What age do you breed heifers?

[TJ]

I am not a big fan of the Angus breed generically because of the temperament which is usually not to my liking. I did use one Angus bull last year and although he certainly isn't crazy he has a distinctly different temperament than my purebred Maines. I don't like Russian Roulette with my heifers

While there are certainly calves born on either side of the bell shaped curve The Witch Doctor has stood the test of time and is a true calving ease Maine - I have never pulled a Witch Doctor calf from a purebred heifer - mine have been 80 plus or minus pounds; his calves are almost always good all around - they show and they work in the pasture.  - The Witch Doctors son WD40 is also a favorite of mine - little calves on purebred Maines that just get "spit out" - mine averages 78 pounds - and these calves are nothing to look at when born (you curse the person who suggested him!) but they get better and better every day - until one day you say WOW! I also like my WD40s.

Then there is the Red Angus solution - RW can give you names of calving ease Red Angus - I have friends who have used Red Angus on purebred and percentage Maines and had these little bitty calves that bounced up and grew well. I have 3 Red Angus coming so we will see - heifers are always a challenge ....

I would suggest Angus or Red Angus & if you want guaranteed calving ease a Lowline Angus.  The bull in my pic to the left, Doc Holliday, had a 48 lb. actual brith weight & he has never sired a calf over 70 lbs. at birth.  I have highly concentrated semen available on him.   He's only 3.5 inches shorter than Jake's Proud Jazz is reported to be.  Plus, depending upon the genetics of the hiefer, you should potentially wean off at least a 450 lb. calf.   Also, this bull, like most Lowlines, is gentle as a pet kitten.  I halter broke him to tie & 1/2 way lead in less than 2 hours, one afternoon, when he was 15 months old.  I know that some on this board would frown at the idea of using a Lowline, but I doubt that any besides myself have done that or seen very many 1/2 blood calves grow out.  I've got 1/2 blood yearling heifers that weigh every bit as much as my full sized yearling Red Angus heifers & the 1/2 bloods are only a couple inches shorter.  If thicker, stouter & slightly more compact is not what you are looking for, go with Angus or Red Angus. 

Attached is a picture of a 15 month old, 1/2 blood Lowline X 1/2 blood Tarentaise heifer.  She's probably heavier than any of the Red Angus heifers that have been running with her since March.  They are the same age as her & 2 of those Red Angus heifers have 40+ WW EPD's & 75+ YW EPD's.  Her sire was actually smaller than Doc Holliday, too.     

 

[TottenClubCalves]

I would not use ali, I have heard of some major train wrecks up north about him c-sections and people having to pull calves. If i were you there is really two options i'd consider in my opinion. One if your looking to produce a flashy commercial clubby type calf for the showring I would use jakes proud jazz. he has a negative 2.8 bw and he's a red roan shorthorn so odds are that you'll probably throw a roan calf. Second is if your looking for a maine influenced calve I'd go with majors money man or kadabra. Just remember whatever you breed her to that in the third triemester is when the calve starts to really gain its weight so I would have her eating maybe 8-10 pound of feed for the last three months.

 

[DLD]

We had a 110# out of Witchdoctor and a 3/8 MA 5/8 Angus heifer whose own birthweight was 67#... It's not the norm, we used him a fair amount over several years, and this was the only one big enough to be a problem, but I think it's only fair to let you know it can happen. Both Heatseeker and PlayRay are known to have birthweights all over the board - I'd definitely go lbw Angus if she were mine. If your heifer's Chi papered (about the only way it sounds like she could be), her calf can be Chi papered out of any kind of bull, but certainly would be of as much value out of a registered Angus as anything. We've used some of the Ohlde bulls pretty extensively ( Legend, Homer and Echelon specifically) and they consistently throw replacement quality females that are good property either to keep or to sell, and we've never had any temperemant problems from those bulls. Worst case scenario should be a nice steer to sell on the market and a healthy cow ready to breed back to the sire of your choice...

 

[bluegrass]

I think Witch Doctor is a good idea. I can tell you from experience that Ali will have some big ones when mated to Heatseeker\Heatwave females, don't know why but that mating just doesn't work for calving ease.