cant get heifer to settle

[dbrews1954]

what to do with this heifer, bought this reg. lowline angus last oct, was told ai;d and confirmed preg, nothing at her do date this spring so had the ai tec out to sync everyone and checked this heifer out and she was open so we sync her also, at ten days bred everyone waited a couple of weeks and turned my bull out with them, this heifer came back into heat and caught the bull in action, 18 days later she was in heat again, he got her again, he also covered a couple other cows that came back in, I then leased the bull and this same heifer came in again caught her standing for my steer,the ai tec came out within a few hours and tried her again, had the vet out at 31 days to ultrasound a couple and palpate some , said he could not confirm her preg, so I asked him while he had the ultrasound in her to see if theres any reason he could see that she could not have a calf, he said everything looks to be okay,the very next day shes in heat, so my first thought is is to butcher her as I don't want to sell her to someone else, just don't do business that way I would rather take my loss and eat her. she is now about 2 1/2 years old, but she is put together real nice and when I look at her I wonder if I should keep trying until spring, I just got started in this last oct, and have a total of 12 head so feeding one more is not a real issue for me, but for you with experience am I wasting my time trying,
thank you
dave

 

[Putangitangi]

The hard calls are tough ones to make when you're just starting, but lots of long-timers will tell you that's what they now wish they'd done. I'm trying to think whether or not I ended up keeping any members of the families of those animals I gave "just one more chance" because they had some feature I felt was worth taking a chance on. When I started out, if an animal was good in every other respect, I forgave her an empty year. But those were cows with a proven prior ability to rear a good calf. I'm not sure I'd bother now with a heifer which repeatedly missed. Go with your gut (either way ;-) ) on this one. She probably won't ever calve if she hasn't settled and the longer you wait, the tougher your steak.

 

[Ozhorse]

Not being my heifer it is easy for me to say eat her. It depends on what you want in your herd. If they are pets that is one thing. Or if what you want is really nice looking cattle in your field then the money from calves may not be all that important to you and good looking cattle are. Then giving her yet another go around makes sense.

I have some quite ugly old boney small cows that raise good calves every year but I would not want them on my front lawn if I only owned 10 acres.

In my commercial herd I have decided that fertility and temperament are equal number one traits so I would not keep her.

She does sound like she has used up all her credits though, with 2 x AI and also backup bulls.

 

[Dave]

little white packages

 

[cowgirl_jenna]

I'll second the good advice you have gotten already. If she was only ai'd twice and no luck i'd say try again. But you say she was supposed to be bred when you got her, then tried ai again, and then a clean up bull too. Sounds like she is just not meant to get bred, and if she does, she may not hold on to this pregnancy either. I know where you are comming from, and I too "used" to give 2,3,4 chances to cattle, but talking from experiance, dont do that in this case. Just my opinion anyway.
Jenna

 

[MO_cows]

Is she too thin or too fat?? Did you move her a long way when you bought her? The only legitimate reasons I can think of for her not to conceive are she's way too thin or way too fat, or else your forage is a whole lot different than what she was raised on and she's having a hard time adapting.

 

[Taurus]

Either she's gonna be a yard ornament or a white package in freezer.

 

[dbrews1954]

well thank you for your responses, they were what I thought I would here , but I know its good advice thank you

 

[1982vett]

Gone.............!

 

[Chris H]

Devils advocate here.... On occasion we have kept a two year old that did not calve. I can think of 2 over the years, and we're keeping 1 now. The first 2 calved at 3 years of age and calved every year after that like clockwork. Their daughters calved at 2, and every year after that. 1 cow is still in the herd at 11, and will stay as long as she keeps weaning a calf in the top 10%. The other was sold as breeding stock at middle age. The one we have now was confirmed bred last year by blood test. Don't know when she lost it but she got bred when the bull went out with the cows this spring and doc confirmed her as 4 months last month.
All 3 have/had bloodlines that I wanted to keep, and nothing to indicate a recurring or genetic problem. If they had/have a problem, they don't get another chance and I'd think twice about keeping their daughters.

Your heifer has kind of used up her 2nd chance by continuing to cycle this year.

 

[Taurus]

Since she is a lowline and that you can afford to feed an open cow, I don't see any reason to stopping you from trying to get her pregnant. You can always eat her at anytime.

 

[Putangitangi]

Your heifer has kind of used up her 2nd chance by continuing to cycle this year.

It seems quite common that the longer we do this, the fewer chances we give them. I started out with a really forgiving attitude, dropped back to a three-strikes approach; now it's two strikes of any kind, including calving, temperament, mastitis, etc. There are so many good alternatives in the herd to choose from, I don't need to make allowances.

Sometimes I still might, but that'll be for those cows which have attained pet status and I can't bear to send off on a truck... yet.

 

[Ohrmundt Simmentals]

We had purschased a weaned heifer that went through a similar situation. We sync'd her with the rest of the yearly heifers(she was about 12 months also). Ai'd once, about 21 days later, Ai'd again. We put her out with the bull. He follwed her for the next 2 months with repeated mountings. Everything ended up getting bred but the heifer. We pulled her out early and shipped her. We were getting worried that the bull was spending too much time with the heifer then the rest of the girls. :2cents:
Good luck either way.

 

[dbrews1954]

thanks again for all your ideas on what to do about this heifer, I have sure learned a lot from everyone on this site, and reading through all the diff questions people have, cant tell you how much I come here looking for info, still have not done anything with the heifer I have one steer to harvest anytime so I was thinking that would be the time to harvest her also if im going to, just thought if I did it now I would probably get some good steaks from her, if I wait till shes 3 or so might be only burger,steaks might be to tuff

 

[highgrit]

In my limited experience the age of the cow is not as important, as how long the beef was aged for. Let older cows age for 20+ days and the steak will be tender.

 

[Taurus]

A 3 years old heifer will making a good eatin.....we butchered a 4 years old cow few years ago and she tastes just fine.

 

[Chris H]

thanks again for all your ideas on what to do about this heifer, I have sure learned a lot from everyone on this site, and reading through all the diff questions people have, cant tell you how much I come here looking for info, still have not done anything with the heifer I have one steer to harvest anytime so I was thinking that would be the time to harvest her also if im going to, just thought if I did it now I would probably get some good steaks from her, if I wait till shes 3 or so might be only burger,steaks might be to tuff

If you're on the fenceline about butchering or not, consider her age & your butcher. Our butcher will not butcher a beef over 30 months of age due to the regulations surrounding bse. If she's going for butcher you might want to get it done quick.

 

[Taurus]

thanks again for all your ideas on what to do about this heifer, I have sure learned a lot from everyone on this site, and reading through all the diff questions people have, cant tell you how much I come here looking for info, still have not done anything with the heifer I have one steer to harvest anytime so I was thinking that would be the time to harvest her also if im going to, just thought if I did it now I would probably get some good steaks from her, if I wait till shes 3 or so might be only burger,steaks might be to tuff

If you're on the fenceline about butchering or not, consider her age & your butcher. Our butcher will not butcher a beef over 30 months of age due to the regulations surrounding bse. If she's going for butcher you might want to get it done quick.

It's depends on which butcher you are using. Our butcher will slaughter any cattle, no matter how old they are.