Heifers for breeding

[Ebenezer]

Buy bells for your cows and a bell for your wife! :lol:

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Buy bells for your cows and a bell for your wife! :lol:

Don't think she would like that...... just saying.

 

[Nesikep]

We got our bells from family in Switzerland.. you can find them on Ebay though, some aren't badly priced either..

The hard part is getting a good strap! I've been using seat belt, it's strong and soft, but they rub on stuff and after about 2 years it's pretty tattered up

 

[Nesikep]

Oh, and for the wife, May I suggest some of these?

https://www.eartagsdirect.com/ear-tag-earrings.html

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Seems that a good grass is doing a wonderful job. Reduced the amount of meal for the heifers, but they seem to be growing well. Have to admit that some have a pretty masculine look, not feminine at all.
The last time we weighed them they were from 1000lbs up to 1150lbs, one 900lbs. It was a month ago. My target is that they would be from 1350 up to 1550lbs before calving. They have been gaining average of 3lbs a day in July. Should weighed them soon to see how they are doing now.
At the moment two are not incalf for sure. One will be inheat in a couple days and haven't seen one inheat at all, yet. Will put two weaned bull calves with heifers as the testers. Will be able to preg check some already, so fingers crossed.

Will preg check this one soon. AI'ed with Blonde.

Two in the front AI'ed with Blonde bull too.

The one on the left AI'ed with Piedmontese.

The roan was AI'ed with Red Angus.

The one, which I haven't seen in heat. Vet checked her and she is cycling normally, just seems to be a very silent heat.

Piedmontese for this one to add abit of muscle.

AI'ed with Blonde.

The black was AI'ed with the Red Angus. The same bull as the roan one.

 

[slick4591]

Oh, and for the wife, May I suggest some of these?

https://www.eartagsdirect.com/ear-tag-earrings.html

I actually bought my wife a pair. She didn't think as much of them as I did and has flatly refused to wear them.

 

[farmerjan]

Beautiful pasture and the heifers look like they are happier than a pig in a mudhole!!!

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Have preg checked one heifer already. Our vet does it by palpating. Can tell heifers at ~2months, cows at ~2.5months.
So, one heifer is comfirmed to be pregnant. She's due on 28th of March with Blonde d'Aquitaine calf. Calving at 26months. Abit more than a week ago she weighed 1190lbs. The smallest heifer is 960lbs, others all are from 1040lbs. Three have been AI'ed this month. Other- last month. So far 6 hasn't repeated since their first AI, so will be able to preg check them soon.

The heifer we preg checked. Should grow into a big cow. Her dam is around 1500lbs, so I believe the daughter will be at least 1550-1600lbs.
The next heifer calving by the AI date should be due on the 3rd of April, then two on the 16th, one on the 18th, one on the 24th. Other three hopefully stuck and will calve in May. Have finally saw the last heifer in heat. No activity, but noticed abit of discharge. Vet AI'ed her then. Said the womb was open, so fingers crossed. She's one shy girl...

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Good job. Look good.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Preg checked four girls yesterday. All stuck on their first AI, all natural heat.

Incalf with Blonde d'Aquitaine, due on the 18th of April.

Incalf with Red Angus, due on the 3rd of April, but probably will calve at the end of March.

Incalf with Blonde, due on the 16th of April. Should be quite impressive calf. Her dam will have BB calf in January.

Incalf with Blonde. due on the 16th of April. She is a twin, but grew really nicely.
I count due date of 285days gestation
At the moment keep three weaned bull calves with heifers. One heifer was AI'ed on the 13th of July and was silent until this week. This week bull calves were very interested in her, so either it was a false heat or she had an early abortion. Would like that it was the first option. Two other heifers seem to be silent, so will be able to preg check them after ~3 weeks. And the last one been AI'ed for the second time yesterday. She's 17 months old, so not too old, but don't like her calving in late summer. Fingers crossed that she held this time.

 

[darcelina4]

Your farm is beautiful. Nice cattle. Looks like you put a lot of work into them. Your cattle are huge compared to mine. My biggest heifer is 1000 pounds at 19 months and 4 months bred. She is a beefmaster. My jerseys are 2 year olds calved in march and are still under 1000 pounds. Their half beef shorthorn heifers are huge. We sold a hereford shorthorn heifer with a 3/4 Shorthorn steer in July as she was only 800 pounds at 28 months with a 350 pound 4 month old calf. We want to raise bigger cattle but not huge. A 1200 pound cow would be about right. Do you have calving issues using the blonds and the double muscling breeds?

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Your farm is beautiful. Nice cattle. Looks like you put a lot of work into them. Your cattle are huge compared to mine. My biggest heifer is 1000 pounds at 19 months and 4 months bred. She is a beefmaster. My jerseys are 2 year olds calved in march and are still under 1000 pounds. Their half beef shorthorn heifers are huge. We sold a hereford shorthorn heifer with a 3/4 Shorthorn steer in July as she was only 800 pounds at 28 months with a 350 pound 4 month old calf. We want to raise bigger cattle but not huge. A 1200 pound cow would be about right. Do you have calving issues using the blonds and the double muscling breeds?

Thank you. Personally for us bigger cows are working better than smaller. Mostly due to calving ease. They usually have abit bigger calves than smaller ones, but you have less worry with them calving. Especially when we buy a new bull and we have no info about him...
We have used Blonde for one cow many years ago. Calved no problem, but she was one, which could calve a baby elephant... Usually, we don't have much trouble. Been using Limousine for several years and there were a couple calvings which needed some assistance, but our birth weights are naturally bigger and it usually were heifers having harder time. For example, this year had to assist one cow, which was 10yo, 1330lbs and the calf was easily 110lbs, one pretty small double muscled heifer and one heifer, which was aborting twins.
Have used Belgian blue, Charolais in the past. Didn't have much trouble with those too. Just needs to choose a cow which will be able to handle such calf. No c-sections yet. I've been having some work to do to find info about all bulls we use now for AI and choose cows for each of them.
You don't necessary need a double muscled breed to have problems. We had trouble calving with angus calf from angusx heifer(119lbs) and neighbour had 173.8lbs angusx calf got out by c-section...

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Winter is coming and heifers got abit fatter and spending extra minutes with them seems to pay off. They all are very nice tame girls. Soon they'll be back home for the winter. Two heifers with longest gestation already shows some change in udder.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/M6xQK2DWlUY[/youtube]

My favorite heifer this year. Very nice looking and correct heifer.

Heifer's dam is one of the best looking cows too. She's due in January with Piedmontese calf. Will be a very impressive calf. She is sired by homebred AngusxCharx bull.

Another two heifers I like alot.

The biggest heifers from the group.

This one is for culling. Not a bad looking, but just too small.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

We're back home for the winter. Moved all cattle home this weekend. Got abit of snow and temperature is hardly ever over 0C, weather forecast shows -12-16C for the next weekend.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Heifers are spending winter quite well. Still gets abit of meal once a day. Most are showing abit of udder already. 1 more has been preg checked yesterday just in case if she had a silent heat. She's due in May thankfully. For mes this group of heifers is one of the best now. All look really great, so can't await for their calves in spring.

Heifer I like a lot. A true tank, but not very big.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Forgot one of the best shots!
When you try to take a shot of an udder and later while looking at the photos you notice that somebody has been watching you!

 

[farmerjan]

Absolutely love the way your heifers are so quiet and tame out in the big pastures. They aren't running up looking for a handout or a feed bucket, yet seem to think that they each need to "stop by" and get a little rub from you. They are very nice animals.
Happy New Year to you. Looking forward to seeing all the new AI calves.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Absolutely love the way your heifers are so quiet and tame out in the big pastures. They aren't running up looking for a handout or a feed bucket, yet seem to think that they each need to "stop by" and get a little rub from you. They are very nice animals.
Happy New Year to you. Looking forward to seeing all the new AI calves.

Happy New Year to you too! The video was taken after the have finished their breakfast. Trying to have them all as quiet as possible for us. Almost always such heifers don't mind us at all with their newborn calf, or rather choose move with the calf away than charge. And some let us milk them after calving, at least for that day.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

When you're happy that everything goes pretty well unexpected happens... Last Sunday heifers gone "mad" and it was an utter chaos. The whole group was chasing one heifer and pushing her out from the pen for some time, fighting with each other. Considering that they always are very quiet, it was a very huge stress for most. I was wondering if there won't be any consequences. Yeah, when I came home on Friday saw that one heifer suddenly has a swollen udder and milk was leaking. Yesterday clearly saw that she has some bloody discharge. Had her checked by the vet and, as expected, she has aborted her calf. Uterus was already closing up and nothing attached to the caruncles, so she has cleaned up properly already. Such a pity as it was an AI calf, Piedmontesex. She was due at the end of May. Going to give her some time to heal and then will AI again. She's 22months old, so she still will calve before she turns 3years old.
All other heifers are doing okay, some are already less than 1.5month away from calving.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Her hormonial change may have been what triggered the chaos.