Gestation date question

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oakie

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Apr 12, 2010
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What is the gestation for maine cows? We have a cow who calved yesterday and was AI bred July 10th, so she's either a little late or alot early. The calf is average size so I'm thinking late. The calf should be a mercedes benz if the ai took, angus if the bull got her
 

savaged

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Can you post a picture?  I would think the Benz and Angus calves would be quite different in terms of bone and hair (and maybe color), unless you have one heck of an Angus herd bull.
 

oakie

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I had to go find him with a horse, so no photo. He has awfully big ears, he looked like he has an angus butt, the hair wasn't too impressive (I was trying to use process of elimination) It was the neighbors bull, I bought the cow bred and she was AI'd on July 11 and the following heat cycle the neighbors bull got in with them, and they came home a few months later. The neighbor doesn't have very flashy cattle and I didn't see the bull. Here's the cow, the all black one.
 

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willow

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We have Maine crosses and we rarely have one calve on the 283 due date.  Usually they are about seven days over that.  We have a Benz x Angus cow and she doesn't look like an Angus.  She is kinda flat haired though. 
 

Mueller Show Cattle

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willow said:
We have Maine crosses and we rarely have one calve on the 283 due date.  Usually they are about seven days over that.  We have a Benz x Angus cow and she doesn't look like an Angus.  She is kinda flat haired though.  
Same here, for my high percentage Maines and my Simmi cow are running rite at the 290 days. They were bred clubby but even PB Maine and PB simmi has been rite in the 290 mark for me. When I AI breed my cows, I go off the 283 day gestation table and then add a week to give me a good idea as mine are usually much closer to 290 days than 283.
 

HGC

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This is my data on normal, live, single birth AI calvles at our place.

67 heifers calves average 282.4 days
53 bulls calves average 283.8 days

The vast majority of them are Maine sired and/or out of Maine cows.

-15 days was the earliest and +9 was the latest.
 

Okotoks

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We have had ET calves implanted the same day with 12 days variation in gestation and I know of a couple that were 20 days apart. Ten days early and 10 days late! We had a calf last night out of a recip that was nine days late but I'm pretty sure DNA will show that it is her natural calf born early ???
 

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oakie

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It seems like everything I ai bred, with the exception of the dr who granddaughter, has gone about 10-13 days late. He just has really big ears to be an angus, I'll ride out and get a photo this afternoon. The rest of the cows that were AI bred when she was and would of bred back when she did aren't very calvy looking so I'm thinking it's benz for that reason and the ears, but who knows. Do Benz calves come out flat butted? The cow has a nice rear to her but who knows
 

oakie

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Here we go, I think the winner is mercedes benz, what do you think?
 

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cowsrcuddly

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Looks Angus to me!  ;)  sorry.

July 10th would give you an April 18th calf, with 7 days added for a longer gestation would be April 25th.  Sometimes cows come back around sooner than the 21 days after AI if they are just getting into cycling.  I have had cows get bred to the bull 14 days after AI, so now I always wait at least 40 days before bulls get turned in with our AI cows.  This calf could also be 8 days early to the bull.
DNA will be your true answer.
 

oakie

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crap, he has a nice mom, so maybe there is hope. The bull was only in there for a week, we think he jumped in when they came into heat and they were not at my house so I didn't get to do a heat watch
 
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