13 month old heifer no heat signs yet...

[PattySh]

Haven't seen any signs of heat yet in my Jersey/Holstein heifer who was a year old Nov 14. We are in VT and in winter weather now. Wondering if she will wait til spring as she was a fall baby. Or am I totally off and she should cycle anytime now. I have a steer in with her that was born in May so I am assuming he will try to ride her etc as well. I had the vet due an internal and all her parts are there, not a freemartin. I want to have her artificially inseminated sometime in the near future.

 

[jhm47]

Heifers are sometimes very difficult to detect when they are in heat. However, the steer should be at least trying to ride her when she cycles. I would put an Estrotect patch on her, and if the steer rides her during the time that you are not watching, the patch will notify you. The vet should have some for you to purchase. I have them for around $1.50 each. We use them all the time on our heifers during breeding season.

 

[goodhors]

Not sure on your area, but are you selenium deficient? Oddly enough, selenium is one of those minerals that do a multitude of things inside the animals. Reproduction is one of them, muscle fitness is another. Not even close by my thinking, but not having enough selenium and Vit E, can affect both areas.

Heifer probably is not EVER going to get enough by licking a mineral block, quantities are too small in the block. Buying a sack of "cow vitamins" and giving her a serving daily, will insure she has the correct amount.

Some feeds have it mixed in, but you have to feed certain poundage daily, to get enough. Heifer may not need that much feed. I have found it easier to just add the vitamins to each cow's feed to make sure she has what she is supposed to get. We only had a couple, so no problem.

Another interesting thing with the vitimins, was that after my heifer got hers for a couple months all her warts fell off! Someone had told me that when cattle had enough correct vitamins and minerals the warts would go away. That remark is one of the reasons I got the vitamins. Took about 6 months for my heifer to lose the warts. And they were MANY and some HUGE ones on her face, beside her eyes. The other calf didn't get any warts from her, pastured together. So evidently he was not a good wart host, with his balanced diet. I know we are selenium poor, have to supplement the horses and lambs, so I was sure the cattle needed extra as well.

Certainly a fairly cheap solution. Not expensive for a bag of vitamins and the selenium/Vit E stuff, you only feed a little. You could do a blood test like the horse folks, if you want to spend the money. Test was how we found out our horses were so deficient in Selenium, sore and easily tired in work.

Hope the fix is that easy for you, gets your heifer cycling regularly. Not sure if daylight length would affect her too. Horses come in season with longer daylight hours heading towards spring.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

The other possibility is that she could be one that will reach puberty a little later than you had hoped. She may not start showing signs of estrus until she's 15 months old.

But like JHM said, it could be that she is silent about her heat, or, like GH mentioned, deficient in minerals like Selenium, Copper, Iodine and Manganese (all these minerals mentioned are very important in reproductive health of cattle).

 

[PattySh]

Thanks for the advice. Tinkerbelle is a bit small for her age so maybe that is the reason. I will ask about minerals at the feed store and also about "heat patches", Didn't realize they would work with the steer. Probably not a bad idea to wait until she is a bit older anyway.