heifer gestation ?

[Dale L]

For those of you who know when your cows are bred do you generally see a shorter gestation in heifers? Ad if so how what is the average length of gestation of your heifers compared to your older cows?

 

[dun]

I've never seen much of a difference brtween heifrs and cows. Most of the heifers end up when bred to the same bulls calving at about the same gestation length, or within a day or 2 anyway.
One thing to keep in mind is a lot of what are classified as heifer or LBW bulls are that way because of generally shorter gestation periods for their calves.

 

[Dale L]

Thanks. We have 4 heifers due between 2-25 and 3-4 and with this cold weather we are in the middle of right now has me a little worried. Just hoping they hold off till we get some better weather. We have had 3 calves so far out of 4 yr olds and up. The gestation on them have been 276, 283, and 285.

 

[OhioFarmer87]

I haven't seem much difference either. We are in Ohio and have miserable weather right now and no difference. I seem to see about an average of 7 days over expected due date on all my cows. Not sure why but that seems about the norm for us. Hope that everything goes well for ya! We got 5 due between the 21st and 23rd. Hoping it warms up!

 

[Katpau]

My own research shows a difference in gestation length between cows and heifers to be about 3 days. In my own herd I calculated the average gestation for cows to be 281.4 days while heifers average 277.6 days. This is an Angus based herd and information is based on 100 births. There is definitely a difference in gestation length depending on bulls used, and "Angus Australia" even provides breeders comparisons of gestation length for proven bulls. I find the cow has even more influence on gestation. Some of my cows are consistently shorter in gestation, while others run consistently longer. It is best to be observing all heifers closely two weeks prior to expected delivery date.