weaning bulls and hiefers together.

[hersh]

OK, I have three calves, 1 hiefer 2 bulls, all at 6 months. Last weekend we vac and sepparated from herd. I have one lot to wean in and since I have only one hiefer I took this as an opportunity to add another cow to herd so I bought a hiefer that is at 1 year old to stay with the heifer after I separrate from the bulls. I am building another lot next to the one I have and have two major questions.. How long do I have to get these heifers away from bulls and would it be a big no no to build a lot for weaning bulls and hiefers next to each other, sharing a fence. My three are all reg char calves and I got this new heifer from the same breeder/neighbor I got all my others and at 6 months my three are as big as the 1 year old. neighbor said it was cause mine 'have a good home' and eat alfalfa and sweet feed.

I also want to take a quick moment and thank you all, you guys/gals have been a wealth of info and its appreciated. :tiphat:

 

[Bez+]

OK, I have three calves, 1 hiefer 2 bulls, all at 6 months. Last weekend we vac and sepparated from herd. I have one lot to wean in and since I have only one hiefer I took this as an opportunity to add another cow to herd so I bought a hiefer that is at 1 year old to stay with the heifer after I separrate from the bulls. I am building another lot next to the one I have and have two major questions.. How long do I have to get these heifers away from bulls and would it be a big no no to build a lot for weaning bulls and hiefers next to each other, sharing a fence. My three are all reg char calves and I got this new heifer from the same breeder/neighbor I got all my others and at 6 months my three are as big as the 1 year old. neighbor said it was cause mine 'have a good home' and eat alfalfa and sweet feed.

I also want to take a quick moment and thank you all, you guys/gals have been a wealth of info and its appreciated. :tiphat:

You got very little time to do one of two things.

Cut the nuts out of the boys - or separate the boys from the girls.

Age is not really as important as size - heifers cycle at the darndest of times and the boys will be boys.

You can wean side by side if you build strong enough - solid sides and high - which you should do anyways - you will always find a need for an extra pen pen.

Bez+

 

[Nesikep]

Agreed, there's no such thing as too many enclosures, or too strong built ones

also agreed on cycling at the darndest of times... we had a surprise one year (we breed at 2 years old(or try to I should say)) when we went to our corral since there was a lot of mooing coming from it, and a 16 month old heifer had had a calf (bred at 7 months).. needless to say that one never grew, but that heifer was bred again the following year, and still the calf was small, but she hasn't given us an ounce of trouble, and as long as she performs and has a calf every year, we'll put up with her...

 

[redcowsrule33]

Honestly, not much time. If you are planning to steer them do it now, they can breed up to 6 weeks after castration even if you cut them. If you are keepeing both as bulls, do it soon. The best way for heifers to get bred is if you don't want them to. You may have a little time as continenetals tend to hit puberty later than british breeds but if you grow them out as well as you say I would be careful. I have a friend that raises Normandes and he routinely give Lutalyse shots to his heifers at weaning because he has had some bred in the past by then.

Our weaned bulls and heifers share a fenceline but it is a 6' fence made of 6x6 posts and 2x6 boards with a hot wire over the top. It's better to have 2 such fences if you can get away with it. 2 miles is even better if they're aggressive enough.

As a breeder ask yourself if both bulls are worth keeping intact. Starting out I have kept some I wish I wouldn't have in retrospect (and still do occasionally). We are not keeping any this year (small herd) mostly due to high birthweights. One kills me to steer him but he was over my personal limit of 105#. Quite honestly I am looking forward to one pen full of heifers and steers for the winter. It will seem like vacation. Now if I could get the same prices this spring as last year it'll end up being an *^!@$ holiday. :lol:

 

[SF]

You've been given great advice hersh. Separate them now. Heifers may begin cycling as early as 7 or 8 months. I've heard of some cycling sooner, most a little later around 10 months.

If the bulls are not for breeding then steer them NOW. There is not any reason to wait. Bulls are nothing but a pain in the ?ss anyway. Just a necessary evil in the cattle business.

You will never have too many corrals. Build all you can. Build em sturdy. Solid sides work best for bulls.

Good luck

 

[SRBeef]

You can wean side by side if you build strong enough - solid sides and high - which you should do anyways - you will always find a need for an extra pen pen.

Bez+

I think it was Angie that suggested to me to run two very hot wires on the weaning fence. This has worked well. I'd run two very hot wires on the bull or calf side, one at nose height one about a foot higher.

This is if you can't build a solid, high fence this time of year. Good Luck.

 

[grubbie]

Take the advice, cut the boys and cut them now. If the fence isn't some sort of corral fence, you are gonna play heck keeping them apart. If,....... sorry,..... when the heifers cycle, wire will NOT hold the bulls back.

 

[RanchManager]

We raise quite a few bulls to supply regular clientele. All pairs (cows with steer calves; we band at birth, cows with bull calves, cows with heifer calves) are together (within their breeding group: A.I., Bull x, Bull y, etc.). At five months age ( usually Aug 1 for us) we go through each pasture and pull out the pairs with bull calves. All cows with bull calves at their side get their own pasture far away from the other pairs. Just to be safe we give a shot of prostiglandin (Lutylase) to the heifer calves at weaning time (6 - 6.5 months of age). This insures that if they did get bred, they will abort. We have a fertile herd and it seems every year we chose to forgo the Lutylase, we wind up with a teenage pregnancy or two ( we run hundreds of cows; about 1/4 of 1 % gets bred by the time we pull the bull calf pairs by an average age of 5 Mo. (It's usually the earlier calved, 6 month old heifers that get knocked up).

A heifer that calves as a one year old will never catch up and will produce small calves for 3 - 4 seasons to come. Basically, she gets so far behind as to never be profitable over her life time. If you keep strict records and are honest with yourself you will find this to be true.

 

[hersh]

This is semi good news. I talked to the vet, the one that everyone recommends as the areas best large animal vet, and he said we have a six week window to inject the lutylase. So, the calves are due for booster in five weeks and I originally called on him to schedule to dehorn one of the bull calves at this time and this will work out fine. I will have the new pen ready by then for separation. I am keeping both bulls to sell as breeding stock and keeping both heifers.