EAT BEEF]

A.I. has always been about 50-50 for us.A few years ago I bought a little group of 12 cows from a guy and he keep one cow his wife liked,I got 12 bulls and she got a heifer :???:

 

[TexasBred]

We run close to the 50:50 ratio but seem to go in cycles. 10-12 in a row of one sex then the same for the other sex. Seems we always get more bull calves when the market is down. :cry2: and more heifers when we have no plans for keeping any replacements.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

KaitlinLego - generally only EXTREMELY obese cows will have difficulty breeding or extremely thin ones.

I have heard that the "batch" of semen collected can be more/mainly males or females - and can change with another collection date.

 

[hrbelgians]

I had some old timers tell me years ago that if it was gonna' be a dry year, you would have more heifers born than bulls that year. Anyone else heard this? gs

Man if this is true we are heading for one heck of a dry year on our farm!

 

[ArmyDoc]

We had 20 red angus cows get AI'd to the same bull in 3 days last year, and ended up with 17 bulls and 3 heifers. So the 50:50 thing didn't work there. We ended up with about 60% bulls all together. So if anyone needs a RA bull for next year I have plenty.

Wouldn't 17 out of 20 be 85%? Or are you saying that there were other cattle besides the RA, and including those the ratio was 60%?

 

[Frankie]

Interesting to see that other people have higher % of bulls to heifers, too. I'll talk to our semen rep next time I see him and ask if he has noticed the % or knows any scientific reason for it. Thanks....

 

[mnmtranching]

I'm going to need a heavy run of bull calves next few years for me to get to 50-50. I much prefer the male calves, another $50-75. at market time. I have been running 60% heifers the last few years.

 

[showing71]

We had 20 red angus cows get AI'd to the same bull in 3 days last year, and ended up with 17 bulls and 3 heifers. So the 50:50 thing didn't work there. We ended up with about 60% bulls all together. So if anyone needs a RA bull for next year I have plenty.

Wouldn't 17 out of 20 be 85%? Or are you saying that there were other cattle besides the RA, and including those the ratio was 60%?

Just out of the 20 we bred to the 1 bull came out 17 to 3. Total throughout all 200+ head was 60% bulls.

 

[ArmyDoc]

We had 20 red angus cows get AI'd to the same bull in 3 days last year, and ended up with 17 bulls and 3 heifers. So the 50:50 thing didn't work there. We ended up with about 60% bulls all together. So if anyone needs a RA bull for next year I have plenty.

Wouldn't 17 out of 20 be 85%? Or are you saying that there were other cattle besides the RA, and including those the ratio was 60%?

Just out of the 20 we bred to the 1 bull came out 17 to 3. Total throughout all 200+ head was 60% bulls.

Gotcha. Did any of the bulls run as much as 85% the other way?

 

[showing71]

Gotcha. Did any of the bulls run as much as 85% the other way?

Not by that much.

 

[rjk]

This year we have had 14 calves so far, 2 of them heifers. This is the biggest percentage of bulls we have experienced. But they look good, just hard to raise any replacement heifers.

 

[dun]

I wonder how much the cows that always have the same gender calf affects the averages. Granny is 21 years old and this year had her second ever heifer.

 

[redcowsrule33]

I've always wondered that, too. It would be interesting to look at the bulls I have used and see if their dams threw mostly bulls or heifers. Maybe if we ever get a rainy day I'll do that. Not much chance of that I'm afraid... :frowns:

This is our best year ever for heifers, 43% so far (not finished). Last year was 40% heifers. Year before ran 90% bulls, year before 85%. We AI some strictly, others get one AI then with the bull, others all bull. Hasn't seemed to make a difference.

My statistics professor always stressed you should have at least 100 data points before you can start looking for statistical significance.

 

[TSR]

Frankie I have experienced similar results. When ai'ing I nearly always get more bull calves. This made for quite a long time to get my herd built up as I wanted all my heifers to be products of ai. This is the first yr. I have used my own home grown bull (an EXT son) on part of my herd as I just didn't have the tome to ai everything. But with ai my experience has been a greater % of bull calves almost invariably.