what age to breed?

[Trisha in WA]

I am wondering what age is best to breed a Jersey heifer? I have heard anything from a year to 2 years to breed. Opinions please.
Blessings,
Trisha in WA

[pygmywombat]

The youngest I would be comfortable breeding a Jersey is at 15 months old. If she's a small heifer I would wait a few more months past that and start trying at 18 months.

[john in la]

You should not go by age. Use weight and how well she is growing to determine breeding age.
A 15 month old Jersey that is ready to breed should be 585 lbs and 59" at the heart girth.
If your Jersey takes to 20 months to get to this size do not breed till she is 20 months old.
A springing Jersey needs to be 800 to 900 lb range.

[Haggis]

John in La,
A while back you, or I think was you, mentioned a web site where the information for weighing one's cattle via a measuring tape was available. If it was you, do you yet have that information?

[crowinghen]

Here's a link- you can use a tape measure or string instead of purchasing a specific tape.

Susie
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...I0469tA03.html

[john in la]

Originally Posted by Haggis

John in La,
A while back you, or I think was you, mentioned a web site where the information for weighing one's cattle via a measuring tape was available. If it was you, do you yet have that information?

No I do not have a web site for such info but I do have a book that I can scan the page in question.
Since I do not know how to post pictures on this site because they do not allow html here is a link.

http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com...f%20weight.jpg

[Trisha in WA]

Thank you all very much. That is very helpful.
Blessings,
Trisha in WA

[commomsense]

2 years is a good guide line to breed. This is not a hard date if the heifer has matured and gained weight well. Still the earliest I would consider would be the 20 month time. Any earlier and you risk injury to a valuable animal.

[ozark_jewels]

We have always bred ours to calve somewhere around the 24 month mark. We have never had birthing problems this way and the heifers don't get fat either. We have large Jerseys. Getting ready to put Bonnie in with the bull next month. She will be 13 months old then.

[dosthouhavemilk]

Jerseys tend to mature earlier than some of the other dairy breeds, so can be bred earlier. We aim to breed for the first time around 14 or 15 months of age. However, our average age at first calving is much higher than 24 months old due to management reasons.
We have a heifer who will be 15 months old next month and she will not be bred anytime soon. She is not much bigger than our 9 month old heifer. That was lack of decent colostrum though. Mother hid her for five days (I went looking for that calf every single day) and only had nasty bloody colostrum to offer her. Had we found her she would have received decent colostrum.
It's a shame but impressive she did live and is still alive. She will not amount to much if anything though.
Our Jersey/Norwegian Red crosses, on the other hand, are large enough to breed earlier, though we would not go much earlier than 13 or 14 months on them.
Health and size are big issues when determining when to breed a heifer for the first time.

[Goat Freak]

Originally Posted by crowinghen

Here's a link- you can use a tape measure or string instead of purchasing a specific tape.

Susie
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...I0469tA03.html

I would LIKe to tell how heavy our cows are, but I am ashamed to admit, I have NO idea what a heart grith is. Can ANYONE tell me. Thank you in advance, bye.

[john in la]

Originally Posted by Goat Freak

I would LIKe to tell how heavy our cows are, but I am ashamed to admit, I have NO idea what a heart grith is. Can ANYONE tell me. Thank you in advance, bye.

Page 1
http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com...weight%201.jpg

Page 2
http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com...weight%202.jpg

Hope this helps
John

[JeffNY]

The average breeding age, and height for a Jersey, and keep in mind most Jerseys don't get super tall. But the average weight and height is around 550lbs, and 12-13 months (according to one place). Height, not sure. However the norm is about 14-15 months, and I do think it can depend on the animal too. If you have one that doesn't have as much size, because of its genetics, can also throw you off. For example, some holsteins have a smaller size. I saw some holsteins at the fair that were shorter than my heifers, those were cows. Some are tall, some are short, it is like people. Figure this, if the animal has doubled in size by a year, and your breeding at 14-15 months, there is a good chance it could double again (depending on the genetics) by the time it calves. Sometimes cows can grow several inches higher after they calve. Someone told me of that, they had a cow it wasn't super tall when it calved. When it calved it shot up.

Here is a PDF link, it says in there "13-15 months, 530-600lbs, and 45" for wither height"

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/an_sci/exte...y/203-dp65.pdf

Jeff

[Philip]

We aim to get ours in calf at 14-15 months old so that they calf at 24 months. As we use AI its straightforward enough just going by the calendar. Calves born in early August, and cows AI'ed in late October. Theres not any trouble with the heifer's first calves as we use Lowline semen to produce a nice little Lowline/Jersey cross

[jerzeygurl]

hubby always and vet agreed breed them to calve a 2 years which is of course 15 months.