Dexter Heifer

[cjc]

I had a very similar situation to you a few months back. My Jersey x Angus (I believe that's what she is) was with a bull from 12 months to about 20 months. I wasn't sure if she was pregnant. About 2 months before she calved her udder really started to show, not full but I could see the teats which before I couldn't. Everyone told me she was months away from calving as her bag wasn't full. 2 weeks after I posted these pictures below she calved. Her bag filled days before but it didn't fully fill until a day after the calf was born.

I now have a Jersey Heifer that is about to calf that has a had a big bag for about 2 months. She is vet checked estimated to calf in the next day or two. Now this is a milking breed so her bag is much bigger but this is what her back end looked like the other day:

Hope that helps.

 

[farmerjan]

Most beef breeds will show a little udder ahead of time but not really bag up until fairly close to calving; a couple days to 2 weeks. The dairy breeds usually start to udder a bit at 7 months and sometimes have alot of edema for a couple of weeks before. It doesn't happen more with some grain feeding or not. It's more the individual animal. They like to keep us guessing if we don't know the actual breeding date!!!! When calving out our first calf heifers, I check daily and will see a little bag then a couple days they will get filled out and loose around the vulva and it's usually 12-24 hours til a calf....