What age to breed heifers ?

[Mike Fronczak]

We had two heifer calves this spring/early summer, they are an angus/highland cross. At what point do I need to be careful, seperate them from the bull, etc. Our other cattle are all pure Highland & we keep our bull in with most of the time. These will be the first of the calves born here to be bred here, I don't want to have the be bred to young & have issues birthing.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Typically and usually the best age to breed them is around 15 months of age. They may need to be separated when the bull starts getting a little too interested in them, which will be a sign that they're starting to go into heat. Or, you can separate them when they get around 9 to 10 months of age.

 

[greybeard]

Depends on lots of things, not the least of which is historic birthweights within your herd. How big are the calves from your bull? How much did these heifers weigh at birth? Frame size? Pelvic measurement? More things to consider than just a simple age or weight--there's no "one-fits-all" answer.

But yes, a good rule of thumb is 14-15 months for breeding if the subsequent calving times suit you.

 

[Mike Fronczak]

Depends on lots of things, not the least of which is historic birthweights within your herd. How big are the calves from your bull? How much did these heifers weigh at birth? Frame size? Pelvic measurement? More things to consider than just a simple age or weight--there's no "one-fits-all" answer.

But yes, a good rule of thumb is 14-15 months for breeding if the subsequent calving times suit you.

My bull is a new bull, so no prior birth weights. These two heifers are a cross between Highland & Angus, out of Highland cows with no issues (none were first calves either), From the angus side I have no clue. My bull is a Highland, he is on the smaller size, but still growing too. The heifers are growing out quick, one was born on April 28, other on July 2, the first one is probably in the 400 lb range now, second I would guess about 200 lbs these are weights now & just educated guesses. So if for ease I call them born in June that would put me at next September or so, and seperate at May or so.

 

[jhm47]

FYI: I know nothing about Highlands or Highland X's, but I do know a lot about Angus. Angus are typically very early to reach puberty. I'd separate them at the 7 - 8 month age. They will need to be weaned about that time anyway. We wean our Sim X Angus calves around 7 months, and even then we occasionally get a bred heifer. We usually abort them as soon as we see that they are bred, but every once in awhile we have one that slips by. The outcome is not usually good, as we often lose the calf, and sometimes the heifer. Even if both survive, we are left with a heifer that doesn't develop as well. They are always much smaller than their herdmates.

That being said, we have discovered that those heifers that reach puberty the earliest are usually the most fertile ones, and they will usually develop into our best cows.

Got all but a handful of our cattle home last week, and now need to get the calves weaned and worked. Luckily, we can run the cows on stalks for a month or more. We were blessed with adequate rain to get us an excellent crop, and our corn is running in the 170 - 200 bu/acre range. Our local elevator took in $2.8 million in corn just last Monday. We have been ble$$ed in this area!

 

[greybeard]

That's really good to hear about your corn and rainfall JHM47. That sure by a mile beats the reports I saw earlier in the year from Ill/Ind/Iowa. Do you bale or silage any of the stalks? (I admittedly don't know squat about corn stalks)

 

[Symphony]

That's really good to hear about your corn and rainfall JHM47. That sure by a mile beats the reports I saw earlier in the year from Ill/Ind/Iowa. Do you bale or silage any of the stalks? (I admittedly don't know squat about corn stalks)

Lots of farmers bale their stalks and feed them to their cattle over winter. Its very common in Iowa but Horses don't get much out of them.

 

[jhm47]

Corn stalks are a great bedding for our cows. They also pick through them and eat quite a bit of the husks, leaves and cobs. They occasionally even find a full ear of corn. We like to let the cows roam through the cornfields after harvest and clean up any ears that might have fallen off during harvest. I use an electric fence (single wire with fiberglass posts) to keep them in.

I also like to use the byproducts from our local ethanol plant. It is tremendous feed, and even better than shelled corn. The cattle love the taste, and do very well on it. I will need to buy quite a bit of it to supplement the poor quality hay that I put up this year. The byproducts contain 3X as much protein and fat than shelled corn, so we don't need to use nearly as much of it. The only thing is that it also contains 3X as much sulfur, and that can cause problems if they get too much.

We're really hoping for another winter like last year. Little snow, and warmer than usual. Heard they got lots of snow in parts of North Dakota and northern Minnesota last night. Hope it stays away from here!

 

[Cricket]

That is good news. Nothing like having good feed put up for the winter.