Does anyone wait past 15 months to breed heifers?

[Aaron]

We breed our heifers at 18 months. We treat them and breed them just like the cows, so the lack of special treatment means they need that extra 6 months to prepare themselves for our neglect. :cowboy: We used to breed heifers at 12-15 months before and they required to much pampering to not only get them up to the proper breeding weight, but to also get them in condition to breed back.

 

[dun]

We breed our heifers at 18 months. We treat them and breed them just like the cows, so the lack of special treatment means they need that extra 6 months to prepare themselves for our neglect. :cowboy: We used to breed heifers at 12-15 months before and they required to much pampering to not only get them up to the proper breeding weight, but to also get them in condition to breed back.

This goes to the different environments issue. Whne our heifers are done with the 45-60 day weaning process they're turned back into the cow herd and are managed exactly the same as the cows and are bred on the same schedule. that puts hem at 14-15 moinths when bred and we've only had a couple over the years that didn;t breed back. Our spring forage puts a lot of growth on them and takes the load off of them after they calve.

 

[novatech]

Knowing your own cattle as to what they are capable of should be the determining factor. It may have taken a lot of calf pulling and culling in some of these early calving herds to get that way. If in doubt have a vet examine them and of course use a small birth weight bull. If you will not be able to check on first timers when calving it may be much more profitable to wait. The loss of a heifer and a calf would eat up a lot of profit. What percentage loss can one withstand as compared with the gain from a few extra months?
Many Brahman breeders wait to calve at 3 years old. I found that I could push mine back to calve at 2 1/2 years old with no problems.

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

I turn them out with the bull by 14 months typically. I haven't regretted it thus far.

I do know a breeder with both spring and fall calving seasons that breeds them to calve by 2 1/2. His cows do last a long time, probably averaging around 11-12 calves in their lifetime, if not more.

 

[Keren]

At this stage with the murray greys, we are holding them back until 18 mths to breed, so they are calving at 27 mths. We are doing this because of lack of feed - the drought has hung around here for the last six years - and if we leave them longer they grow out better.

In NORMAL situations, we would breed at 14 mths, we have enough feed that the heifers will grow out adequately, raise a big calf and re breed no problems.

BUT, under our current dry situations, we are finding that those we join at 14mths are not growing out properly (calving is stunting them just slightly) and they do breed back as quickly. Pushing them back just a few months is working without any problems.

If it works for you, do it. Dont change something that isnt broken. If you join at 18 mths and it is working for you, you are making a profit, well if your neighbour joins at 14 mths dont necessarily change your system just because that is how he is doing it.

Wow, that was a ramble, did any of that make sense?

 

[Limomike]

Yep Keren, Made plenty of good rambling sense... ;-)

 

[TheBullLady]

Most of ours aren't bred until they're 18+ months.. but that's because Brahman and Simbrahs much of the time don't start cycling until then.

Comes in really handy if they're running with a bunch of young bull calves! I don't have to worry about them getting bred at 7 or 8 months, like the British or Continental breeds.

 

[4CTophand]

depends on your objective--- Do you really need your heifers to be calving as 2 yr olds??? Have bred heifers at 15 months with good success and also have waited a bit longer say 18 months with good success. I do notice that on older heifers they require less inputs post-calving and breed back on time nore often than younger heifers --- so depends on what you are doing?

T

 

[Alberta farmer]

We calve all heifers as two year olds. The bulls go out July 20th and anything out there gets bred in 70 days or its down the road. The heifers get the same bulls the cows do(Angus). The heifers stay out with the cows until about a month before calving and then get fed good hay in a corral.. That is basically because if I have to mess around with them I'm not to keen on tying them up in the willow brush!
The corral is connected to a well equiped calving barn with all the bells and whistles...from the "good old days" of Jan/Feb calving! Helped two last year and had to help one calf suck out of twenty heifers.
If they need help more than once they take a trip to town. I'm too lazy to spend my life playing nursemaid to a bunch of cows. Pulled a total of 5 calves last year out of 130 cows/heifers.

 

[brandonm_13]

Wow, I posted this last Friday before I left work and forgot about it. There's definately some good opinions around here. Personally, I haven't kept any replacement cows. I have done so with goats, because I have a registered herd, but mainly, I buy cull cows, either bred or with calves on their side. Most of the culls we've had in the last few years are either cows that aren't the right color, or they are skinny from the drought-like conditions we've experienced. By buying them bred/calf-at-side, I know they can breed, which is all I care about. Some culls are also a little small. My guess is they were kept in the pen with their sire a little too long and were bred by him. To combat this, I use a low birthweight bull. It also helps out since my job may require me to be away for up to a week, and I come home to find a new calf on the ground.