Early Girls

[Beef11]

I'm not sure that this has much to do with cattle but I've been hearing alot about it. In the press and at the university about young girls reching puberty at an increasingly young age. This is being blamed mostly on agriculture. Specifically GMO's, Beef hormone implants and the use of BST in milk. I have yet to find any hard data confirming these acquisations and the simple fact that they are approved for use by the FDA and USDA states that research has supported their use. Back to the puberty issue. There are three main things that can affect age at puberty. 1. Age this is simply saying that sooner or later it is going to happen and the older the individual gets the more likely it is to happen. Pretty basic common knowledge. This is being used for baseline and any deviation from the norms is being blamed on agriculture. 2. Threshold body size/breed. In the agricultural world some breeds mature slower than others but within a breed you have an average age and weight at the onset of puberty. This can be tweaked by either pushing the cattle or holding them back on their feed. In the human realm we have children that do very little physical activity and constantly eat high calorie low value food. Childhood obesity is out of control therefore children are reaching their threshold body size sooner. 3. Social cues/enviroment. It is well documented that the onset of puberty is brought on earlier with the "bruce affect" also known as the "strange male effect". In cattle terms if you have a pen of heifers that are pre-puberal put them in a pen next to the new bull and they will start cycling sooner. In the human equivilent children watching illicit material on tv, movies with graphic or suggestive images could and do have the same affect.

I just get fired up about agriculture taking the blame for something that is tied back to the media in so many ways. Society causes problems and finds a scape goat.

 

[bward]

Yep they like to blame us for pert n'ear everything. But I did read an article that sez the high estrogen diet we are eating is not becasue of implants in cattle but rather due to heating food in the microwave using plastics and polyethelene film. Another factor is the use of plastic bottles for everything instead the old fashioned impermeable glass bottles.

I don't know the chemistry behind it but apparantly volitiles come off the plastic and are converted into estrogen in the body.

Stopping the use of plastics would bankrupt millions of workers.... lets blame cows.

 

[Beef11]

I doubt that plastics are going to have an endocrine response comparable to that of cues sent from the afore mentioned area's.
I wish a guy could go buy a coke in a glass bottle that wasn't a novelty item. It tastes better in glass for sure.

 

[MandTconstruct]

No disrespect to anyone. We have had beef cattle on the same farm for four generations and have never used implants. And our animals have had no problem making the grade. It's kind of like pinkeye I guess, we vaccinate and our neighbor doesn't and we haven't had any pink eye for five years. (I better bite my tongue, the season is coming). My father in law is in NE and he laughed when I told him about vaccinating for PE, he is third generation grain and beef farmer. They do use the implants. This country will be sorry when they get done politizising (spelling?) farms. They will be paying $20 a pound for a steak because we will have caused the downfall of humanity in their minds. I don't know about everyone else, I would rather raise cattle than I would houses.

 

[Kramer]

Speaking of "Early Girls", there are a number of authorities (Tx. Ag Extension Agents, Tx. A&M, etc.) advocating that we should put the bulls on the heifers, when the heifers are sixteen or seventeen months of age. Purpose is of course to get an additional calf during the life span of the dam. As long as the heifer is in good shape and the bulls are not too large (heavy), this seems to be a good "economical" approach. I have had mixed results, but should say mostly good results

Anyone out there breeding heifers at an earlier age?

 

[dun]

We've alwasy bred the heifers at 14-15 months. Some of the dairy managment wizards have recommended breeding dairy heifers at 10-12 months.

dun

 

[mgman]

To me 16-17 months of age is not young for breeding a heifer. Mine are always bred at 15 months...and sometimes even at 13 or 14 months if they're big enough.
If a heifer doesn't have her first calf by the time she's 2 years old (or very shortly there after)at my place she's going to be taking a ride to the sale barn!

 

[orcow]

To stay in my herd hiefiers must calve 22-24 months. Any longer, to the auction barn they go. In my herd there is a 20 day window to calf in for heifers. Then the brood cows start calving. The brood cows have a 30 day window to get it done. To stay in my herd they must maintain calving cycle or to the auction barn they go. Performance and be effeicient to stay.