Cow standing 29 days after calving

[GLZ]

Should I wait another 21 or try to breed her tomorrow morning.

She had a 79 pound calf unassisted, so there wasn't any trouble with the calf.  I normally wait 45 days, but was curious on everyone's thoughts.

 

[justintime]

I have oftentimes bred cows at less than 30 days following calving, and have had pretty good success with them settling. Last year, I bred a cow that was in heat 18 days following calving and she calved to that service this spring. I know it may be best to rest them a little after calving, but when they are in standing heat and are standing right at the gate, it is real hard not to let them walk into the chute.

 

[aj]

I am not sure why you would want to breed cattle back that soon if you had a systematic breeding program based around the natural enviroment or unless you had a cow calving late. If your program is a joke and you  are chasing the showring deal and your cattle have no real relivence in the real world it could work. Fertility is always higher in the second heat however. Alot of of it it is based on nutrition.jmo

 

[aj]

Also if you lie about birth dates on calves by 60 days or so does it really matter?

 

[Cattledog]

I am not sure why you would want to breed cattle back that soon if you had a systematic breeding program based around the natural enviroment or unless you had a cow calving late. If your program is a joke and you  are chasing the showring deal and your cattle have no real relivence in the real world it could work. Fertility is always higher in the second heat however. Alot of of it it is based on nutrition.jmo

Well, I don't think my program is a joke and I am constantly trying to move my cows up.  They get pushed back a little when you flush on them.  I guess if you don't mind the lower percentage of sticking and the cost of the straw I say give it a shot.

 

[aj]

I stand corrected as always.

 

[common sense]

Should I wait another 21 or try to breed her tomorrow morning.

She had a 79 pound calf unassisted, so there wasn't any trouble with the calf.  I normally wait 45 days, but was curious on everyone's thoughts.

Ouch!  Ask a simple question and look what it gets you!  I guess the answer to your question is you can breed her without any risk to the cow.  If she breeds back and will be calving when you want her to then that is great and a sign that your are raising females that are not only fertile but prolific.  Many breed associations award females that will calve and rebreed year after year like that. I would ascertain that you have a good nutrition and management program.  I commend you on that...Congratulations! (clapping)

 

[Jill]

WOW AJ, that was a nasty response, you just slammed someone that you know NOTHING about the operation they have, another nasty tooth ache??

We ideally like to keep our cows in a 60 day window and if I can get them in the beginning of that window I will certainly breed them on the 1st heat.  If your nutrition program is good and your cow didn't have any calving issues, there isn't any reason she won't breed on the 1st heat, I guess for my program, moving her up 21 days would be worth 20 dollars

 

[ShowmanQ]

I am not sure why you would want to breed cattle back that soon if you had a systematic breeding program based around the natural enviroment or unless you had a cow calving late. If your program is a joke and you  are chasing the showring deal and your cattle have no real relivence in the real world it could work. Fertility is always higher in the second heat however. Alot of of it it is based on nutrition.jmo

HMMM, so cattle producers and breeder who send cattle to the show ring only produce cattlte that serve no true relevance in the real world??? If this is the case, I will stand along side many others on and off of this site that run "joke operations".
I truely hope that your post was not meant to be as arrogant and ignorant as it came off. JMO

 

[aj]

I am a thorn in the side of alot of people on here. I meant no disrespect but I have a fairly documented point of view. One point of view(mine) is that the beef cow is on this planet to process low quality forage on rough ground(ground to rough to farm) and turn it into high quality protein for human consumption with the use of any grain and little supplement. The other view(and this is a show cattle site) is that beef cattle are to be used as a family project to install work ethic and to be a life lesson for young people as they develop their projects. This includes a no holds barred artificial enviroment of coolers cow herds on high grain diets,unbeliveable birth weight scenarios,embryo transfers with no natural selection pressure and what ever. I appoligize for my nastyness but I always throw in the other point of view. It does sometimes bother me when purebred cattle people who do nothing to select cattle for the real world actually consider themselves to relevent in the beef industry when perhaps they are not in alot of cases. However.....with the declining availability of pasture across the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised that show cattle as a hobbie might become more viable as the main industry cause cattle people can't afford land to pasture cattle(as they are bidding against hunting and building interests). That is were I sit or stand. As far as when to breed a cow post partem is concerned I like the approach of turning 100 cows out and turning out the bull and let natural selection select for fertility and a balance of economical traits. To each their own but you are right I can be a cranky booger....enjoy the ride as well as the destination....people on here are great people with good family values.

 

[rtmcc]

As far as when to breed a cow post partem is concerned I like the approach of turning 100 cows out and turning out the bull and let natural selection select for fertility and a balance of economical traits. To each their own but you are right I can be a cranky booger....enjoy the ride as well as the destination....people on here are great people with good family values.

Is that bull you turned out or any of the bulls in your herd sire battery AI sired????

We try to move some of our cows up if we can.  I would like a shorter calving window so that more of the potential sale bulls are earlier born so they are can go out and handle breeding in your natural environment as yearlings.  As we both work full time off the farm we don't always catch the heats like we would like to.  We do turn a clean up bull out later after we AI.  I do not see were trying to move a cow up that has done everything right and proven her fertility makes our operation non relevant to the beef industry.  Wouldn't you rather have the bull you are turning out and potentially siring replacement females to be out of a highly fertile cow instead of one with a 400 day calving interval?

 

[aj]

Fertility is the number 1 economically important trait in the commercial cow bussiness. We usually use a 60 day calving period with a fairly modest nutrition period. I guess my point was that most people set a d-day for calving to start. There is no sense in having females calving before then. If you have a cow calving in the latter two cycles it is great to move them up a cycle. I have seen cows move up two cycles without special treatment. I think that instead that sometimes we over supplement cows trying to get big cows to cycle when we should change genetics instead of contributing to the multi-million supplement industry. Seems like to me that the cow calf man should put a little change in our pockets instead of the supplement dealers. I think high growth genetics are sometimes not sustainable for certain enviroments. I know I have had cows that would ratio say 110 on weaning weights on calves and 3 years latter they were washed out the program because this performance was not sustainable for my enviroment. I use home grown herd sires anymore cause I know what their cow looks like and what the actual bwt was. Some of my bulls are a.i.'d and some aren't. I would say 90% of say the shorthorn a.i. bulls don't fit my program. They are out of bwt lines that are to extreme for me. Alot of say Illinois cows I have seen look like they are starving to death on cane, knee high grass and 30# of grain per day. jmo The measurement of a cow-calf program in the commercial world is based on pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed and not the average weaning weight of the 50% of the calves that survived the birthing process .