The following was stolen from another board that mostly address' dairy, but it's just as appropriate for beef cattle
During the last few days , I attended an ABS meeting . At the dinner , several reps got to talking on fertility at heifer projects. The comment was made that over time , some customers cattle seemed to settle very well but other customers cattle were problems . One of the culprits in the equation was over fat heifers and the struggle to get them bred.
I see this all the time . It seems that if you observe a bunch of heifers that are healthy but maybe a bit on the green side but gaining pre breeding , you get along just fine but if you start out with a group of heifers that are borderline fat and getting fatter , you are setting yourself up for a train wreck in getting them bred. It is especially tough in the heifer projects where sometimes space is limited and the heifers already of good doing genetics dont get enough exercize . When I asked a good vet about it , his thoughts were that the overys get packed in fat and get too hot for the heifer to breed well.
I see the same thing happening in bull development . The bulls in feed tests where they are pushed for extremely fast gains dont seem to be as fertile, have more white blood cell problems and also have feet problems which will contribute to less longevity .
For this reason both on our developing heifers and our growing bulls we have gone to a lower concentrate ration , keeping the per cent concentrate down to 55 % or less. I am advocating this to my semen and bull customers as well for their developing heifers.
In my opinion, getting heifers too fat hurts conception and can really hurt milk production down the road besides adding extra cost to the mix . There is no justification for it at all in my opinion.
During the last few days , I attended an ABS meeting . At the dinner , several reps got to talking on fertility at heifer projects. The comment was made that over time , some customers cattle seemed to settle very well but other customers cattle were problems . One of the culprits in the equation was over fat heifers and the struggle to get them bred.
I see this all the time . It seems that if you observe a bunch of heifers that are healthy but maybe a bit on the green side but gaining pre breeding , you get along just fine but if you start out with a group of heifers that are borderline fat and getting fatter , you are setting yourself up for a train wreck in getting them bred. It is especially tough in the heifer projects where sometimes space is limited and the heifers already of good doing genetics dont get enough exercize . When I asked a good vet about it , his thoughts were that the overys get packed in fat and get too hot for the heifer to breed well.
I see the same thing happening in bull development . The bulls in feed tests where they are pushed for extremely fast gains dont seem to be as fertile, have more white blood cell problems and also have feet problems which will contribute to less longevity .
For this reason both on our developing heifers and our growing bulls we have gone to a lower concentrate ration , keeping the per cent concentrate down to 55 % or less. I am advocating this to my semen and bull customers as well for their developing heifers.
In my opinion, getting heifers too fat hurts conception and can really hurt milk production down the road besides adding extra cost to the mix . There is no justification for it at all in my opinion.