Preg Checked and Weaned Some Calves

[randiliana]

]Cows are all preg checked. Ran a 45 day breeding season this year, it is something I've been wanting to do for a few years, but convincing DH to do it was a problem. Probably wouldn't have gotten it this year either but all the bulls decided to go visiting at about 45 days. 9 bulls and all but 3 went to the neighbours at one point or another, what a PITA! 2 of the ones that didn't were in pastures with no neighbours.... We ultrasounded, it is something we've done before on the heifers, but this is the first year we've done the whole herd with it. I really like it, I think that it is much more accurate than palpating, and if the vet thinks one's dry he palpates her too. Had a couple that he found the calf once he palpated them. And for sure it is much easier on the cows!!

Bulls were pulled about July 15 and the first bunch preg checked on Sept 3. Had a slightly higher cull rate this year(11%), but only because we had problems on one pasture. Had 7 out of 21 dry there. Not sure whether to blame that bull or the cows, none of the neighbour's bulls came visiting and it was all cows that had reasons that they could have been dry (age, late calving, poor body condition, etc) And I wouldn't have questioned any of them except that they were all in the same pasture... So the bull is gone, not going to take a chance on him next year and possibly have the same problem again. Too bad, he's a decent enough looking bull.

The nice thing about preg checking this early is that we have choices of what to do with the dry cows. In this case, we've weaned the calves and the cows are all going to the sale on Friday. Cows are in better condition, partly because of good grass, but also because they haven't been pulled down by bigger calves on poorer grass later. Prices are also higher than they will be in Nov/Dec. I think we will see more $$ for the cows than what we will lose on the smaller calves.

We weighed all these calves too and weights ranged from 293-590 lbs. Most of them were 425-475 lbs which isn't all that great, so I think we are culling some poorer producing cows anyways. There was a handful of cows I was a bit disappointed in losing, lost my favourite old Shorthorn cow, she was 11 this year. Vet thought she had lost her calf. Lost a couple of really good producing 3 year olds and a couple of decent 2 year olds, one had twins this spring.

Today we filled the self feeder for the calves, they seemed to like the oats, and there are a few calves that were weaned earlier (and the daughter's bottle calf) who know what oats are, so that helps draw the others in to it. And we're hoping to kick them out on some nice green alfalfa and grass on Monday, that should make them grow pretty well.

Oh, and one smaller yearling that will go to town in a couple weeks...

The big one is the yearling (750 lbs??) and the little one is the daughters bottle calf.

 

[bigbull338]

how meny open cows did you end up with for 1 reason or another.

 

[randiliana]

19 cows, 7 heifers.

 

[bigbull338]

that sure wasnt bad at all for a 45 day breeding.

 

[randiliana]

No, it wasn't too bad. We've been running about a 55 day season though for quite a while. I looked hard at my books and realize that we really would only lose about 5 cows or so, that are regularly late calvers, and the occasional cow that just slips up.

 

[Dega Moo]

Just wondering how you time when you put the bulls in with a 45 day breeding season? When I synch and do a timed AI I can usually put the cleanup bulls in 10 to 14 days later and have many or most cycling in another week or so and then about three weeks later get a second cycle before the 45 days are up. In other words, the 45 days starts with them being AI bred. Essentially, everyone has three shots at getting pregnant ( I get one shot and the boys get two). When using strict natural service I would be concerned that on some and maybe many I'd only get two opportunities and there could be a few (24 day cycles) that I might get one cycle in those 45 days.

I'm all for tight calving windows but I'd really want those 45 days to be put to best use and I don't really want to cull cows that just didn't get the opportunity to get bred. Do you have any thoughts along those lines or do you take steps to maximize those cycles? BTW: your 89% settling rate is pretty good especially given the one pasture, so maybe my concerns are just not supportable at all.

 

[randiliana]

I'm not certain that I really understand exactly what you mean, but I'll give it a whirl.

The thing is, they all get the opportunity to get bred. They have 2 cycles, (OK, maybe there are a few that have a longer cycle that miss out on the 2nd go around) and I just added the actual days up and it is 50 days for most of the cows so that takes care of those cows too.

The way I look at the 45 day window is this... 45 days = two 21 day cycles plus 3 days. If I take 21 cows (for example) and only 1 cow cycles per day. Cow # 21 cycles on day 21. Essentially she doesn't have a 45 day breeding window (what you were saying), but she still has 2 chances to get bred. She could get bred on day 21 or she could get bred on day 42. If she can't get bred either of those 2 times there is something wrong with her, or something wrong with my management.OTOH, cow # 1 could very well have 3 chances to get bred. She could be bred on day 1, day 22 or day 42 (Assuming a 21 day cycle) she might have an 18 day cycle or she might have a 22 day cycle, which would change things a bit. In our case the actual days was 50 days, so that gives a few of the cows a bit longer to breed back.

I know you always run the risk of losing a cow or 2 because they didn't cycle like they should have, but that all goes back to fertility, and if I lose a handful of cows that didn't breed because of something like that, you have to consider that the other 100 cows all bred back in my management situation, so I am keeping cows that work the way I want them to work. Over the last # of years, I have noticed that it is almost always the same cows that calve late, year in and year out, so those cows are going to lose out, but maybe not that great of a loss.

I expect that the cows will get bred in that 50 day window. The bulls are semen checked, the cows are in decent body condition out on good green grass, they are fed mineral and the vast majority of them are a minimum of 60 days post calving. Also we try not to over use the bulls, 2 year old and older bulls run with about 30 cows and yearlings with 15-20 cows. They are not run together either, less chances of injuries that way, and I can evaluate things better too. Also, generally natural service has a higher settling rate than AI I think.

 

[bigbull338]

i was sitting here wondering how long you wait after the cows calve before you turn out the bulls.sometimes age an body score has alot todo with cows breeding back.

 

[Dega Moo]

Thanks Randi. Just trying to put everything into a perspective of our own protocols which is typically synch and AI followed by cleanup bulls. Tightening our calving window is an important goal on our ranch and as you're successful wanted to hear a bit more.

 

[randiliana]

BB, the cows calve on a yearly schedule, that means the bulls go out on a yearly schedule too. What I have found is that 'most' cows seem to breed back at about 80 days after calving. Of course, some of the later calving cows will move up, and they can breed at about 60 days after calving. We have had the very rare one move from the end of April to the beginning of March, but that is not very often.

 

[randiliana]

Dega, That is fine, I sure don't mind telling how and why we do things the way we do. Hope I answered your questions!