Although I have been in Va alot of years, I do not agree with alot of their studies. Listen to it all, just make my own decisions based on more than one set of "studies". They tried the Jersey/Holstein dairy crosses as THE WAY TO GO and ruined the jersey herd they had there. Nuff said... Anyway, I don't put much stock in their studies anymore. If we had heifers that didn't come in heat for 90-120 days we would be so far behind that it wouldn't be worth keeping any cattle. Due to the rented pastures we use, right now we are doing very little AI. The cows start calving say in March, bulls go in by mid may so about half are 60 days fresh, many are 30 days. They all get bred and next year they are on the same schedule. Fall groups calve in sept/oct, bulls go in before Thanksgiving usually and they better be having calves again in the fall. The heifers get treated the same. This last group all calved in 3 weeks except that one. They have all had at least one heat, most 2, and the bull is in there; later than we planned but I expect them all to breed back on the next heat that the bull is there to breed them. I expect them to all breed back and calve again in 12 months. If they weren't coming into heat for at least 90 days then you are going to be up to a 13 month calving interval at least the first time....We don't do everything by the book, but do keep the best, most fertile and healthy and try to keep them on a decent mineral program. And we are a mostly grass/hay based operation. They don't get "fed" daily so it isn't the concentrates. Can't afford to have cattle that require alot of "feed" to keep them going, or to keep them breeding. CB is right, they need to calve every year or they are costing you too much. We will make an allowance for 1st calf heifers if they have dropped condition with a nice big calf on them because it's often that we have not done our part to keep her on a positive energy balance. BUT they better never get behind after that second chance. Just sold a nice char x cow, calved as heifer, big nice bull calf grew like all get out. She was a tad bit thinner, was open, went back with the next group. Bred calved and then was again open. She and her heifer went to the stockyards. Not perpetuating a problem. Have several others over the years that were open the first time, went back with the next group and have hit the mark everytime since. But we might get 1 or 2 in the spring and the fall that come up open out of 75 to 100 calving each time. That's less than 5% a year. And if it is older cows they leave, if younger we will take a look at their record then make a decision. For smaller operations that have better conditions than some places we keep cattle, it's not practical.
