We recently bought a new bull, and the birthweights I'm seeing out of our older girls has me a bit nervous for the heifers we have coming up later in the year.
The girls are 4yo 3/4 Angus x fresian.
The bull is pure Angus. Supposedly top 30% for birthweight (as in low), top 35% calving ease, top 15% days to calving and gestation length in the bottom 35%.
Our earliest calf was 23 days early, based on 282 day gestation, and as of yesterday we've had half our girls calve.
The lightest birth weight we've recorded was 60lbs for a heifer twin, her brother was 85lbs. Everyone else has averaged in the 85-95 range.
Am I in for a lot of sleepless nights with my heifers or am I worrying over nothing? At this point I'm worried if any of my girls actually carry to term the calves will hop out of there fully grown!
The girls are 4yo 3/4 Angus x fresian.
The bull is pure Angus. Supposedly top 30% for birthweight (as in low), top 35% calving ease, top 15% days to calving and gestation length in the bottom 35%.
Our earliest calf was 23 days early, based on 282 day gestation, and as of yesterday we've had half our girls calve.
The lightest birth weight we've recorded was 60lbs for a heifer twin, her brother was 85lbs. Everyone else has averaged in the 85-95 range.
Am I in for a lot of sleepless nights with my heifers or am I worrying over nothing? At this point I'm worried if any of my girls actually carry to term the calves will hop out of there fully grown!