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Cattle Boards
Breeding / Calving Issues
spring vs fall
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<blockquote data-quote="Lucky_P" data-source="post: 1005285" data-attributes="member: 12607"><p>bcarty, </p><p>We've been moving toward mostly Fall-calving for about 7 years - for the same reasons you stated - Fall-born calves are heavier when sold in June/July, and have benefitted from several months of optimal grazing, whereas the Spring-born calves, marketed in October, are a lot lighter; </p><p>Less heat-stress trying to get cows bred in the fall than in June/July here - easier on the cow AND the inseminator or bull, too.</p><p></p><p>Have managed to get 2/3 of the herd into the Fall group; mostly by holding late-born spring heifers and breeding at 17-18 months instead of 14-15, or by 'rolling' spring-calving 1st calvers to the Fall group, giving them a better shot at recovering and breeding back. Did it impact cash flow? Yeah, but we didn't do it all at one swell foop. </p><p></p><p>But, now, the farm manager is looking at moving to June calving to diminish nutritional strain on the cows over winter(and smaller feed bills) - and I will admit that the few cows that we have that are way out of synch, calving in June, do have calves that are bigger(more than I can attribute to just being 3 months older), and come through the winter in better condition than those calving in Sept/Oct. It'll be easy to move the Spring herd to June calving, but will take years to back the Fall herd up enough to get 'em that early - sure don't want to hold 'em over 10 months before breeding 'em.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lucky_P, post: 1005285, member: 12607"] bcarty, We've been moving toward mostly Fall-calving for about 7 years - for the same reasons you stated - Fall-born calves are heavier when sold in June/July, and have benefitted from several months of optimal grazing, whereas the Spring-born calves, marketed in October, are a lot lighter; Less heat-stress trying to get cows bred in the fall than in June/July here - easier on the cow AND the inseminator or bull, too. Have managed to get 2/3 of the herd into the Fall group; mostly by holding late-born spring heifers and breeding at 17-18 months instead of 14-15, or by 'rolling' spring-calving 1st calvers to the Fall group, giving them a better shot at recovering and breeding back. Did it impact cash flow? Yeah, but we didn't do it all at one swell foop. But, now, the farm manager is looking at moving to June calving to diminish nutritional strain on the cows over winter(and smaller feed bills) - and I will admit that the few cows that we have that are way out of synch, calving in June, do have calves that are bigger(more than I can attribute to just being 3 months older), and come through the winter in better condition than those calving in Sept/Oct. It'll be easy to move the Spring herd to June calving, but will take years to back the Fall herd up enough to get 'em that early - sure don't want to hold 'em over 10 months before breeding 'em. [/QUOTE]
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