cowboy44
Well-known member
What is your opinions of keeping heifer calves for breeding stock from first calf heifers
First calf heifers
- Thread starter cowboy44
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Rustler9
Well-known member
We do it all of the time. With today's better feeds and management there's no problem with calves out of first calf heifers being kept for breeding. When I was a kid, my grand father never wanted to keep first calves for replacement cows.
In theory they should have the best genetics on the farm. Unless you breed to a scrub midgit bull just to get the heifers fresh. If that's the case, ship them or eat them.
Our standard for retaining any heifer is if we would be willing to buy her if she wasn't ours.
dun
Our standard for retaining any heifer is if we would be willing to buy her if she wasn't ours.
dun
I can understand the whole bettering your genetics part....
What I see a lot of tho, is a 1st calf heifer just doesn't seem to produce as much milk as when she has her second calf. Therefore, I wonder if the potential has been reached on that 1st calf... (?)
What I see a lot of tho, is a 1st calf heifer just doesn't seem to produce as much milk as when she has her second calf. Therefore, I wonder if the potential has been reached on that 1st calf... (?)
bullpeddler
Well-known member
As Dun says, the best genetics should be in the heifers so it makes sense to keep their progeny if they are good. If a heifer produces exceptional offspring the first calving just think what she will do in succeeding years.
mitchwi":64shgkgl said:
You're right that a first calf heifer probably won't raise as good a calf as a mature cow. They're still growing and don't usually have the milk that they will have later. Sometimes they don't breed back for the second calf, too.
We adjust for that difference in purebred stock, but a commercial guy selling calves at the sale barn is probably going to have fewer pounds to sell out of a heifer. But you have the same problems whether they're heifers you raise or heifers you buy from someone else.
I guess you can hope to make the difference up with the better genetics after the heifer is older. Last year one of our first calf heifers out did her dam at weaning (after adjusting the calf's 205 day weight). So I think the heifer will be a better cow in another year than her mother.
A heifer out of a 2 year old might not be as big at weaning as a heifer out of a mature cow, but if she hasn't caught up by the time she's 15 months and ready to breed then you better consider shipping her and her mother.
