Over Conditioned Heifer

[inyati13]

This heifer is 18 months old. She is still gaining weight. I have her with 5 other heifers in a pasture restricted in size. They have all the free choice grass and loose mineral (high mag) they want. The other heifers are gaining but this one seems to always put on easy weight. She was AIed about 16 days ago. I am expecting her next heat on Thursday if she is not bred. How do others manage their heifers so they don't get this over-conditioned? I don't like to see her going into her first calf with this much weight. Is there something I could start doing now to get her to shed some fat? BTW, the feed trough is loose mineral.

 

[dun]

To my uneducated eye she doesn;t really look over conditioned. But ours typically calve at a 6.5 or so.

 

[inyati13]

dun, I hope you are right. Her udder does seem fleshy due to fat. Maybe she is not as bad as I imagine she is.

 

[fitz]

I don't want butterball breeding age heifers but she looks fine to me. Especially if she takes.

fitz

 

[Jessica06]

If she can look that good on grass and mineral, more power to her.

 

[dryfork2]

Probably be about right after summer heat slump.

 

[Kingfisher]

Got any idea what those heifers weigh?

 

[inyati13]

Got any idea what those heifers weigh?

I am going to guess about 900.

 

[tom4018]

Does she have some Simmental in her?

 

[Putangitangi]

My good ones look that good. I don't think you have a problem. We're just going in to winter and I aim to keep mine in that sort of condition all the way through and they'll calve with ease and get right back in calf the second time around.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

If that's over conditioned than mine are obese.

 

[KNERSIE]

The best way to control the condition on those easy doing types is to breed them younger, no need to wait till 18 months

 

[Commercialfarmer]

If that's over conditioned than mine are obese.

I've seen some photos you've posted, they aren't hurting any. I wish we had as good of pasture. ;-)

 

[inyati13]

Does she have some Simmental in her?

Tom, she is a Simmental/Angus cross. I bought her mother from the Rocking P operation as a bred heifer. Her mother was half Simmental and bred to a Simmental Bull. So she is about 3/4 Simmental.

 

[inyati13]

If that's over conditioned than mine are obese.

I've seen some photos you've posted, they aren't hurting any. I wish we had as good of pasture. ;-)

I have excellent pasture. Here is what I see. About 35% fescue, 20 % orchard grass, 20 % red clover, 20 % white clover, 5 % lespedeza. I have 80 acres. About 40 acres are pasture. I have 19 head right now counting everything. If you looked at my pasture today, you would think there might be 5 cows on it. I am mowing pasture right now to keep it down out of their eyes.

 

[tom4018]

Does she have some Simmental in her?

Tom, she is a Simmental/Angus cross. I bought her mother from the Rocking P operation as a bred heifer. Her mother was half Simmental and bred to a Simmental Bull. So she is about 3/4 Simmental.

She looks a lot like a Sim/Angus cross we have, she fleshes well too. Our pasture is pretty good right now and cows are in good shape. I feel 90% of ours stay in good condition with some I think are a little over conditioned. Some people that see our cattle say we overfeed, they get very little grain, give 2-3 pounds twice a week in the winter and the rest of the time a little just to get them up when needed.

 

[Chris H]

I think she's fine. You don't have a lot of options on keeping condition off a heifer that's just on grass. I think it was Knersie that said to breed her younger, but if that doesn't fit your timing then that's not going to work. For cows, you can keep a calf on them longer to pull off some of the condition.

The last couple years I changed how we winter our heifers, and that's kept them a bit lighter going into the spring. They have full choice good hay. They get 3-4 lbs of grain/head/day. That's seemed to keep their frame growing. They're OK in condition when the grass really comes on in the spring and we cut out the grain. They start picking up condition quickly and when we turn out the bull they're about a 5.5. My goal is for them to keep picking up condition into the fall. I may have to feed a bit during the August slumps we've been having, that's about the only change I plan on making.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

If that's over conditioned than mine are obese.

I've seen some photos you've posted, they aren't hurting any. I wish we had as good of pasture. ;-)

Don't know how you have any grass out there. After get 10.5" of rain friday it looked like it rained a 1/10th it drained so fast.

 

[dun]

I asked the vet once about keeping the heifers/cows thinner. He said he could give them a shot but then they would be so hyper we would never be able to get near them again.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Does she have some Simmental in her?

Tom, she is a Simmental/Angus cross. I bought her mother from the Rocking P operation as a bred heifer. Her mother was half Simmental and bred to a Simmental Bull. So she is about 3/4 Simmental.

That heifer is NOT obese, she is just right. She is the keeping kind, and will have fleshy calves herself. The heifer I have pictured in the breeds board about the fair, the one that won % simmental (my middle daughter is showing her), she is just like your heifer. She has the same condition, is on filler only (where the other heifers get grain in the evening), and she looks that good. You got a great heifer there. Did you register her, or was her dam registered? I'd be interested to know her pedigree, since her body type is like I like them; smaller and fleshy!