heifers

[britej]

Ok, I am going to leave you guys alone soon.. but have another question. On the flip side to the bull question, I have a few 1 year old Heifers.. I am wanting to increase my herd, so is it feasible to keep my heifers??? how old do they have to be to start breeding??? I can keep them and breed them when ready, or sell them and buy some 2 year olds??? hmmmm i am leaning towards keeping them?..??..

 

[backhoeboogie]

Ok, I am going to leave you guys alone soon.. but have another question. On the flip side to the bull question, I have a few 1 year old Heifers.. I am wanting to increase my herd, so is it feasible to keep my heifers??? how old do they have to be to start breeding??? I can keep them and breed them when ready, or sell them and buy some 2 year olds??? hmmmm i am leaning towards keeping them?..??..

Don't go running off - "leave you gus alone soon...".

I breed my heifers to calve at about 24 months of age. That is my preference. It also seems to be pretty much that standard practice for most cattle folks.

 

[novaman]

If you're wanting to increase your herd, keep them. Just realize you will have some pretty expensive heifers as you could make good money selling them. As far as when to start breeding, it depends on how well the heifers are growing out. Like boogie said, 24 months at calving is the standard most are shooting for. If that is your goal you would start breeding at 15 months of age.

 

[britej]

That is exactly right. I heard the 600lb heifers are going for 1.30 a pound here.. so, I could sell them and buy older heifers, but not head per head... OR.. keep them and wait a whole other year before they start paying for themselves... hmmmm... i think ill keep em.

 

[Dixieangus]

well 600 x 1.30=780 that a a little more and your talking a decent heavy bred cow

 

[dun]

well 600 x 1.30=780 that a a little more and your talking a decent heavy bred cow

Based on the prices around here that wouldn't even buy you a 3rd stage broken mouth cow

 

[britej]

here either.. they are GOLD right now--

 

[Dixieangus]

about 2 weeks ago there were a good many decent broke mouths that were 7+ months bred and going for about 700 dollars

 

[haase]

At a year old Id hope there over 600 pounds.

 

[Angus Cowman]

about 2 weeks ago there were a good many decent broke mouths that were 7+ months bred and going for about 700 dollars

you better start buying them and shipping them to better markets then if they are good cows
had a member on here tell me this week that at Searcy ark a 10 yr old cow with a baby calf sold for $1494 a week ago saturday
any decent 3rd stage, short and solid to broken mouth cow around here will bring $1100 right now and we have snow on the ground

 

[Dixieangus]

sounds like i need to build a bigger corral and look into buying a semi....

 

[jtbakv]

Athens Stockyard, LLC Regular Sale No. Hd.
Low High Average
28 Head Cows (C) 320.00 890.00 635.18 some bred some open
6 Cow/Calf Pairs (CC) 780.00 975.00 910.00
13 Steers (S) 120.00 290.00 191.54
10 Heifers (H) 140.00 255.00 191.50
9 Bulls (B) 70.00 900.00 392.78

This is a weekly sale
looks like I should buy here and sell there
of course calves by the pound are much higher