early or late? male or female?

[Beefy]

a trend i've noticed (with our cattle at least) is that bull calves tend to gestate a little longer than heifer calves. Ive pulled or assisted pulling my fair share of calves in my day and, thinking back, i can only recall pulling one heifer calf ever. Not only that, but i would guesstimate that at least 85% of the premies ive dealt with have been heifer calves (and most of those out of heifers). Has anyone else had similar experiences?

 

[cherokeeruby]

I have had the experience of bull calves taking longer to gestate. The only heifer than was significantly late turned out to be a poor breeder, she had a masculine appearance when she was first born, looking at her thought she was a bull. That was the first day we ever had two born on the same day. Came in the house and heard that Iraq had invaded Kuwait. Hard to forget.

 

[certherfbeef]

Bulls have outdoor plumbing, it takes longer to develop. Hence the bulls getting here late and the heifers early.

 

[greatgerts]

The heifers early/bulls late reminded me of my first AI calf. The cow was 3 days late. I had to haul some other calves across the state to get broke, and the breeder told me that if she is bagging and 3 days late, it will be a bull. Sure enough, I got home, put her in the barn, and not 2 hours later, a bull calf. And ever since then, I have kept a close eye to see how close I get/how many I guess right per calving season. [/list]

 

[shorty]

the only calves I have had to pull have always been bulls , don't know why usually two thirds of my calves are heiffers

 

[Rustler9]

It has been my experience that if they are late-they are bulls. I've yet to have a heifer come late.

 

[sidney411]

I have never thought about it before, but I have had to pull 4 calves in the past 2 years and 2 were bulls and 2 were heifers (all were out of 1st calvers). 1 of the bulls was dead, all the others survived and are already in and out of the bank

 

[dun]

Statistically it's claimed that bulls are normally a little later then heifers. But we've had about the same number of both over the years. Early bulls and late heifers.

dun

 

[greenwillowherefords]

I have had one early bull. All the others were one to two weeks late. Nearly every old timer that I've encountered agrees: if it's late, it will be a bull.

As far as pulling more bulls, I would give more than one reason for that: Bulls average a heavier BW, and probably tend to be a little thicker, hence harder to launch.

 

[Vicky the vet]

Well, just to throw a spanner in the works....

I've found that if it's before the due date, almost always a heifer. If it's a few days after the due date, almost always a bull. If we're more than a week after the due date, could be either. In one of my clients herds, they are averaging 12 days overdue this year, and so far have only heifers. And yes, they have more than 1 or two calves...they've calved out 70% of their herd. And there are multiple sires.

That's just my experience...
V