when will she come back in heat?

[widfam]

My heifer finally had her calf and I was wondering when she will come in heat and be ready to breed again. I also was wondering if I had to worm the calf now that we are going into summer and if so at what age should I wait to worm? I just wormed the 2 heifers and the bull about 3 weeks ago. Thanks for any info.

[Donna from Mo]

I've had lots of cows come in heat less than six weeks after calving. I can't tell you about the worming, I've never wormed cattle.

If things went well, she will likely come into heat within 30 days. BUT, it is best to wait at LEAST 45 before trying to breed her again. The uterus needs time to heal and clean itself up before it can carry a pregnancy. They can breed before that, but the chance that they will either not breed, or catch and then lose the pregnancy are high. If she were to lose the pregnancy odds are it would take longer than the 21 days to come back into heat again.

[JeffNY]

What randiliana said. Typically I insert a CIDR at 45 days. Approx 7 days later I remove the CIDR, lute then 2-3 days she is in heat. I have bred several on a heat from a CIDR, and they did settle. The key is to use GnRH in conjunction with the CIDR. The other method is to watch her close, and you should see a heat around there, if nto closer to 60 days. I just use a CIDR, makes heat detection easier.



Jeff

[Ronney]

Cows will return 21-28 days after calving but mine don't go back to the bull for two plus months after calving to give them time to settle down and to keep them calving at the same time of the year.

There is no need to drench your calf until it is weaned but give it any vaccinations that may be necessary in your part of the world.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[widfam]

Do you think it is ok to leave the bull in with her? I only have her, the calf (bull) and one other heifer so I let the 3 now 4 of them run together all the time.

[Ronney]

You can but you run the very real risk of her calving in another 10 months or so and it's not good for her to spend her life carrying a calf at the same time as she's feeding one.

Is it not possible to cut the bull and the heifer out and put them in another paddock? The reason for putting the heifer with him is to give him some company so he won't be so inclined to get bored and go wandering.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[agmantoo]

In my beef cattle herd the bulls remain with the cows continuously. Not a problem!

[farmergirl]

In my part of the world, many cattle ranchers do as Agmantoo does. All the cattle are in one big pasture, with creep feeders for the young ones.

[DJ in WA]

Agmantoo, as Ronney said, he schedules the bull to keep them calving closer together. How does it work if the bulls are around all the time? Are your calvings more spread out? Maybe it doesn't matter to you? Do you sell calves all at once, or do you sell throughout the year?

[agmantoo]

I calve yeararound for several reasons. I can better utilize the forage from the pastures if the headcount is rather consistent. My work load is distributed throughout the year. Every time a cow cycles she gets bred and that should give me an extra calf + over the life of the brood cow. I market feeder calves at least 4 times per year. I am not marketing in the same cycle as the bulk of the producers so hopefully the market is not flooded resulting in lower prices. As a result I tend to get the average of calf prices for the year, rather than the highs or the lows.

[menollyrj]

We calve year-round also. The bull runs with the cows all the time. Most of the cows rebreed in 4-8 weeks after calving, usually more toward the 8 week mark rather than 4 weeks. Once the calf is about 6 months old, we move it to another pasture, away from the cow, giving the cow about 4-5 months of "calf-free" time to put her energy into the pregnancy rather than into feeding a calf that is old enough to survive without her.

We calve year-round for several reasons, all of which agmantoo listed - consistent head-count (biggest reason due to limited pasture acreage), average pricing (both on selling calves and buying breeding stock), extra calves (had a cow have TWO calves last year - one in January and one in December), and distributed workload (as I work full-time and DH works odd jobs).

We have considered injecting cows to get them on similar calving cycles, but it seems a lot of effort for questionable gain...

-Joy

[genebo]

My bull stays with his herd all the time. He and the cows figure it out. Most of the cows deliver a calf every 12 months, but one delivered at 9 months to the day, 10 months, 1 year and 11 months. She showed no ill effects. In fact, lots of visitors insisted she was my best looking cow. She had the largest udder and gave the most milk. I finally was talked into selling her to a family who wanted the milk. She calved at 12 months again.

If a bull stays with his herd all the time, he will manage them. He won't breed his calves early. However, if you have a young bull in the herd, he will breed all calves and cows as soon as he is old enough. Often that's only 7 months. I try to get my young bulls away before they reach that age.

If you add a new young heifer to your herd, the bull will breed her as soon as she is receptive. She's not "one of his", so he doesn't manage her like he would one of his own.

Genebo
Paradise Farm