Cow bred to her son

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mgman

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I have a 7 y/o Murray Grey cow that calved on 5/2/04. She was pasture bred to an unrelated MG bull in July (I saw him breed her). I waited between 6 weeks and 2 months before turning her with the rest of my cow herd that have been running with a 2 y/o son of this cow-she never showed any further signs of heat during that time. This past weekend I saw her son breed her. My question is whether or not I should go ahead and let her have a calf out of her son, or if I'd be better off giving her a shot of Lutylase and trying to AI her or breed her to an unrelated bull in a couple months.
 
You can get her preg tested and make sure that this past romp wasnt' just a false heat of sorts or a bull that was bored. I've seen bulls ride cows and then month later when we preg tested she was very early(bred months ago). Vet said it happens.

If not I'd sure give that girl a shot.
 
She should have already been bred back by now. I would not give her a shot of lut. Wait and see and if she didn't take this time I would send her on her way.
 
cattle_gal":2rh1ay2j said:
You can get her preg tested and make sure that this past romp wasnt' just a false heat of sorts or a bull that was bored. I've seen bulls ride cows and then month later when we preg tested she was very early(bred months ago). Vet said it happens.

If not I'd sure give that girl a shot.

I would certaninly follow cattle_gal's advice, or just let her calve out with what she is carrying. One thing that you will find out by letting her calve out is if her son has any genetic defects, if she is indeed bred to him.
 
We don't normally do this but I purposely bred a cow to her son this year because everything she has produced has been better than she is-she consistently out produces herself. Her son is such a good bull I thought I would try this and see what we get. She'll calve in early December and I sure hope it's a heifer. If I were you I would just wait and see if indeed she did get bred to her son what you might get. Good genes usually really show up in inbreeding but so do bad ones. This will be a chance to see what happens, you may be pleasantly surprised.
 
Grandpa always said if it worked it was linebreeding, if it didn't it was inbreeding. :)
 
She is an excellent cow-I never would have kept a son of her's to use on the rest of my herd if she wasn't! Guess I'll take my chances and see what she produces. If it's a bull calf it will definitely be banded...but if she has a heifer would you automatically send it to the feedlot-or if it's a nice calf would you consider keeping it for a replacement?
Thanks...I appreciate all of your advice/opinions!
 
I see no problem by a cow being bred by her son. I would also see no problem keeping the resulting heifer if she is an awesome cow. That is how a linebreeding works. If none of the offspring are kept then a linebred herd wouldn't exist.
 
mgman":1izeruw8 said:
but if she has a heifer calf would you consider keeping it for a replacement?

If she is free from genetic defects, I would. I just had a heifer calf out of a father daughter mateing. :oops: :oops: She is sound with lots of vigor, I will probably add her to the commercial herd. But contain the bull a little better next year. :roll:
 
I don't see a difference in a mother/son mating and a father/daughter mating except if one of the parents had any genetic defects or un-wanted attributes that would be magnified.
 
There is no difference in breeding mother/son or father/daughter. I would most definitely keep a heifer out of this mating if she looks good and grows out well. That is exactly what I plan to do if my cow has a heifer-that's why I bred them together. I'm sure there's been alot of line breeding in other cattle breeds because that's how you set a certain trait in a breed. In the Longhorn breed there has been a good bit of line breeding especially in the Butler line. This line is known for producing very long horns however you have to watch them as they can be pretty small at maturity and not all of them are great milkers. I'm breeding a blended herd which means that my Longhorns are a blend of the seven families that were preserved early in the last century.
My cow that is bred back to her son is line bred King-her son is double line bred King (Texas Ranger and WR-a big beefy type bull that produced good horns on his calves) so I'm really looking forward to this calf. Sorry to go on and on about the Longhorns-most of you folks aren't really interested in them.
 
SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE":2b2ug8w4 said:
I have an excellent bull out of a first time heifer this year,I am considering keeping him and replacing my herd bull,but would hate to give up his mother. Guess it would be a roll of the dice. :cboy: :oops:

AI the cow and keep the bull.

dun
 
dun":3o30xpza said:
SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE":3o30xpza said:
I have an excellent bull out of a first time heifer this year,I am considering keeping him and replacing my herd bull,but would hate to give up his mother. Guess it would be a roll of the dice. :cboy: :oops:

AI the cow and keep the bull.

dun


Dun, would it be worth ai"ing just one cow???
 
If you look at the alternatives, AIing that one cow is about all that does make sense. AIing one cow isn't all that big of a deal. The hardest part would be keeping her away from the bull till you know she's settled.
But you have to keep in mind that I don't see any sense in keeping a bull except for range breeding. For cows that are in a workable area AI only makes sense, to me anyway.

dun
 
No dairys or vets within driving distance? There are a couple of the studs that have MG semen, or maybe you could find another herd that has genetics that you would like to use.

dun
 

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