When do you calve heifers out?

[novaman]

I started punching numbers on the calculator just to see what I would find and it seems the numbers back up the calving at 2 years of age. Consider this: BW=85lbs Age at breeding to calve at 24 months=15 months Breeding at 75% of mature weight (assuming 1250 lb. mature weight and using a high percentage just for demonstration purposes)=940 lbs. So if we subtract the BW from the breeding weight the heifer needs to gain 855 lbs. in 15 months in order to be where we want her to be when we first breed her. If we say 15 months = 450 days that heifer would have an ADG of 1.9 lbs. If there is anybody who feels this sort of gain is unobtainable than by all means disregard this post. I, for one, think 1.9 lbs. is very easily achievable without having to push very hard. The economics of letting a heifer go open longer is only going to cost more. I have always calved at 24 months on the beef herd and they grow up fine, raise wonderful calves as first-calvers, and have longevity (many lasting to 10+ years of age).

 

[dun]

The only reason I could see in waiting till after 24 months would be slow maturing cattle breeds. For those I would probably breed to calve at 30 months. Just a thought

 

[ANAZAZI]

They would have to be dam slow not to cykle at 15 months.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I read somewhere that a hfr that calves before 30 months will have an easier time something about the pelvis will become solid after 30 months and therefore won't stretch as it does in a hfr that calves earlier
I beleive Idaman made some comments on this on an earlier thread
but then again I may be mistaken

 

[Flacowman]

I guess I should have also clarified that these heifers have never seen any feed except for Pre-con for a month during weaning. They were an experiment that the breeder tried and he says that grazing them the extra year and not having any feed costs seems to be working and he'll try it another year or two.

 

[dun]

I guess I should have also clarified that these heifers have never seen any feed except for Pre-con for a month during weaning. They were an experiment that the breeder tried and he says that grazing them the extra year and not having any feed costs seems to be working and he'll try it another year or two.

Some on pays the taxes on the land and it woudln;t be used for anything else? That would be the only way there isn;t any feed costs.

 

[Flacowman]

poorly worded I guess, but he claims that he is making $200 more per heifer when he sells them bred that way. It's a long turnaround time and I highly doubt I'll follow his example but if it works for him then more power to him i guess.

 

[dun]

Not bad, 200 more for 400 in feed. Sounds like a plan

 

[Fraser]

This year, I have decided not to keep any replacement heifers. Rather I have already pregged my spring herd and sold the open cows, and I am selling all of my heifer calves and am going to buy some registered bred heifers back from a very reputable source.

 

[novaman]

poorly worded I guess, but he claims that he is making $200 more per heifer when he sells them bred that way. It's a long turnaround time and I highly doubt I'll follow his example but if it works for him then more power to him i guess.

It seems far too many look at the income but not the expense of carrying that heifer for a longer period of time. I don't care if you have her in a feedlot on full feed or out in a 2000 acre pasture, it still costs money each and every day she is on your place. Every animal costs so much per day every single day they are on your place. I think there is opportunity to get greater profits by concentrating more on getting heifers pregnant sooner. The earlier you get a calf the quicker you start to realize ROI.

 

[Aaron]

I guess I should have also clarified that these heifers have never seen any feed except for Pre-con for a month during weaning. They were an experiment that the breeder tried and he says that grazing them the extra year and not having any feed costs seems to be working and he'll try it another year or two.

Smart man, looking outside the box.

Just remember: Everybody thinks that everyone else has a balance book that is identical to there own. I think it helps some ease their own mental anguish of their financial situation.

We have calved at 3. Nice cows. Long-lasting. But excess fat depositing in places you don't want it, can make for occasional problems on that first calf.

We have calved at 2. And we also had to feed them, like most do, to breed, calve, and then re-breed. Lots of work and more outlay of cash before a calf hit the ground.

Now we calve at 2 & 1/2. Run a spring and fall herd. Absolutely love it.
- No fancy, high-quality, backgrounding feeding protocol.
- No worries about dystocia (can breed to performance, moderate birthweight bulls, and get 90 to 100 lb calves out of them with no pulling).
- No need to separate heifers from cows and feed differently.
- No need to separate breeding dates (calving heifers earlier so they fall in with the cows when they rebreed).
- No need to run a long breeding season to catch all the first calf cows (many do for that very reason).

- I can wean the 2010 spring heifer calves, feed them mixed hay and cheap oats for 6 months (at a cost of about $120), pasture over the summer of 2011, breed along with the cows in the fall of 2011 over 30-35 days, winter with the cows, pasture in the summer of 2012, and calve out in fall of 2012.

Most important thing to do is keep a tight breeding season, cull hard, and treat them like cows. You'll end up with heifers/cows that are about as self-sufficient as you can get.

Most the neighbors currently bank on $1000 to get a heifer to her first calf at 24 months.

My numbers a year ago said $823 to get to first calf at 28-30 months.

Some of the dual-season calving neighbors are starting to switch over to my method and can't believe they didn't do it sooner.

 

[plumber_greg]

I know some that do that, Aaron, but ain't you gonna' eventually run out of spring calvers? Still gotta' keep some to replace the old cows. gs

 

[dun]

We do it even simpler. Heifers are weaned for 45 days along with the steers. The heifers we are retaining gert turned out with the cow herd and stay there the rest of their lives. Same grass (hay in thew winter) as the cows, and breed right along with the cow herd. We kept one fall calved heifer and decided to breed her for spring. She went down the road a month ago. 2 AIs and 3 services from the bull was enough for me. She wasn;t fat but I don;t want to wait another 6 months to find out if there is a problem. Too cheap I guess.

 

[ANAZAZI]

I know some that do that, Aaron, but ain't you gonna' eventually run out of spring calvers? Still gotta' keep some to replace the old cows. gs

From what I understood, the process of getting spring calvers should be to take fall bornheifer calves and wait for 2 and a half year.

 

[Aaron]

I know some that do that, Aaron, but ain't you gonna' eventually run out of spring calvers? Still gotta' keep some to replace the old cows. gs

From what I understood, the process of getting spring calvers should be to take fall bornheifer calves and wait for 2 and a half year.

Exactly. :cowboy:

 

[plumber_greg]

I knew that too, but aren't your expenses higher than saving spring calves to calve in the fall? What's your cost for that? gs

 

[Aaron]

I knew that too, but aren't your expenses higher than saving spring calves to calve in the fall? What's your cost for that? gs

The only glaring expense, would be the need to feed hay during the lactation of the mother cow. Which would increase the value of the fall calf by about $90.00-120.00 and result in an overall value at first lactation of $943.00. Still more economical than the 2 year old approach.

On the flip side, with fall calves, I avoid the usual spring calf expense of backgrounding costs ($120.00) by making them eat with the cows during their 2nd winter (prior to being bred the following spring/summer). So they cancel each other out and make fall-born heifers as competitive to raise as spring-born ones.

 

[novaman]

$943.00. Still more economical than the 2 year old approach.

I'm curious what the difference in that figure would be from 2 years to 2 1/2 years. I'm not quite following your logic with the extended growing period being more economical. I raise all my heifers on forage with the exception of a few pounds of grain through the winter simply to get them used to people. Do you feel heifers need to be pushed too hard to calve at 2?

 

[Aaron]

$943.00. Still more economical than the 2 year old approach.

I'm curious what the difference in that figure would be from 2 years to 2 1/2 years. I'm not quite following your logic with the extended growing period being more economical. I raise all my heifers on forage with the exception of a few pounds of grain through the winter simply to get them used to people. Do you feel heifers need to be pushed too hard to calve at 2?

In the past, we had to feed heifers to a higher standard than that of anything else, in order to be ready for breeding at 13 to 14 months and to rebreed for the same time the following year, without losing ground on the first calving date, or worse yet, coming open. That all costs money.

Some producers tell me it costs $200, some say more. One producer wants his March-April heifers to be 900 to 1000 lbs at breeding in June. To do this, he starts feeding barley and a high protein ration to his heifers in early January, until breeding time, in addition to feeding high quality 2nd crop hay. He estimates the 7 month backgrounding cost for his heifers at a minimum of $300.00, starting off with a 500 to 600 lb heifer calf in the fall. I can do it for less than half that, but it takes me an extra 6 months to achieve using summer grass.

 

[Stocker Steve]

When I ran stocker heifers I tried this approach: I bought 3 wt. calves in November, retained the best shiny ones the following August, and bred them for May calving. So they were less than two year old when they calved. I didn't see any problems the first year. Ended up with some very productive 1000 to 1100# spring second calvers, as well as a few late second calvers...