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Cattle Boards
Breeding / Calving Issues
Fertile cows or what?
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<blockquote data-quote="anewcomer" data-source="post: 1809794" data-attributes="member: 18748"><p>This will be long, but please ride along with me. For years I have read posters on here claim their cows were calving every 330-300 days every year. I resisted the urge to call them out. Extension research shows that most cattle have a post-parting interval of about 50 days. Meaning that to stay on a 365 day calving interval, she would have one or two heat cycles to conceive. There is the occasional cow that cycles as early as 30 days, but those cows are rare and the heat cycle is not highly fertile. I had occasion to work with a friend who, due to difficulty keeping his bull hemmed up, was running 30 cows with the bull year round. His cows are well cared for, but not excessively so. He lives on the place and sees his cows daily. After a couple of years, he shared a recap of his calving dates. His cows were backing up 30 plus days per year. I was stunned. I began reviewing the research on post-partum interval and realized that most of the research was done on herds with defined breeding seasons. The posters that were writing in were running bulls year round, same as my friend. I looked up a topic I had heard about, years ago, from JN Wiltbank, called bio-stimulation. Wiltbank's research showed that limited access to bulls by post-partum cows caused the cows to come in heat earlier. When we consider a 365 day whole herd calving season as the "Gold Standard", we are dealing with herds in a defined breeding season. Post-partum cows are not exposed to bulls until 85 days after the start of calving season. Cows that could back up their calving dates are prevented by bull turn out. Only later calving cows can back up to get closer to that 365 day "Gold Standard". Look up the work done by Dr. Spitzer on bio-stimulation. I appreciate your patience and welcome your comments. I am convinced that herds running bulls year round can have shorter whole herd calving intervals than herds with defined breeding seasons. I do not subscribe to year round breeding, but could you use this technique to improve your breed ups?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="anewcomer, post: 1809794, member: 18748"] This will be long, but please ride along with me. For years I have read posters on here claim their cows were calving every 330-300 days every year. I resisted the urge to call them out. Extension research shows that most cattle have a post-parting interval of about 50 days. Meaning that to stay on a 365 day calving interval, she would have one or two heat cycles to conceive. There is the occasional cow that cycles as early as 30 days, but those cows are rare and the heat cycle is not highly fertile. I had occasion to work with a friend who, due to difficulty keeping his bull hemmed up, was running 30 cows with the bull year round. His cows are well cared for, but not excessively so. He lives on the place and sees his cows daily. After a couple of years, he shared a recap of his calving dates. His cows were backing up 30 plus days per year. I was stunned. I began reviewing the research on post-partum interval and realized that most of the research was done on herds with defined breeding seasons. The posters that were writing in were running bulls year round, same as my friend. I looked up a topic I had heard about, years ago, from JN Wiltbank, called bio-stimulation. Wiltbank’s research showed that limited access to bulls by post-partum cows caused the cows to come in heat earlier. When we consider a 365 day whole herd calving season as the “Gold Standard”, we are dealing with herds in a defined breeding season. Post-partum cows are not exposed to bulls until 85 days after the start of calving season. Cows that could back up their calving dates are prevented by bull turn out. Only later calving cows can back up to get closer to that 365 day “Gold Standard”. Look up the work done by Dr. Spitzer on bio-stimulation. I appreciate your patience and welcome your comments. I am convinced that herds running bulls year round can have shorter whole herd calving intervals than herds with defined breeding seasons. I do not subscribe to year round breeding, but could you use this technique to improve your breed ups? [/QUOTE]
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Fertile cows or what?
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