Heifers

[lithuanian farmer]

A few photos of pregnant heifers. They are sired by homebred crossbred bull. Angusx CharolaisxCharolaisxdairy cross.
27 months old heifer. Due in December. Out of Limousinexdairy cow.

28 months old heifer. Due in October. Dam: Herefordxdairy.

24 months old. Due in December.Dam is mainly Angus.

28 months old. Due in October. Dam: Limousinexdairy.

27 months old. Due in November. Dam: Charolaisxdairy.

29 months old. Due in September-October. Dam: BBxdairy.

28 months old. Due in October. Dam: AngusxSalers x BBxdairy.

That's she standing next to her dam.

And a few pics of future breeding heifers. Last year borned.
AI Angusx heifer. 18 months old.

7/8Limousine heifer. April born.

Limousine x out of Charolaisxdairy cow. April born.

Two AI Charolaisx heifers. On the left March born, out of Charolaisxdairy cow. The cow died when the heiefr was only one month old and until weaning she didn't got any feed from us. She started nursing other cows without our help.
On the right- April born heifer, out of BBxdairy cow.

 

[Rafter S]

Nice-looking bunch. The gray heifer in the third picture is my favorite.

 

[Williamsv]

Looking good. The grey one is my favorite, too. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Backbone Ranch]

Good looking photos and cattle! I think that the April born heifer that is Limousine x Charolais/ Dairy (2nd to last pic) shows a lot of potential.

 

[Bigfoot]

I love when you post pics. That Gray would fit in at my place.

 

[BRYANT]

Nice looking cattle , one thing I would do if they were mine is dehorn them while they are still young an horns are small . Is that not something that is done where you are from or is horns just something that is of no concern. I know lots of people in the US that horns is no big deal and others you cant get them to own a cow with horns.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Thank you all
We don't dehorn. Only cut sharp tops for some cows. Also we need that our herd bull had horns, because every summer we've some guests form neighbours dairy herds. Usually come their dairy bulls. Of course horned. Last year one bull was ~2-3years old, so not very scary, but another was ~4-5years old. It's always easier to move another bull from the herd, when he has lost against our herd's bull.

That gray is out of 16months old dam, so she's abit smaller than others, but won't be the smallest cow and is very very friendly.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Hello everybody. Recently had a couple heifers calved, so decided to upload some photos. All heifers sired by homebred AngusxCharx bull, calves sired by pure Limousine bull.
31 months old heifer, dam: Herefordxdairy. With heifer calf. Calved unassisted.

31 months old, dam: Limousinxdairy. With heifer calf. No assistance too.

And the last so far, but not the least. My heifer, 31months old too, dam: 1/4 x Angus;Salers;BB;dairy. With just borned bull calf. No assistance too.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

An update of heifers calvings.
Have two more girls calved. Both have alive normal size bull calves. Both sired by pure Limousine bull. Both 1st calvers are sired by homebred crossbred bull.
Heifer's dam is BBxdairy cow. Her both elder sisters had big dead first calvers. Fortunately she calved okay and the calf is alive.

This girl's dam is Charxdairy. Easy calving line.

Earlier born calves growing well.

 

[Muddy]

Your limousin bull is doing great job to putting uniformity on your calf crop!!

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Finally we've bought the scales for cattle. We were able to weight our last year born heifers. It's the first time we weighed our cattle. From 10 heifers we weighed, were 1 AI Charx and all other Limox by our Limo bull.
One very sad new for us is that we can't leave as a replacement( we thought about her as a cow even when she wasn't born yet, we were ~90% sure that her dam'll have a heifer, she always has). Heifer two teats got swollen very badly ~2months ago, it's not getting better, it's wet, smells bad. The heifer feels okay, lively as always. Her colour is very beautiful too.

That's she with her dam last summer.
Also she has a very good growth. Her weight was 1329lbs, 18months age. She would have made a good cow. Now have left only one Charx heifer for breeding at this time. She already was with the bull when we weighed heifers, but she is the biggest one, so guess her weight ~1440lbs, 19months. 20months old AI Angusx heifer, left for breeding, weight ~1300lbs, but she was with the bull at the weighing time too.

Limousinex heifers weights:
-1160lbs, 18months, out of Charxdairy, left as replacement.

-1010lbs, 18months, out of 75%Limo,25%dairy cow, left as replacement. She has lost some weight recently, 'cause has injured one horn.In normal condition her weight should be ~1100lbs

-930lbs, 17months, out of 15months old heifer, 25%Angus, 37.5%Limo and the rest % is Char and dairy.

(Unfortunately don't have the recent photos of others heifers. )
-1100lbs, 18months, out of Limoxdairy cow.
-974lbs, 18months, out of 75%Limo, 25%dairy 1st calver. Have her dam, had her granddam, but when you cross them with Limo bull, the offspring always is smaller.
-974lbs, 17months, out of Charxdairy cow, the oldest cow in the herd, 13years now.
-1071lbs, 17months, out of Charxdairy. The most interesting thing is that she was born extremely tiny, but now is bigger than some elder sisters.

A few days old.

-1065lbs, 18months, out of 75%Limo, 25%dairy cow.
-897lbs, 13months (weaned in May), out of 50%Angus, 25%BB, 25%dairy 2nd calver. Might leave as replacement, but it'll be decided only next year.

Going to start weaning the calves next week around Saturday-Sunday. Will try to weigh them too. Wonder what weights we'll have.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Had three girls calved in the past two days. One calved two days ago, one yesterday in the morning and one yesterday in the afternoon.

A heifer calf.

A bull calf.

A heifer calf.

All Limousine sired.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Do you calve year round, or how do your heifers fall in line with the cows again, if calving @ 30mo?

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Do you calve year round, or how do your heifers fall in line with the cows again, if calving @ 30mo?

Not year round. Our cows will start calving in January already. We like late autumn-early winter calves, because they are ready to be sold earlier than their group calves. Our cows usually start calving in December and most finish in April-march, but have a couple which have calves in summer. Heifers usually calve earlier than cows, because we breed them when they reach the decent size, it'd be ~20-22months age, some at 18-19months. It's mostly winter or early spring when they are bred. Now the october calved heifers are due to calve again in august. Sell the bulls and heifers depending on their weight and age. If needs sell the bulls from the same group at the different time. So it's not a big problem. But usually have ~4-5months break between the last one group's and the first next group's calves.
When we used AI we'd all year round calving and a huge intervals between calves. Have looked earlier and the longest time we'd between two calves from one cow was 18months or so. Very few cows had calves in less than one year. Maybe four or five in six years.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Winter came here too. Have snow for five days now. It's -10C, at the night ~ -15C temperature. The weather forecast shows -25C on the 8th of January. The youngest calves felt quite cold only in the first day, later saw that they got used to the colder weather.

Happy New Year everybody!

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I'd lose all my profit on ear tags... :cowboy:

 

[lithuanian farmer]

I'd lose all my profit on ear tags... :cowboy:

:lol2: It's not very expensive here. Needs to have tagged all cattle, sheep and goats. Usually once a year all farmers are checked if all their animals are tagged and have both tags.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

All elder heifers have calved without any assistance. Had 4 bull calves and 5 heifers. It was a relief after last year when from 6 heifers had two dead big heifer calves and one uterine prolapse. Calves from both heifers groups were sired by the same Limo bull.
Heifers are sired by homebred crossbred bull. Here is an old topic about him.
http://www.cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=81118

Took some photos of younger heifers.
This one is AI Angus sired out of AngusxSalersx 1st calver. She's 26 months old. Actually don't know who she's incalf by. There are two possibilities. Will be clear when she calves. If she got incalf by her half brother Angusx bull, she'll calve in June, and if she got incalf by stock Limo bull, she'll calve in August. She should be ~1350-1400lbs now.

Other photos are with maiden Limousinex heifers. There are six in total. The black is the youngest- 16months old, others are elder- 20-22months old. Three will be left as replacements- both heifers with white marks on heads and the black heifer. Other three will be sold to the meat factory until they will turn two years old. The elder replacements will be bred by our new Limousine bull after ~3 weeks. The black will meat the bull in summer.

The black heifer is a full sister to this bull calf:

In photo he's 1 month old. He was born 160lbs weight, the heifer ~90lbs. Couldn't say that they are brother and sister of the same parents. It still surprises us and it showed that heterosis sometimes works and sometimes doesn't even with the same cow and a bull.