# Age



## kstaven (Jan 22, 2009)

Here is one for all you old pros out there. What is the youngest bull you have ever seen successfully breed a cow?


Had to ask because of a conversation I was involved in with a couple old dairymen to other day.


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## Farmer Kitty (Jan 22, 2009)

We buy any bulls we use and generally look for 8 month olds as they are going out with heifers. So 8 months would be the youngest here.


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## jhm47 (Jan 22, 2009)

The Angus that I have seen generally are fertile at a younger age.  My Simmentals are usually at least a year.  Don't know much about other breeds.


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## wynedot55 (Jan 22, 2009)

you hitt some bull calves that can breed cows at 6 months.but thats very rare.most times they are ready to breed cows at 16 months old.


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## Farmer Kitty (Jan 22, 2009)

We've never had trouble with the 8 month old holsteins but, as I said we turn them out with the heifers so size is more equal. We have had bulls breed cows at a younger age than 16 months and we don't keep a bull once it reaches 2 years.


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## wynedot55 (Jan 22, 2009)

kitty i raised a high powered well bred hol bull years ago.turned him with the milk cows at 16 months.an by the time his calves started hitting the ground he was a cow killer.his bull calves would weigh well over 100lbs at birth.we had to pull alot of calves.an get the cows up fast.that sorry devil killed 10 or 12 cows calving.


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## kstaven (Jan 23, 2009)

I just had to ask for reference. Some oldtimers tend to stretch things at times and when I hear guys talking about bulls breeding at well under 6 months you really wonder if anyone else has experienced this. we have had jersey bulls breed at 9 months and that is the youngest I have ever personally experienced.


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## wynedot55 (Jan 23, 2009)

sometimes heifers will super mature tween 4 an 6 months old an get bred then.an calve at 13 to 15 months.calving that young is usually a big trainwreck.but you deal with it an go on.sometimes you might lose 1 or both at calving.


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## Farmer Kitty (Jan 23, 2009)

wynedot55 said:
			
		

> sometimes heifers will super mature tween 4 an 6 months old an get bred then.an calve at 13 to 15 months.calving that young is usually a big trainwreck.but you deal with it an go on.sometimes you might lose 1 or both at calving.


????? I believe he is talking about the bulls breeding at 6 months or younger.


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## wynedot55 (Jan 23, 2009)

yes an i put a new old twist of info about the heifer calves as well in the mix.


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## Imissmygirls (Feb 5, 2009)

We had a 9 month old Jersey heifer jump the fence into the holstein bull running with the cows. Found out why she jumped the fence when we had her checked to see why she wasn't cycling! When the time came, we were all prepared for a c-section but out came a natural birth petite heifer! Unfortunately, mama didn't produce up to snuff for a commercial herd(gee, wonder why), so she found a good home as an Amish family cow. Hope she had a good life


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 5, 2009)

OUCH!!!!


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## wynedot55 (Feb 5, 2009)

things like that happen.you was lucky that she had the calf on her own.


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## Imissmygirls (Feb 6, 2009)

Feeling at the time (after the birth)was that the dam's breed genetics must have overcome the holstein genetics size in the calf. Jerseys generally don't need assistance calving--although I've been known to help- just because!


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## wynedot55 (Feb 7, 2009)

well jerseys are known as heifer bulls.


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 7, 2009)

Imissmygirls said:
			
		

> Feeling at the time (after the birth)was that the dam's breed genetics must have overcome the holstein genetics size in the calf. Jerseys generally don't need assistance calving--although I've been known to help- just because!


I'm glad you said generally. We had one we had to work really hard to get the calf everytime. But, she was the only one the rest calved easily.


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## kstaven (Feb 8, 2009)

Jerseys tend to be relatively problem free with calving. One thing I have noted is that the calves do not have the fight to survive in the cold that other breeds do.


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## Imissmygirls (Feb 12, 2009)

Not much reserve in a Jersey calf. They are skin and bones and 60 lbs if they are big.  You can overfeed them easily at first.
Especially in winter we would feed smaller amounts 3-4 times a day to keep them growing in cold weather.
Around here, you can't GIVE the jersey bulls away. DD #3 is in the market for a nice show calf for her niece. All our show herd died off-- last beautiful heifer got into a tiny space in the local freestall barn and hung herself; even the young bull we tried to keep to keep the bloodline got into the bathtub waterer in the pasture and killed himself. How? How does a critter get INTO these things?


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 13, 2009)

Imissmygirls said:
			
		

> How? How does a critter get INTO these things?


Good question! 

I was pregnant with Kute Kitten and having some bleeding so I was suppose to take it easy. I went out just to look at the animals and found a 750-800 pound holstein heifer in a water tub! I had to go get the skid steer to dump her out.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 13, 2009)

cows calves an heifers can die in strange ways.an sometimes you can get to them in time.


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## Thewife (Feb 13, 2009)

I found my sisters show Jersey, upside down wrapped in barbed wire? She had climbed up a hillside, that all the other cows had never bothered to climb. It looked like she just rolled back down, bring an old fence with her!  

We got her rolled over and held her up until she deflated, she was fine! She was the great grandma to the one I lost yesterday.


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## m.holloway (Feb 13, 2009)

ok these stories i'm not to sure of. i only have 2 cows, please tell me these are just weird things that happen every blue moon.


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 13, 2009)

They are the odd things that cattle do--not the everyday normal stuff. The problem is you never know when or which ones will pull something like these stories.


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## Imissmygirls (Feb 13, 2009)

sure you do, Miss Kitty... it will be your favorite critter!
Murphy's Law of farming.  
What makes farmers so special is that they still keep on doing it!


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## wynedot55 (Feb 13, 2009)

ill die a cattlemen.an when i go i hope its out in the pasture with the cows.


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 13, 2009)

Imissmygirls said:
			
		

> sure you do, Miss Kitty... it will be your favorite critter!
> Murphy's Law of farming.
> What makes farmers so special is that they still keep on doing it!
> 
> http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/uploads/153_cowshirt.jpg


Not always. The one in the water tub wasn't.


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