randiliana
Well-known member
How many of you have actually had a wreck calving heifers?? We've never, I know of one neighbour/friend that did. They C-sectioned 18 out of 30 heifers and the rest were pulls.
It's a pretty well known fact that the further north (colder) you go the higher the BW's get. And extra protein might up that number as well. Actually, I would go so far to say that it will... About 15 years ago, DH was working for a plant that sorted and sized Chickpeas. He had access to all the off sized, off shaped and split chickpeas he wanted. So, that was awesome, we fed chickpeas starting later in the winter (don't exactly remember when) That year we had the highest BW's we have ever had. We had heifers with 120+ lb calves. Looking at my books, we had a few we had to help, none were C-sections however. Same bulls a year later, no chickpeas either, and BW's were back down to what we usually see. Of course without doing a side by side comparison nothing is for sure...
Here's my opinion on feeding heifers, and breeding them too, I guess....
First off breeding them... I expect a heifer to be able to have (preferably unassisted) a 80-90 lb calf. I have no problem assisting if necessary if the calf is on the higher end (85+) of that range. I do however have a BIG problem assisting a heifer if the calf is under my preferred range. In fact, that will get a heifer culled around here in a hurry, the smaller the calf the faster the ride.... When buying bulls we look for BW of course, but also the shape of the bull and the calving history of his dam.
Now onto feeding.... We've always run a strict calving season. In the past that has been 60 days, last year we shortened it up to 50 days. So, here's what happens. Heifer is supposed to calve within that 50 day window, milk well enough to raise a GOOD calf (we don't tolerate crap around here), stay in good enough shape, while growing AND milking well enough to raise that good calf.......AND breed back within that 50 day breeding window!
Now consider the feed aspect. Mineral or no mineral, the most important thing towards your heifer calving, cleaning up after calving, and milking IS Feed (well water as well..lol). Whether she had that calf on her own, you helped her or god forbid she had to have a C-section, the nutrients going into her are directly related to her clean-up time, ability to raise a calf and breed back time.
OK, here's your heifers, consider that they are all bred to a proper (CE) bull....
A poorly fed (Miss Anorexic) heifer is more likely to have a weaker calf, although BW probably didn't change much as all those nutrients she was getting were going straight to baby, she's probably going to have some issues with calving (if nothing else she'll just tire out faster). Because she tired out quickly, you have to assist her. Or even with her desire for that calf (seen that in older thin cows), or that weak calf just doesn't get up and going like it should (guess what you get to help things out...) She's not going to milk very well (now you're on here wondering why that heifer just doesn't seem to have any milk and should you worry?), and as hard as it is for her to put condition on when she was in calf, she's going to have a lot harder time now that she HAS calved. Now, you want her to breed back on time. Ever heard that first calvers are the hardest to get bred back??
Now let's look at our properly fed heifer(Miss Svelte) (Not fat, but in nice condition). She goes into calving, and looks good, she's got lots of energy. She pops that slightly larger calf out maybe it's 5 lb heavier, maybe it's the same weight as she was getting enough to support baby and herself. She goes into calving, lays down and pops out a nice healthy calf (maybe you did have to give her a little help, or not). Said calf bounces right up and goes to suckling, mom's got enough milk and her colostrum is as good as it gets....for a heifer.... Now, she's going to lose some weight, (unless you've got some pretty good pasture or grain right off the bat), but when the spring grass comes in she'll put some of it back on and probably breed back fairly quickly. She's going to have enough milk for her calf, and all those other heifer's calves that run around in the milk stealing free for all....And she'll raise off a nice sized calf, mind you she won't be quite as fat and sassy looking after raising that calf, but she shouldn't look too bad....
Now lets take the FAT (Miss Chubby) heifer. Someone's been feeding this one a little extra treat. She's not just in good shape, but she's, let's say obese. Now one would think if good condition is good, than fat would be better, eh?? Well, not so much... Fat usually means not in that good of shape. Fat can mean that she is fat inside, and some of that room in the birth canal can be taken up by fat. The calf will probably be a bit bigger than Miss Svelte's was, after all with an excess of nutrients to make mom fat what do you think happened to baby. Now we all like to see chubby babies, but they don't come out real easily if they look like that before they're born.... Once you get the little chubster out, it probably bounces right up though. Now we look at the milk aspect, Miss Chubby here's been fed so well, she's put so much fat down that it's even been deposited in her udder. If there's fat there, than she just can't milk that well. Here colostrum is probably pretty good quality though, and the calf will probably be healthy enough that way. She's really going to learn what the real world is now though and she's going to lose some condition, well maybe a lot.... Now we've all heard that they breed back best on a rising plane of nutrition.....
In our herd, we try to keep our heifers in the middle of the playing field. They run out the same as the cows, usually until about Dec 15- Jan 1 (Calving starts Mar 1) depending on the fall grazing. For the first 4-6 weeks they get fed some of our poorer feed, but by Feb 1 we have increased the quality til we are feeding just about the best we have. We save the very best stuff for after they've calved. I don't believe in starving a smaller calf out of them, there are just too many other problems that go with that scenario. We assist a few heifers here, I don't believe any of that is feed related. Some might be bull related (wrong choice) or heifer related (High BW family) or genetic combination related (Bull A + Heifer B = Big calf). Heifers are notorious for being hard to breed back, but we don't find that to be especially true in our herd, I think last year out of 33 heifers we calved, 3 didn't breed back (one had a set of twins), and we culled 2 in the spring. 1 had a C-section (group of 4 open heifers we bought 3/4 had big calves) and one wouldn't take the calf we had left for her in the confusion.
It's a pretty well known fact that the further north (colder) you go the higher the BW's get. And extra protein might up that number as well. Actually, I would go so far to say that it will... About 15 years ago, DH was working for a plant that sorted and sized Chickpeas. He had access to all the off sized, off shaped and split chickpeas he wanted. So, that was awesome, we fed chickpeas starting later in the winter (don't exactly remember when) That year we had the highest BW's we have ever had. We had heifers with 120+ lb calves. Looking at my books, we had a few we had to help, none were C-sections however. Same bulls a year later, no chickpeas either, and BW's were back down to what we usually see. Of course without doing a side by side comparison nothing is for sure...
Here's my opinion on feeding heifers, and breeding them too, I guess....
First off breeding them... I expect a heifer to be able to have (preferably unassisted) a 80-90 lb calf. I have no problem assisting if necessary if the calf is on the higher end (85+) of that range. I do however have a BIG problem assisting a heifer if the calf is under my preferred range. In fact, that will get a heifer culled around here in a hurry, the smaller the calf the faster the ride.... When buying bulls we look for BW of course, but also the shape of the bull and the calving history of his dam.
Now onto feeding.... We've always run a strict calving season. In the past that has been 60 days, last year we shortened it up to 50 days. So, here's what happens. Heifer is supposed to calve within that 50 day window, milk well enough to raise a GOOD calf (we don't tolerate crap around here), stay in good enough shape, while growing AND milking well enough to raise that good calf.......AND breed back within that 50 day breeding window!
Now consider the feed aspect. Mineral or no mineral, the most important thing towards your heifer calving, cleaning up after calving, and milking IS Feed (well water as well..lol). Whether she had that calf on her own, you helped her or god forbid she had to have a C-section, the nutrients going into her are directly related to her clean-up time, ability to raise a calf and breed back time.
OK, here's your heifers, consider that they are all bred to a proper (CE) bull....
A poorly fed (Miss Anorexic) heifer is more likely to have a weaker calf, although BW probably didn't change much as all those nutrients she was getting were going straight to baby, she's probably going to have some issues with calving (if nothing else she'll just tire out faster). Because she tired out quickly, you have to assist her. Or even with her desire for that calf (seen that in older thin cows), or that weak calf just doesn't get up and going like it should (guess what you get to help things out...) She's not going to milk very well (now you're on here wondering why that heifer just doesn't seem to have any milk and should you worry?), and as hard as it is for her to put condition on when she was in calf, she's going to have a lot harder time now that she HAS calved. Now, you want her to breed back on time. Ever heard that first calvers are the hardest to get bred back??
Now let's look at our properly fed heifer(Miss Svelte) (Not fat, but in nice condition). She goes into calving, and looks good, she's got lots of energy. She pops that slightly larger calf out maybe it's 5 lb heavier, maybe it's the same weight as she was getting enough to support baby and herself. She goes into calving, lays down and pops out a nice healthy calf (maybe you did have to give her a little help, or not). Said calf bounces right up and goes to suckling, mom's got enough milk and her colostrum is as good as it gets....for a heifer.... Now, she's going to lose some weight, (unless you've got some pretty good pasture or grain right off the bat), but when the spring grass comes in she'll put some of it back on and probably breed back fairly quickly. She's going to have enough milk for her calf, and all those other heifer's calves that run around in the milk stealing free for all....And she'll raise off a nice sized calf, mind you she won't be quite as fat and sassy looking after raising that calf, but she shouldn't look too bad....
Now lets take the FAT (Miss Chubby) heifer. Someone's been feeding this one a little extra treat. She's not just in good shape, but she's, let's say obese. Now one would think if good condition is good, than fat would be better, eh?? Well, not so much... Fat usually means not in that good of shape. Fat can mean that she is fat inside, and some of that room in the birth canal can be taken up by fat. The calf will probably be a bit bigger than Miss Svelte's was, after all with an excess of nutrients to make mom fat what do you think happened to baby. Now we all like to see chubby babies, but they don't come out real easily if they look like that before they're born.... Once you get the little chubster out, it probably bounces right up though. Now we look at the milk aspect, Miss Chubby here's been fed so well, she's put so much fat down that it's even been deposited in her udder. If there's fat there, than she just can't milk that well. Here colostrum is probably pretty good quality though, and the calf will probably be healthy enough that way. She's really going to learn what the real world is now though and she's going to lose some condition, well maybe a lot.... Now we've all heard that they breed back best on a rising plane of nutrition.....
In our herd, we try to keep our heifers in the middle of the playing field. They run out the same as the cows, usually until about Dec 15- Jan 1 (Calving starts Mar 1) depending on the fall grazing. For the first 4-6 weeks they get fed some of our poorer feed, but by Feb 1 we have increased the quality til we are feeding just about the best we have. We save the very best stuff for after they've calved. I don't believe in starving a smaller calf out of them, there are just too many other problems that go with that scenario. We assist a few heifers here, I don't believe any of that is feed related. Some might be bull related (wrong choice) or heifer related (High BW family) or genetic combination related (Bull A + Heifer B = Big calf). Heifers are notorious for being hard to breed back, but we don't find that to be especially true in our herd, I think last year out of 33 heifers we calved, 3 didn't breed back (one had a set of twins), and we culled 2 in the spring. 1 had a C-section (group of 4 open heifers we bought 3/4 had big calves) and one wouldn't take the calf we had left for her in the confusion.
