Thick steers and Narrow heifers ?

[Stocker Steve]

I have been using thicker bulls and the steer calves show it. This year the steers all sold as one group. The heifers are more variable. About 15% are noticeably narrower than their half sisters and light boned. Is this common female problem ? Any tips to get more consistent heifers ?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Occasionally, you will find a bull that gives great males and poor females or opposite - great females & poor males. Not sure why that happens. But, it sounds like you are talking multiple bulls giving you lower quality heifers. Might just be the flip of a coin sorta genetics. You lucked out getting all good steers. In my case, I would want the poorer steers & better heifers - LOL. Heifers are my money makes - not bulls or steers. They are just my "cash flow" - which is highly needed!!!

 

[Stocker Steve]

I have three "cow maker" bulls with similar bloodlines. Together they threw 56% males last year. Very nice steers, but I wanted heifers...

I will check, but I think most of the narrow heifers came from one bull.

 

[Stickney94]

SS
A couple years ago my replacement heifer options were fairly limited due to a large bull/steer calf crop. One heifer was kept completely based on her mother's performance. She was small and narrow and frankly not impressive. I wondered why I decided to breed her.

She stuck AI first time. Raised a decent calf. Rebred 2nd year and raised the third largest calf in the herd (good mother/good udder). Now she is one of the nicest looking females out there.

Incidentally, the other heifers I selected that year failed to stick AI (2 and 3 attempts) and ended up back in the slaughter pen. But boy did they look nice! (tasted even better).

 

[Stocker Steve]

She stuck AI first time. Raised a decent calf. Rebred 2nd year and raised the third largest calf in the herd (good mother/good udder). Now she is one of the nicest looking females out there.

So she matured later?

 

[Stickney94]

So she matured later?

Great question. Define "maturing".

Clearly she was sexually "mature." But she definitely grew/matured physically after her first calf. She is now actually slightly larger framed than her mother. I would not have predicted that as a yearling.

Your question though is one I've wondered about with many breeders posting huge weaning and yearling weights and sizes and whether that quick growth, or rather expectation of quick growth, has downsides.

 

[TCRanch]

Great question. Define "maturing".

Clearly she was sexually "mature." But she definitely grew/matured physically after her first calf. She is now actually slightly larger framed than her mother. I would not have predicted that as a yearling.

Your question though is one I've wondered about with many breeders posting huge weaning and yearling weights and sizes and whether that quick growth, or rather expectation of quick growth, has downsides.

In the pic, clearly one of these things is not like the others. Rejected, twin/subsequent bottle calf and probably a good 6-7 weeks younger. Shockingly, she grew enough and scored a 148 pelvic measurement at 11 months - but still the dink of the replacement heifers that year. Not now! By the time she was 3, she was still finer boned but considerably taller than her "crew" (and her dam) and consistently raises a huge calf (currently bred with #7).

 

[Stocker Steve]

Your question though is one I've wondered about with many breeders posting huge weaning and yearling weights and sizes and whether that quick growth, or rather expectation of quick growth, has downsides.

I see a couple things:

Some calves come off of less than average milking cows and really blossom a month or so after weaning.
Other calves come from slow maturing genetics and keep growing/maturing until they are several years old.
It seems like culling is a continuous process.

Last year I sorted my heifer pen three times over a two month period and then quit so I still had some left... The current advise is to minimize culling until preg check, so the bull makes most of the decisions on who looks good enough to breed.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I've wondered about with many breeders posting huge weaning and yearling weights and sizes and whether that quick growth, or rather expectation of quick growth, has downsides.

Yes.
I bought some of those females and they did not last for long in my set up.