Retaining Heifers

[gizmom]

What do you look for in your herd to retain a heifer. What do you want your heifer to weigh at weaning and yearling? Just a topic that I though would be interesting.

gizmom

 

[Nesikep]

I go for about 600-650 lbs at weaning, good attitude, and as close to correct structure as I can get.. Yearling is is around 900ish, depending on what their mature frame size will be sometimes a little less. I don't have scales, so I have to go by weigh tapes.

 

[M5farm]

Assuming the sire and dam are of good quality. The first thing I look for is how she looks over all. the ones that pass the eye test are scrutinized closer. Keep in mind i'm commercial and have no data(epd) to speak of but history that I've seen on the cow.

 

[randiliana]

I start with performance, both of the actual heifer and her dam. Then, once I have them narrowed down on paper, we go out and look at them. We want deep, wide and decent leg structure under them. And some muscle development. We are commercial also, but I have a lot of data on each and every cow, I know which cow's we've kept heifers off of before, and which ones make good cows. I will keep heifers out of first calvers, providing they have good performance compared to their sisters. And, I will keep heifers out of older cows that maybe didn't have the growth of her calves when she was younger.

I do consider BW when we are retaining heifers, and we have passed on a few pretty nice heifers who had really high BW's, but usually it is only one or 2 a year.

But in general, as far as performance I am looking at heifers that weigh 575-650 lbs at weaning, and 750-850 as yearlings.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Body condition and temperament are the two main things I look for when deciding whether or not a heifer stays as a yearling to get bred or goes.

Once they stick around, after preg checking, opens go. After calving the first time, hard calvers go. After calving the first time, any who fail to re-breed go. And, at the second calf, any hard calvers go.

Inherent body condition and hormonal balance are integrally related to herd profitability. So, the best looking heifer to me is the one who gives me two calves before her third birthday.

 

[Bigfoot]

I want a heifer that is long and deep. Structurally correct of course. 600 plus pounds at 8 months old. I like a big old cow, with a big bag. 3/8 or slightly less Brahman is preferred.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Once weaned I go into the heifer pen a couple times a day and walk thru them. Just standing there, looking them over and watching them move. I account for age differences and who their mothers are and then I watch them while feeding. I keep a piece of paper in my coveralls for several days and only write down certain numbers, with an idea of how many I want. This year I kept only 6, but likely had a dozen on my initial list.. and after a couple days I have it narrowed down. I also don't keep the fattest ones.

Am I even half right? Who knows, but I put some time in making up my mind.

 

[randiliana]

Body condition and temperament are the two main things I look for when deciding whether or not a heifer stays as a yearling to get bred or goes.

Once they stick around, after preg checking, opens go. After calving the first time, hard calvers go. After calving the first time, any who fail to re-breed go. And, at the second calf, any hard calvers go.

Inherent body condition and hormonal balance are integrally related to herd profitability. So, the best looking heifer to me is the one who gives me two calves before her third birthday.

For the most part, I agree with this post. However, I "ususally" don't have a problem keeping heifers that required assistance for their first calf. I have the records to prove it, just because you assisted them on the first one doesn't mean that you will have to assist again.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I usually only consider retaining heifers born the first 21 days. That eliminates a third of them.
I eliminate heifers that are extra framy. That eliminates another 10 to 15%. I used to also cull small heifers but I decided that was a mistake.
I eliminate heifers that give me any handling issues. That eliminates another 15 to 25%.
I retain what is left - - about one third - - till the next hard cull'in. This occurs at turn out.

The interesting thing is some cows always have heifers that are retainable, and others never ever do. So now you have to think about cow quality and wether they should be sold or bred differently or ...

 

[Tim/South]

If the momma cow is an easy keeper that is a plus in my book.

 

[gizmom]

Weaning we look at structure and performance. I sit next to the chute entering data as the calves go through the chute, my spreadsheet calculates WDA and ADG. Heifers are required to have a gain of 2.0 lbs per day or better to stay. Bull calves have to do 2.5 or better or they become steers. We want out replacement heifers to weigh around 750 - 850 at yearling a heifer this size should mature out at 1150 to 1300 pounds. Basically you determine what your optimum cow size is, if you want a 1450 pound cow you should retain heifers that weigh 950 pounds at yearling if you want 1650 pound cows your yearling weights should be in the 1050 range.

We expect a first calf heifer to raise her calf and breed back early. Think about this a cow that calves at the front of the herd each year is going to be more profitable.

Gizmom

 

[Big Cheese]

This year we kept all of our heifers because we acquired some more land and wanted to put our own heifers on it. Normally though, we sell the biggest heifers and keep the medium framed ones. We run longhorns so we had a lot of full blood longhorn heifers this year so they aren't going to be very big to begin with but when we look at keeping a beef heifer we really don't want them to get very far over 1000 pounds so that they will fit in with the longhorns. This next winter we will have a lot of half breed Longhorns so we will have to do a lot of culling to get the kind of cow we want.

Really it all comes down to how many you want to keep or have room for and which ones looks the best for you and will fit your herd the best. You'll get attached to the ones you absolutely want to keep and that will help you make your decision.

 

[Taurus]

I agreed with anyone above. I try to pay attention to their disposition which is important to us. I had this heifer calf that is easy keeper and is best looking one in the bunch......except she's spooky so she went to the sale barn and I picked second best looking heifer calf over her.

 

[shortybreeder]

Mostly kept everything up until this year because I was trying to grow... However I didn't want to grow this year because I am not home feeding my cattle and my dad is busy enough with his own. I sold my only heifer calf (out of 7 calves) mostly because of her wild disposition (we work with everything by hand, no chutes for breeding or shots) but it helped that I didn't want to grow anymore. I had one heifer born this fall though that I had to keep because she grew crazy fast, has capacity but isn't fat, and is absolutely the sweetest angusX I have ever seen... Since she was about 2-3 months old she would be the first one to run and meet people in the barn, often leaving mama behind to follow us around as we did our chores (we gave her free-reign of the old dairy tie-stall barn so while we fed the dairy calves she'd be right behind us nudging out butts or licking our pants). She is wide in her rear, sound feet/legs, solid black (a plus because she's commercial), and 1/8 holstein. Nothing I don't like about her yet.

 

[branguscowgirl]

At this point I have sold everything but my very best females. All my girls are very closely related, full sisters and daughters. They were already carefully selected for their dispositions, correctness in structure, feed conversion, soundness, longevity, maternal, ect. ect. that most of us look for. I guess that I do not concentrate too much on EPD's until I am choosing the AI bulls to breed them to. Most of the girls that I have kept have already proven themselves over and over again and are consistent with producing the quality that I am after. (Yes, they have some age on them.)
With that said, I retain all of their heifers at this point and time. The predictability of my older cows has been well worth my efforts of keeping them around. I know it sounds far fetched, but I can pretty much look at an AI bull and know what their calves are going to be like..........
One of my old girls just weaned off a heifer at 748#.

 

[wbvs58]

I consider the cow family behind the heifer. Must be good to the eye. I like them over 300kg (660lb) at weaning (8-9mths) and around or over the 400kg (880lb) at joining around 13 mths.
Ken

 

[Waterway65]

I generally agree with what has already been said. One other thing I watch that I don't keep a heifer from a late calver. To often a heifer from a late caper can be a late calver herself producing a calf that won't dollar out with the herd average. Mel

 

[Big Cheese]

I generally agree with what has already been said. One other thing I watch that I don't keep a heifer from a late calver. To often a heifer from a late caper can be a late calver herself producing a calf that won't dollar out with the herd average. Mel

Also, if you keep a late calver heifer she will take longer to mature as well because she is going to be younger. If your only keeping a few choose from your older heifers so they will mature earlier and put a calf on the ground earlier for you.

 

[Nesikep]

While that should be true in theory, I haven't found any correlation in my herd. the 14th calf of my old cow was born May 5th, 2011, you couldn't tell she was 2 months younger than her mates, and she raises darned nice calves. Her youngest sister was born early, and is having her first calf soon.. I guess time will tell, but she is looking really good... She weaned at about 700 from a 17 year old cow with no teeth and bad hips

 

[ANAZAZI]

Also, if you keep a late calver heifer she will take longer to mature as well because she is going to be younger. If your only keeping a few choose from your older heifers so they will mature earlier and put a calf on the ground earlier for you.

This is pure wisdom right there. And also heifers born in the first three weeks of the calving season (if there is a calving season) inherit substancially better fertility from their mothers, late born calves suggests that their Dams had some issues to get bred.