Developing heifers

[topstock]

I want to raise well grown healthy heifers ready to breed on time, deliver a healthy calf and breed back. Any tips? Feeds, minerals, supplements. Tell me how you do it.

 

[bird dog]

I have had my best luck letting them get a little older than most on here will admit to. I like mine calving at 27 months weighing 1000 to 1100 lbs. I don't try to push them to get them ready. Thet are on the same forage and minerals as the rest of the herd and they don't get any feed. I try to keep only the bigger heifers from my better cows that calve early in the season.

One problem with letting them get older is that they won't calve with the herd they come from. So for me the heifers are from my fall group but they have their first calf with the spring group. My bulls are not heifer bulls but they have EPD's to give them calves that weigh around 80 lbs.

I can get my heifers bred and calved at 24 months but they don't breed back very well. It doesn't seem to be near the problem with them being older.

 

[Ky hills]

I like to have heifers in good growing condition not over conditioned but not thin from weaning on through. Some may have enough or good enough pastures that supplementation may not be needed but for me I feed them around 4-6 lbs of a mixed ration in addition to their pasture or hay. A little more if the quality of forage is lacking. I also like to keep a good mineral out for them too. Right now I am using a chelated type beef breeder mineral, then I switch to an IGR mineral during fly season. I would recommend having all replacement prospects pelvic measured, and cull ones that don't meet or exceed 150cm as yearlings, or 180cm at around 18 months or so.
Age and size at breeding depends a lot on breed. Mine are Angus, Herefords or a cross of both so I have been turning them with a bull sometimes as early as 13 months, but prefer a little older just depends on when I'm wanting the calves to come. When I was running Charolais I didn't like them bred under 15 months.
I prefer to use calving ease Angus bulls, but have used a couple Hereford bulls too. I try to keep the heifers in good shape through breeding and after calving so they will rebreed in a timely fashion. I've heard that they are easiest to get bred as heifers but then hardest to get bred back for the second calf.

 

[TCRanch]

What @Ky hills said. Except my heifers are pelvic measured at 11 months when they get their BANGS. Selection of which heifers to retain is based on lineage: dams have a stellar health history, great mamas, early calvers, super docile, easy keepers, consistently raise the top calves. And whether I actually like the heifer. As a general rule, pelvic measurement under 150 is out and a bad attitude won't even get her in the finalist. They're turned out with a high calving ease (Angus) bull at 15 months, so should calve when they're 24+ months. Average weight of their calves is 70-75 lbs. My heifers are fed brome bales, sometimes alfalfa, and I supplement with only just a couple pounds of 20% cubes but they do have a 30% protein tub and minerals. Average BCS 6 on my heifers.

 

[gcreekrch]

Keep 40% more than you require at weaning, we prefer the middle heifers to keep moderate frame size. They are fed a light growing ration of good hay or hay large and 5 lbs of pea screening pellets. We like to see them weighing a green 700 to 750 at our turn out to grass in late May and on the gain big time on July 3 when bulls go out. Semen tested bulls every year. We have cut back to 30 days breeding on our heifers, those that want to stay in our environment are bred. The others head to the feedlot.
Of course, full vaccination program!

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Mother must have calved in the 1st 30 days of the calving season every year she has given birth and stayed with calf until weaning.
May keep the cow if she calves in the 2nd 30 days but never another heifer from her. Must wean calf as well.
I try to keep newborns away from the cows that have not calved. Heifers seem to breed back more surely if I feed all of them more
the last trimester.

 

[topstock]

What @Ky hills said. Except my heifers are pelvic measured at 11 months when they get their BANGS. Selection of which heifers to retain is based on lineage: dams have a stellar health history, great mamas, early calvers, super docile, easy keepers, consistently raise the top calves. And whether I actually like the heifer. As a general rule, pelvic measurement under 150 is out and a bad attitude won't even get her in the finalist. They're turned out with a high calving ease (Angus) bull at 15 months, so should calve when they're 24+ months. Average weight of their calves is 70-75 lbs. My heifers are fed brome bales, sometimes alfalfa, and I supplement with only just a couple pounds of 20% cubes but they do have a 30% protein tub and minerals. Average BCS 6 on my heifers.

Thank you. Lots of good info here.

 

[topstock]

Mother must have calved in the 1st 30 days of the calving season every year she has given birth and stayed with calf until weaning.
May keep the cow if she calves in the 2nd 30 days but never another heifer from her. Must wean calf as well.
I try to keep newborns away from the cows that have not calved. Heifers seem to breed back more surely if I feed all of them more
the last trimester.

Thanks.

 

[wbvs58]

I wean at the end of summer. Their weights will be 300kg plus. They go up the back in a pretty ordinary winter paddock with a lot of scrub but some open grass areas. They get one feed a day of a 14% protein grain mix for a roll call and enough to keep them gaining at about .75kg/day. I synchronise them in spring (late September AI) to calve at 24 months of age. I put patches on them leading up to the 3 wks post AI and try and catch any I may have missed and the out with the bull for the next cycle. This lot of 10 heifers I inseminated 9 of them, one non responder. I got 6 of the 9 on the first AI and picked up another two on the 2nd cycle. The remaining two I saw with the bull for one cycle and haven't seen them with him since. I'll test those two in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty happy with those results.

Ken

 

[Stocker Steve]

People that make money on replacement usually wean them late, and have them on pasture most of the time. We use a pretty traditional approach:

Use a maternal sire.
Sort after weaning at about 9 months.
Re sort before bull turn out.
Re re sort after calving.

I think the modern day question is do you use DNA testing to increase your confidence?

 

[Brute 23]

Try to raise them as natural to your operation as possible.

Dont rush breeding them. You will get a better animal long term that raises a better calf and breeds back if you give them time to develope. A slight upfront investment upfront will pay dividends long term.

Trust your gut. If you didnt like them at 3 weeks old you wont like them at 3 months or 3 years.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

First you need to be able to LOOK at your own animals and BE CRITICAL. Most producers have a hard time looking at their animals and REALLY ABLE TO "SEE" THEM.
LOL - I just re-looked at your original post and see you are in NY. Do I know you?
You need to keep your heifers in a good body condition score - about a 6 ( https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/body-condition-scoring-of-beef-cows.html )
I calve Jan/Feb - wean 1st week in September - I have already vaccinated and de-wormed all my calves twice prior to weaning. I will rework them 2-4 weeks after weaning. I get them started on whole shell corn, free choice mineral, grass and hay. I build them up to 5#/head/day all winter long. I will increase it slightly (about 6#/hd/day) about 1 month prior to breeding. I breed all my replacements to calve between 23 and 24 months of age (depends if they were born Jan or Feb). I do try to get as many bred a week before I start my cows, so they have the longest time to get back into heat for the next 60 day calving season.
It is not rocket science - but you need to develop "the eye of the master" - be critical - are they too thin - too fat (worse than being to thin) - bad feet/legs - bad temperament???
You sure are welcome to visit anytime!

 

[TCRanch]

First you need to be able to LOOK at your own animals and BE CRITICAL. @Jeanne - Simme Valley YES!! And I've finally learned to take emotion out of my selection (well, for the most part). I wanted to keep a preemie this year in the worst way. Loved her to death, she was as big as the other heifers, two of my best producers were preemies BUT she had no butt. Very narrow hips and delicate boned. Sure, there was a possibility she would make the pelvic measurement cut (big butts with big hips don't always mean big measurements), but I made the decision to sell her with the rest of the calves. Primarily because I wasn't optimistic and definitely didn't want to sell a single and take a hit.

Also, some of my lineages are always on the pudgy side - they come out little butter balls and never lose the "beefy" look. Know your cattle.

 

[elkwc]

We change our program some depending on the year and conditions. In a normal year our heifers will spend 60-120 days on wheat pasture, then go to new grass and we turn the bull in June 1st-10th. They usually were weighing 850-1,000 when we turned the bull in. The last 2 years with the drought they have seen no wheat. We fed last years a few lbs of 20% cubes and wheat & alfalfa hay free choice. They were weighing 775-850 lbs when we turned the bull in. This year we have been feeding 5-6 lbs of a cottonseed 13% mix instead of cubes along with the hay. They will be a little bigger this year. They are on a complete mineral program their whole life. We calve them 2 wks behind the cows but they catch up the 2nd year usually. We do creep their calves and wean 2-4 wks earlier. We have calved at 27-30 months in the past but this fits our current situation and has worked well.

 

[Stocker Steve]

we turn the bull in June 1st-10th. We calve them 2 wks behind the cows but they catch up the 2nd year usually. We do creep their calves and wean 2-4 wks earlier.

Why calve after the cows?

 

[Dave]

Not a lot of heifer numbers at the stock cow sale today. But there were some nice ones. My neighbor bought all the good ones for $1,000. You can't raise them for that.