Open Heifers - hahaha Just kidding!

[Dusty Britches]

Only one thing irritates me more than buying open replacement heifers that were actually bred. And that's heifers that have not been checked for breeding soundness - ie, they don't have ovaries or a uterus. I put my bull in from May 1 - July 1 to calve in February and March. I figure I have 1 open. Why?? Because she had a calf 7 months after I bought her as an open replacement heifer. And worse - the calf was stillborn. What a waste of my time and money!

Don't sell replacement heifers if you are not willing to guarantee them as open or as guaranteed to breed!

 

[Travlr]

Only one thing irritates me more than buying open replacement heifers that were actually bred. And that's heifers that have not been checked for breeding soundness - ie, they don't have ovaries or a uterus. I put my bull in from May 1 - July 1 to calve in February and March. I figure I have 1 open. Why?? Because she had a calf 7 months after I bought her as an open replacement heifer. And worse - the calf was stillborn. What a waste of my time and money!

Don't sell replacement heifers if you are not willing to guarantee them as open or as guaranteed to breed!

Why would you buy open replacement heifers when you can buy them bred with a guarantee?

 

[Brute 23]

When did you take possession of them, May 1?

Did you call them and give them the opportunity to make it right?

That is frustrating.

 

[Lucky]

Why would you buy open replacement heifers when you can buy them bred with a guarantee?

J&J Cattle in Bryan, Tx has made quite the business selling open heifers. We are thinking about buying 20 this year.

 

[Travlr]

J&J Cattle in Bryan, Tx has made quite the business selling open heifers. We are thinking about buying 20 this year.

So again... why? Are they so much less expensive than bred heifers?

 

[M.Magis]

I would assume many people want them bred to their choice of bulls, instead of someone elses.

 

[Travlr]

I would assume many people want them bred to their choice of bulls, instead of someone elses.

Sure... and that's certainly possible. But if you are buying animals you consider to be high quality, then why not trust the breeder to choose a bull? It's the seller's reputation on the line. I would never sell "replacement" heifers with a guarantee unless they were bred to bulls I selected.

 

[Lucky]

So again... why? Are they so much less expensive than bred heifers?

When trying to maintain a defined breeding season it's really tricky (at least in my experience) to raise your own heifers that are old enough to breed and calve in time to to breed back and stay in sync with the cow herd. We've bought or raised our own heifers enough to know that if someone tells you 20 heifers will calve by February 15th that they really mean March or April. Also nice bred heifers are generally several hundred dollars more than a bred 5 year old cow. Open heifers bought from an individual are typically a dime to twenty cents higher than sale barn prices. We are looking at buying 15-20 nice Brangus Heifers this year. A quick look shows $2,300-$2,800 for 5-7 month breds or $1,600-1,700 for breeding age heifers. At the end of the day it's probably a wash money wise but with opens at least you can breed them how you want to build your herd.

 

[Lucky]

Sure... and that's certainly possible. But if you are buying animals you consider to be high quality, then why not trust the breeder to choose a bull? It's the seller's reputation on the line. I would never sell "replacement" heifers with a guarantee unless they were bred to bulls I selected.

Unfortunately the sellers reputation doesn't always align with what you get.

 

[StrojanHerefords]

Only one thing irritates me more than buying open replacement heifers that were actually bred. And that's heifers that have not been checked for breeding soundness - ie, they don't have ovaries or a uterus. I put my bull in from May 1 - July 1 to calve in February and March. I figure I have 1 open. Why?? Because she had a calf 7 months after I bought her as an open replacement heifer. And worse - the calf was stillborn. What a waste of my time and money!

Don't sell replacement heifers if you are not willing to guarantee them as open or as guaranteed to breed!

Are you sure it was a bred at the time of purchase or a late term abortion? As a rule, if those heifers were sold as palpated open what that mean is that the vet couldn't feel a calf. Which means that a cow could be bred for at least a month and a half before a vet could feel the calf.

 

[Brute 23]

Are you sure it was a bred at the time of purchase or a late term abortion? As a rule, if those heifers were sold as palpated open what that mean is that the vet couldn't feel a calf. Which means that a cow could be bred for at least a month and a half before a vet could feel the calf.

That's what I was getting at. There was 2 months in there IF he got them when he started to breed them. If he got them earlier it would be hard for the seller to have known.

Good point about the late term abortion, also.

 

[chaded]

Sure... and that's certainly possible. But if you are buying animals you consider to be high quality, then why not trust the breeder to choose a bull? It's the seller's reputation on the line. I would never sell "replacement" heifers with a guarantee unless they were bred to bulls I selected.

In my case I bought a herd of open heifers that were red angus with the intention on using a black bull. The breeders bulls were red angus.

 

[Dave]

From 2013 to 2016 each year I bought 60 heifers from the sale barn. These heifers weighed 750-800. I vaccinated them for everything. Sync'ed them and AI to a drop dead calving ease bull. I cleaned up with a son of the bull I used to AI with. Then I sold 50 them for a fall delivery. Now for the most part these were sale yard girl not bought from a private party. A full 20% turned out to be bred. Some slipped the calf (modified live vaccine). Some had a dead calf. And a few had a life calf that they raised. After the first year of this program I gave them all a shot of lute. This helped some but not all. One time I bought 5 heifers from a private party. 3 of them turned out to be bred. He said that he didn't know how this happened. That he had pulled his bulls. Apparently not soon enough. This is one of the reasons that heifers sell for less.

 

[TCRanch]

I pull my bulls a good 6 weeks prior to weaning and all heifers get a shot of Lute. I learned the hard way.

 

[Warren Allison]

Well, a lot of people who buy replacement heifers, want them to breed to their bull, or AI to a bull they chose. So far, on the half-dairy Brahmas everyone bought them open at 2 to 3 months after weaning. The heifers I am going to raise out of the registered Brahmas I bought, I will sell open, or will AI them to whatever the customers want. I will guarantee a heifer to be open, if I sell her open. That is easy enough to do. And I will guarantee a bred heifer to be bred when I sell it. But,. no way would I sell a weanling to yearling heifer, and guarantee her to be sound to breed. If the customer wanted to hire a vet to check for them before they buy them., that would be ok for by me. Or , I could arrange it and add the cost to the purchase price. For commercial cow-calf operations, where you are wanting a good calf on the ground, I agree with @Travlr : " Why would you want an open heifer?"

3 of the red Char heifers I bought were bred with sexed for heifer Red Char semen. This guy that bought them as pairs, when the calves were about 2 months old, wanted them AI-ed back to sexed for female Red Char semen. His thoughts were he was getting 9 registered red Char cows for the price of a pair that way.

But, with cattle, horses, anything....if you sell them with a guarantee, then back up your guarantee. Especially if you want to stay in business longer than that one deal.

 

[Dusty Britches]

Sorry for the slow reply. I've been very busy.

Several years ago we bought 12 OPEN Angus heifers, 17 months old, from a replacement female sale. We timed the purchase so they would be bred in our breeding season to our bull. We had them in a holding pen for a week when I noticed they seemed to be bagging up. I called the vet out to palpate. Every one of them was 8-9 months bred. We called the sale manager and his response - "oh they are probably bred to a low birth weight black Angus bull (aren't they all??). You are lucky to get bred heifers for that price. " For those doing the math - yes they were bred at 6 months of age.

We recently bought 8 OPEN heifers, 12 months old, from a ranch in late March to put with our bull on May 1 aiming for calving in February - March. One calved at the end of September, bred at 9 months of age. Full term calf, still born. I didn't ask about a guarantee. From now on, I'll be forking out more money to buy from reputable ranches and looking for breds.

 

[Warren Allison]

I have 12 registered Brahmas AI-ed to beef bulls for heifer calves. And 5 dairy cows AI-ed to a registered polled grey Brahma for heifer calves. From the time these heifers are born, til they are sold, they will never be around a bull, so we will guarantee them open at sale time. If someone wants them bred, we will breed them to the kind of bull they want, and will have them checked safe in calf before we sell them guaranteed bred. This year, we already have them sold at weaning, though. But we are prepared to sell the future ones as long yearlings, either open or bred. I have a place to take them at weaning, and they will not be around a bull til after they are sold and leave our place. We plan to do this every year, though, so we will back our guarantee. And I think if you look for replacement heifers from breeders who specialize in producing replacement heifers, and have been doing this for a long time, you can safely buy open heifers with a real guarantee of being open.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

REPUTATION is EVERYTHING in any business.
If you are looking for "deals", you take the risk buying from unknowns. If you want to better your program, buy from REPUTABLE breeders.

 

[saf9787]

J&J Cattle in Bryan, Tx has made quite the business selling open heifers. We are thinking about buying 20 this year.

We bought bred heifers from these guys when we were running cross bred cattle a few years ago. All calved according to their due dates except one that never calved. She was closely monitored but apparently wasn't bred to begin with. They had claimed she was short bred. They took the cow back and refunded the purchase price. Yes, we fed her for 7-8 months through a drought- so a loss for us, but not as painful as it could have been. Great guys to work with. They pi tested them and tagged them before loading. 30 mins later negative pi test.
Lesson learned- only buy heifers that have been ultrasounded and confirmed bred with ultrasound record in writing to avoid feeding an open heifer for months. They eat a LOT, lol.

 

[Travlr]

We bought bred heifers from these guys when we were running cross bred cattle a few years ago. All calved according to their due dates except one that never calved. She was closely monitored but apparently wasn't bred to begin with. They had claimed she was short bred. They took the cow back and refunded the purchase price. Yes, we fed her for 7-8 months through a drought- so a loss for us, but not as painful as it could have been. Great guys to work with. They pi tested them and tagged them before loading. 30 mins later negative pi test.
Lesson learned- only buy heifers that have been ultrasounded and confirmed bred with ultrasound record in writing to avoid feeding an open heifer for months. They eat a LOT, lol.

I had a breeding guarantee on a bred heifer and it aborted. Early enough that I could have missed it easily. They made it right with a choice between a long bred heifer or a cow with a new calf.