is this true about heifers?

[shagerman]

good morning ladies and gentlemen. i have a question? that may or may not be true. so here i go. my heifer jersey was due yesterday. still nothing so far today, and i was told by a few older gentlemen that, a heifer takes 9 months and a week to calve. but the real question is this. that if she goes over it will be a bull calf and if she comes early in that week it will be a heifer.m is their any truth to this? personally i believe its gonna be what it is gonna be at conception. i do not want to start any bad stuff out here. so what do you believe.

[Tad]

In hiefers it is a crap shoot, we just had one go a week late and have a heifer but in cows if it is early it is USUALLY a hiefer if it is late it USUALLY is a bull. If it is early and it is a medium sized bull wait for the second calf to come!

[francismilker]

Never have banked on those odds. I've had heifer and cows go over and under normal gestation throughout the years and have never been able to trend the potential offspring. Remember the saying, "a watched pot never boils."???

I say, "A watched heifer never calves!!"

[cowkeeper]

Originally Posted by shagerman

personally i believe its gonna be what it is gonna be at conception.

Shagerman, the calf will still be the sex it was at conception. The extra time at the end of the gestation, when it goes longer, does not turn a heifer calf into a bull calf.

[Hexe]

This is purely theoretical knowledge, take it for what it's worth:

I've read that low-birthweight AI bulls usually sire bull calfs, because the gestation for a male offspring is a few days shorter for whatever biological reasons. Because of the shorter gestation, the calf is smaller - low birthweight. I have no idea if this is correct or not, but if it is, it would mean that a male calf would be born sooner than a female calf.

And my favorite: "A cow will always calve on time, unless of course she calves early or late..."

[Peace n Quiet]

Hmmm... years past we had a bull on the farm, so never knew an exact date for birth. We approximated but nothing precise as when you AI.
But THIS year we have calves due from cows which were AI'd with semen from lowbirth weight bulls so I can offer this:
So far, our calves have been a day or two early and were bull calves. I still have a few to go, due in June... will be interesting to see what happens!

[bknthesdle]

My husband goes by this. So far it's "usually" correct!

[shagerman]

thank you everyone. she has not yet had her baby as of yet. but im not saying its not gonna happen today. anyways i was just wondering if this was a wives tale or not. and it looks like the beliefs are all different as i would of expected. i guess we will see. she was bred with ai last july 27th. which would make her april 27th we are past that. now just to have it.. then we will see what we get..

[Jennifer L.]

I don't know the real odds, but on this farm a cow that freshens a couple of days early will calve with a heifer more likely than a bull. And a cow that goes over by a few days seems to be a bull. No where near 100%, maybe 75%, though. Enough at least to be noticeable that it happens. The ones that calve on time and those that come in really early seem to be even odds.

Jennifer

[cowkeeper]

Here are the numbers for two cows I raised, same breed, same sire except cow A calf#1 for the calves:
Cow A, calf#1 day 282 (bull), calf#2 day 282 (bull), calf#3 day 284 (heifer), calf#4 day 280 (heifer), calf#5 day 282 (bull).

Cow B, calf#1 day 274 (bull), calf#2 day 274 (bull), calf#3 day 273 (heifer), calf#4 day 272 (heifer)

So it seems to me that the gestation length is more determined by what is normal for the cow. An old cowman told me that old cows go longer. The longest gestation among my cows was from a 14 year old cow and she produced a heifer.ck

[matt_man]

Heart has calved with us 3 times (due with her 4th in July) all AI calves. First two were 2 days late and heifers, last one was 2 days early and a bull.

Heart's first heifer (Lily) calved last year 2 days late also, with a heifer. It was interesting to see the trend continue in the same family.

Daisy has had 2 AI calves with us. The first was 7 days early with a heifer and the other was 9 days early with a bull

[SuperDog]

if she was AIed on July 27, then she would be due 5/5/11. Check out this calculation table
http://www.cattletoday.com/gestation.shtml

[shagerman]

WELL EVERYONE THE BABY WAS BORN TODAY.. AND IT IS A BULL CALF.so this only proves to me that it is what it is at conception.