Young heifer bred

[tnwalkingred]

All,

I have a heifer that was born on 12/20/13 and weighs almost 800 pounds. When I had the vet out today to check the cows I had her check the heifers as well. Well turns out this heifer is 3 months bred. The vet said we could abort her but that she thought she was big enough to have the calf. I decided not to abort her and take a chance. What are your thoughts? She should weigh well over 1000 pounds before she calves and the vet said she has a big pelvis.

KW

 

[branguscowgirl]

That's young, but sounds good about her weight and pelvis size. I would have let her keep it also. Just feed her real well after she calves so that she can continue to grow well.

 

[Nesikep]

Ditto, I think she'll do fine with good food.. I found the "uh oh's" tend to have smaller calves anyhow, so I don't think she'll have a problem calving.

Don't know how feasible it is for you, but I'd let her raise the calf, wean it early, and then breed her back, if possible.. it would give her time to grow up a little before her second calf.

 

[inyati13]

So she was bred about July. That means she will be on good pasture the spring of 2015. If that occurred on my farm, I would be concerned about the rapid growth potential on those 2015 spring pastures. You might consider pulling her off those lush TN pastures in the last two months pre-partum.

My cows that calved this fall had much bigger calves than the bull I bred them to should have produced. The general comment I have gotten is that they were on very productive pasture pre-partum and that could have contributed to excess growth in vivo.

 

[bse]

What did the vet think? I would have aborted, that will have her calving at 16 months way to early for me. She may reach her potential but after that it could take a long time. To many unknowns, what bred her? The BW and things. I wouldnt take the chance.

After i wean mine now around 7 to 8 months they all get a shot of Lute to hopefully prvent that.

 

[Taurus]

Ditto, I think she'll do fine with good food.. I found the "uh oh's" tend to have smaller calves anyhow, so I don't think she'll have a problem calving.

Don't know how feasible it is for you, but I'd let her raise the calf, wean it early, and then breed her back, if possible.. it would give her time to grow up a little before her second calf.

I've had big calves out of uhohs before so its not always smaller calves. Or worse you will have no choice but have a vet out and do a c-section on her.

Unfortunately in many cases, the uhohs will not be your best cow in herd and they may be out of sync with the herd and they might miss a year without a calf which often happens.

 

[tnwalkingred]

I'm not exactly sure but I believe she must have been bred by my old herd bull who was a Simangus I bought with a group of cows earlier in the year. I don't really know anything about the bull as he was not registered and the man I bought him from had over 100 commercial cows running with 3 different bulls. Therefore he didn't know which calves were by which bull. I really hate it because she is by far my best commercial heifer. Her mother just had another heifer calf a few days ago which means she must have bred back very quickly. My uncle thinks she is older than the 12/20/13 date I was given when I bought the pair. I will say she is much bigger than all the other heifers born in that same time frame. She's not showing right now so I've also been told I should sell her before she does as she would bring pretty good money but I hate for my problem to be someone else's. I guess I'm just gonna bring her home a couple months before she calfs and not sleep every night until she does! Lol.

KW

 

[tnwalkingred]

And I too will now be giving a shot to all heifers at weaning just in case. Good advice BSE.

KW

 

[Taurus]

Personally I would just lute that heifer right now but its just me. Its not worth it.

 

[tnwalkingred]

My vet said it was too late to Lute her. Said we could abort her but not with Lute. Once we weighed her and saw how big she was we didn't talk any further about what she would use to abort the heifer.

KW

 

[Rafter S]

Since your vet said she thought the heifer was big enough, I'd go with that. I do agree with Nesikep about weaning her calf early. And look on the bright side; you know she's fertile.

 

[Nesikep]

It would be even better if you could find a wet cow to put the calf on, and not have the calf on her at all.. or the calf just having 2 mommas.

If she misses a year, it's no big deal because she's a year ahead now.. wean the calf at 5 months, breed her a couple months later and that ought to put her about on schedule again

We've had 3 uh oh's here, all of them had about 50 lb calves.. its a far cry from the 100 lb average from the rest of the herd.. all of them did fine on their own.

 

[MO_cows]

Her size already, and the vet's comment about the pelvis sounds like she should do all right. Don't let her lose condition over the winter, but don't overfeed her either. Just hold condition so she is healthy and strong, in good shape to calve and make some milk.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Kyle, I've had sevarel calve at 15 and 16 months over the years. Seemed like it made a few turn out to never be much of a cow, but the majority did ok. You bought the cows about the time she would have got bred didn't you? Was there not any bull calves her age or were they all steers? I can't remember.

 

[LimoX]

We have had this happen on occasion and I look at it like this. IF she has the calf with no problems at least for us they make pretty good cows.

 

[Galloways1]

We started giving Lute shots to all heifers, just incase. Even with that, this year we had two calve at 16-17 months. Both had no issues, were good mothers, and have been cycling again. If your vet thinks she has room and is big enough, leave her be.

 

[tnwalkingred]

Denver,

I bought this group of cows in the middle of May and she must have gotten bred late July or early August. There was only one bull calf in the group that missed. I'm pretty sure the big SimAngus herd bull bred her. I need to take a load to the vet for some foot/horn trimming so I think I will take her too and have her ultrasounded to get a more definitive date. I may also have them do an actual pelvic measurement. The vet that was out this past Friday was going on pure feeling. If she wasn't the best heifer out of my best cow it would make it a much easier decision.

KW

 

[msscamp]

All,

I have a heifer that was born on 12/20/13 and weighs almost 800 pounds. When I had the vet out today to check the cows I had her check the heifers as well. Well turns out this heifer is 3 months bred. The vet said we could abort her but that she thought she was big enough to have the calf. I decided not to abort her and take a chance. What are your thoughts? She should weigh well over 1000 pounds before she calves and the vet said she has a big pelvis.

KW

It can be done. Keep a close eye on her, pen her when she is getting ready to calve, and be prepared to help deliver the calf if necessary. Other than that, the biggest issue is that it's going to take a lot of feed for her to support her calf and still keep developing. We had 2 heifers deliver at right around a year old several years ago. We supplemented the calves with a bottle or two a day, and set up a creep feeder so the calves could get to the feed/hay, but the heifers couldn't.