What age do you personally breed heifers to calve at?

[GLZ]

Just curious across the board if people aim right for 24 months or try for shorter/longer?  Is it a case by case basis?

 

[Chap]

i generally try to get them to calve at 23 months.  Calve most of my cows mid march to mid april and like to have heifers calve about a month earlier.  I do this to give them a little extra time post partum to breed and calve with the cowherd for their next calf.  It is pretty easy to back 1st calvers up if you don't give them enough time post calving.

 

[lightnin4]

As a general rule, we aim for 23 or 24 months.  But, we also factor in their size at breeding.  I bred one March heifer to calve at 22 months last year.  When I got ready to sync my January heifers I put her in the group too because she was as big as they were. 

 

[Bulldaddy]

I breed my Spring heifers to calve in early January and my Fall heifers to calve in early Sept.  That way the have some extra time to breed back and stay in the heard.  That would make the them 22-24 months old at calving.  If they are developed properly I don't think a couple of months makes much difference.

 

[Will]

I generally calve at two years and keep them seperate from the mature cows.  We  put them on better grass and give them a little special attention to keep them in good shap so they rebreed easily.  We are going to hold last years hiefers over and make fall calvers out of them since our fall herd is getting older.  They will be 28 to 30 months when they calve.  I know a lot of the people do it that way and they believe it reduces calving problems.

 

[linnettejane]

I generally calve at two years and keep them seperate from the mature cows.  We  put them on better grass and give them a little special attention to keep them in good shap so they rebreed easily.  We are going to hold last years hiefers over and make fall calvers out of them since our fall herd is getting older.  They will be 28 to 30 months when they calve.  I know a lot of the people do it that way and they believe it reduces calving problems.

we are going to do that this year...just trying to get as much growth out of my heifers as i can...then with them calving first in the fall...we will hold them over to spring to put them with the rest of the cows...this will give them a little extra time to recover....

 

[shortdawg]

We shoot for having them calve on their 2nd birthday.

 

[justintime]

I would say there are some other considerations that should be considered in deciding when you calve your two year old heifers. You should consider the breed, the environment you live in, the feed you have, and the management you can provide. You should consider whether you can calve in cold weather, and if you can separate the heifers from the cows. A two year old that has just calved is probably at the highest stressed time in it's life, and it is the time when you have to provide the most management and the best ration you can. These heifers are still trying to grow, feed a calf and clean themselves up so they can cycle and re-breed again all at the same time.

I would far rather calve my heifers a little later than to chance stressing them more at this stage of their life. In my operation I try to calve most of my heifers at 24 months, but I will often leave some younger late spring heifers open and calve them at 30 months. Allowing these heifers the additional 6 months to grow, oftentimes is the best thing I can do to make a good cow. Calving these heifers at 24 months only results in a late calving cow for much of her life, and it is oftentimes the best for both the cow and yourself to allow her to grow for another 6 months. You end up with a heifer that calves early in the season, and she grows into a much more impressive cow.