Calf Watch...Guess with me....

[greybeard]

Heifer or bull?? I always figure, thumb rule or not, got a 50/50 chance of being right no matter what...same odds as winning the lotto. ya either gonna win............ or ya ain't.

 

[farmerjan]

Heifer or bull?? I always figure, thumb rule or not, got a 50/50 chance of being right no matter what...same odds as winning the lotto. ya either gonna win............ or ya ain't.

Unless you use sexed semen then it's supposed to be 85-90 % chance of a heifer....that's unless you have a murphy's law jinx and get the 10% chance of a bull calf each time like me hahaha

 

[greybeard]

I use a bull.
This year, I had 2 heifers out of 15 calves, the rest were bull calves, but most years it's been pretty much 50/50 on both the Chars and the beefmasters.

 

[farmerjan]

@cjc No baby yet???????? Surely thought she would've had it by today.

 

[Heather]

I have an old Angus cow who late April the vet said was 6 months. She is in a birthing lot and has been for the last month or so. No calf. Lol, he came and palpated a three year old Angus in June who didn't take the first time. He found her to be 5 months. Well, Sunday she laid down and had a nice registered black Angus bull calf who will probably turn into my son's 4h calf. With that being said, from now on all I want to know is pregnant or not. I enjoy the guessing and "lady part"watch with my kids. Sometimes we even get lucky enough to watch the birth.

 

[Heather]

Good luck, we recently purchased 3 Jersey heifers. Two have been confirmed pregnant and one was just turn with the bull a month ago but quickly was holding her tail to the side. The prettiest heifer is making a nice sack already. After 30+ yrs old beef cattle we are going to give milking these three a try.

 

[farmerjan]

I use a bull.
This year, I had 2 heifers out of 15 calves, the rest were bull calves, but most years it's been pretty much 50/50 on both the Chars and the beefmasters.

We would give our eyeteeth to have a bull throwing 75%+ bull calves, but realistically we run 60% heifers most years. Had one bull throwing 75% heifers consistently and they were all pretty nice. Then had another that was more like 60% bull calves. I find it runs in cow families. Had one cow, one of my first "beef" cows that was a baby from the stockyards fostered on a dairy cow; char/angus/her/hol who knows cross...Smokey had 4 heifers straight, then a bull then 3 heifers, then a bull, 2 heifers then a bull last. Her daughters had 3 out of 4 heifers too. Kept alot of them when we were first getting started, still have granddaughters and g-granddaughters. One, black smoke, is due any day; that was smokey, sandy, smoke,black smoke. Then there's smokey, sandy, smoke, surprise. Still have smoke, surprise,black smoke. Most all smokey's daughters had names not numbers, and I got more picky over the years which ones I kept. I buried smokey, she deserved to not go on a truck to slaughter.

 

[farmerjan]

Good luck, we recently purchased 3 Jersey heifers. Two have been confirmed pregnant and one was just turn with the bull a month ago but quickly was holding her tail to the side. The prettiest heifer is making a nice sack already. After 30+ yrs old beef cattle we are going to give milking these three a try.

GOD BLESS YOU. 3 jersey heifers all at once???? I only started with one, it was all my arms and hands could take to milk one for the first 2 weeks. At least they won't all be coming in fresh at once. I built up to 4 twice a day, and the last of the 4 we named patience as she was so patient with me when I was getting acclimated to 4 after having 2. It took awhile for me to be able to milk her without taking a couple of "oh my hands are dying here" breaks !!!!! Why did you decide to go to dairy after beef?? Most everyone goes the other way after being tied down so much? Of course if you use them as nurse cows too, you will be able to be away more easily and the milking will be more flexible, but getting calves grafted on to nurse cows can be trying. If you had beef and ever had one lose a calf and put another one on them then you know. Love my dairy cows even with being tied to milking .

 

[cjc]

Ok so we had a slight change of plans haha. I bought this heifer off my neighbor, super nice man raises fantastic cows but he made a boo boo. Turns out her due date is actually September 20th! I thought it was 3 weeks ago, so that explains that. He got the AI papers mixed up. He said he was so worried she hadn't calved yet so he went back to look and found his error, oh well! I will continue to wait impatiently .

Over the past few days though her bag has really changed. It's MASSIVE! This is my first dairy cow and seriously I cannot believe how big her udder has gotten the past two days. Her teats have also gotten a lot wider. I think she is going to end up one hell of a nurse cow for me!

I am really really praying for a heifer from both my girls this year! I got two bull calves this year, no heifers. I haven't had a heifer born on the farm in 2 years. I would love a heifer for my jersey, then there would be no questioning if I would keep her calf and I would love to raise her daughter to be a nurse cow. For my shorthorn I NEED a heifer from her. I need to raise a shorthorn replacement heifer, well don't need but it sure would be nice! I swore I would stay away from Angus and now I have 8 Angus calves...

I spoke to the vet about sexed semen for my Jersey and I think I will look at that next year. He did warn me that sexed semen isn't as reliable as the sperm get damaged but he said its more likely to work in heifers and second time calvers, which she would be. If I don't do that I am going to bred her to an easy calving Angus. If it's a beef cross cow I will have more use for it if I end up with a bull calf.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Fingers crossed for heifer calves