Heifer calf in heat

Help Support CattleToday:

Farmer13

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
I have a 6 month old heifer calf that is in heat. She is still on her mom and the herd bull is still running with them. He's a 4 year old bull. I'm just worried he might hurt if he tries to mount. So far she won't let him. I always shoot all the heifers with lute in the fall when I work them so I'm not worried about her getting bred. Just concerned he could hurt or harass her too much. Anyone else ever have this issue?
 
We have that issue with some of ours coming into heat and I don't really worry about them getting hurt. Give em a shot of lute at weaning just in case .
 
I AI all my cattle, but a few years ago I had the neighbors bull visit my cows and calves. didn't think too much about it since my cows were all preg checked already. Had the vet check a heifer that wasn't cycling that I wanted to breed. turned out to be 7 months bred already. So she got bred at 7 months by a good size angus/sim bull with no noticeable problem.
 
Lucky I haven't had one bred yet. I might have one this year tho with an early heifer that's gunna get weaned late. A good buddy of mine took his calves into a green tag sale and he had to pick up almost all his heifers because they were bred.
 
Farmer13 said:
I have a 6 month old heifer calf that is in heat. She is still on her mom and the herd bull is still running with them. He's a 4 year old bull. I'm just worried he might hurt if he tries to mount. So far she won't let him. I always shoot all the heifers with lute in the fall when I work them so I'm not worried about her getting bred. Just concerned he could hurt or harass her too much. Anyone else ever have this issue?

I made a post last month in the beginners board I had my almost 3 year old simmental bull mount a 4 month old calf she eventually went down but she doesn't appear to have been hurt by it. I watched her close for the next few days and she was fine, here we are almost a month later and she's still doing just fine. Definitely going to lute them all when I wean, the situation isn't ideal and being that young there's a greater potential for them to get injured in the process.
 
Majority of times, no harm is done. Occasionally a big bull (or a bunch of cows) will break down a small heifer.
However, I have, on a number of occasions, seen young heifers killed by an aggressive bull puncturing through the fornix of her vagina, ejaculating into the abdominal cavity, and causing fatal peritonitis.
 
I just spent quality time separating the bulls from a 5 month old heifer in heat. Good news, they were at the barn. Bad news, so was half the herd. Giant cluster ensued - in 98 degree stifling heat.

I always pull the bulls 4-6 weeks before weaning because I've had early maturing heifers bred before and had planned on moving them next week (wean mid Oct). Every heifer gets a shot of Lutalyse at weaning but I'll hit this little girl in a couple weeks & again when she's weaned. My mistake 2 years ago was waiting until weaning to Lute a heifer; shouldn't have been a problem because she got the shot at 49 days & Lute is 93% effective up to 99 but it didn't take, the vet missed it when he preg checked her and we had an Oops Baby.

And yes, the majority of the time no harm is done. But I did lose a beautiful heifer 6 years ago after she was getting bred by a mature bull. Vet couldn't diagnose exactly what happened when he came out except she was bruised, swollen & in renal failure.
 

Latest posts

Top