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Calving: Syncronization or Spacing Out?
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<blockquote data-quote="Anonymous" data-source="post: 16058"><p>Well, I have to admit that I'm one of those crass cattle people who expect to make money on my cattle. So I'm not sure that you want an answer from me, but I'll respond anyway. We raise registered Angus. Our main customers are cattlemen who use Angus bulls on their commercial cattle. We breed to calve in Jan/Feb for several reasons. (1) Our bulls are performance tested in contemporary groups of 60 days. We like to cut down on the trips to the test station, so we try to get them born within a 60-day period and just have to deliver to one test. (2) The bulls are breeding age, 15-16 months old, in May when most people start breeding in my area. We generally sell them by the end of June and don't have to deal with a bull all summer. (3) By having a defined breeding season we can have more bulls for a customer to select from. (4) When people come to look at heifers, they also have a larger group to select from. They seem to prefer groups of heifers the same age that should breed and calve at the same time, keeping their calving season shorter and requiring less labor. We're in southern Oklahoma; it gets hot here in the summer. In this area, calves born in the summer (Jun through Aug) just don't seem to grow very well. The grass starts losing nutrients due to the heat and dryness and the cows don't milk as well. Heat stress causes conception rates to go down; bulls are not as interested and if a cow's temp goes up too much, she'll slip that embryo or the sperm will die before it fertilizes the egg. Cows tend to lose body condition in the summer, so if they calve late, they may be in poor body condition before the calf even starts nursing. I don't think of that as "fertility", just good management. I really don't think it hurts cows to calve "out of season," just hurts the producer's pocket book.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Anonymous, post: 16058"] Well, I have to admit that I’m one of those crass cattle people who expect to make money on my cattle. So I’m not sure that you want an answer from me, but I’ll respond anyway. We raise registered Angus. Our main customers are cattlemen who use Angus bulls on their commercial cattle. We breed to calve in Jan/Feb for several reasons. (1) Our bulls are performance tested in contemporary groups of 60 days. We like to cut down on the trips to the test station, so we try to get them born within a 60-day period and just have to deliver to one test. (2) The bulls are breeding age, 15-16 months old, in May when most people start breeding in my area. We generally sell them by the end of June and don’t have to deal with a bull all summer. (3) By having a defined breeding season we can have more bulls for a customer to select from. (4) When people come to look at heifers, they also have a larger group to select from. They seem to prefer groups of heifers the same age that should breed and calve at the same time, keeping their calving season shorter and requiring less labor. We’re in southern Oklahoma; it gets hot here in the summer. In this area, calves born in the summer (Jun through Aug) just don’t seem to grow very well. The grass starts losing nutrients due to the heat and dryness and the cows don’t milk as well. Heat stress causes conception rates to go down; bulls are not as interested and if a cow’s temp goes up too much, she’ll slip that embryo or the sperm will die before it fertilizes the egg. Cows tend to lose body condition in the summer, so if they calve late, they may be in poor body condition before the calf even starts nursing. I don’t think of that as “fertility”, just good management. I really don’t think it hurts cows to calve “out of season,” just hurts the producer’s pocket book. [/QUOTE]
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