Gestation length and drought

[glacierridge]

Just dawned on me that the calves that were due these last couple months have been all overdue, from a couple days to 10-11 days. Talked to a dairy farmer yesterday too that just had twins that were 12 days overdue.

Does anyone know if there is any correlation drought making calves develop slightly slower? None of these overdue babies have been larger than any average birth.

 

[glacierridge]

The calves are even different sires and breeds, before recently the due dates were about average, having some before, some after.

 

[cow pollinater]

Drought will absolutely factor in. Most folks never notice because they don't AI and then calculate due dates and expect a calf on THAT day. The longer devolopment time goes hand in hand with a lower birth weight as the same issues that are forcing the cow to take longer to make a fully formed calf are also restricting how much calf she can make.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We just had our last calf, TWO weeks late! She was 299 days pregnant! But the rest of our girls were all pretty close to being on time. The calf was average size, 86 pounds, cow is an 8 year old and has had 6 calves. Her last calf was almost two weeks late also...

 

[glacierridge]

Here I was just hoping good things take longer. Jk.
The calves, even though tardy, all look pretty sturdy at least.
One got a little wimpy on us and has thankfully bounced back, but all in all, I'll take a later calf as long as there are no other major hangups.

 

[greybeard]

glacierridge--you see this thread? Early.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=79425

 

[glacierridge]

glacierridge--you see this thread? Early.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=79425

There were comments they had a warm winter and lots of forage... definitely not what we had here.
I'm in WI, like the farmer with the overdue twins, looks like folks more towards FL or at least closer to it than WI had the early ones?
All I know is I'm averaging 8 days over due, none early.
Last year this wasn't the case.

 

[glacierridge]

They also said the vet said it was the heat...
Our summer was about average temps, not really hotter than normal, but it was super dry and forage grew for crap.
Corn in some regions of the state only grew 3-4' and crapped out.

 

[Crazy Farmgirl]

My spring calves were basically on time but the fall calves were all early by close to two weeks. Our spring was moderately dry with just enough rain to get the grass greened up but that's about it! We had <1/8" rain from mid May until mid Sept, and above avg temps through the summer.

 

[glacierridge]

Now I'm even more confused by why animals are going long, and not just our own... :help: :?:

 

[glacierridge]

3 animals were due for today... 2 of which aren't even bagging up any milk yet.
:?: :?: :?:

 

[Chris H]

Drought will absolutely factor in. Most folks never notice because they don't AI and then calculate due dates and expect a calf on THAT day. The longer devolopment time goes hand in hand with a lower birth weight as the same issues that are forcing the cow to take longer to make a fully formed calf are also restricting how much calf she can make.

Ordinarily I agree with you CP, but I don't agree with this statement. It's been my understanding that a lot of the low birthweight bulls throw short gestation calves; hence shorter development time is correlated to lower birth weight. That's why some of the breeds are tracking gestation length.