Heifers for reciepts

Help Support Steer Planet:

LLBUX

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 23, 2010
Messages
697
Location
Chapin, Illinois
I have no experience with recips(yet), but would hate to see heifers calving out calves thrown by clubby bulls.

 

Warrior10

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 9, 2010
Messages
1,653
Location
Mason City, Ne
dutch pride said:
What has been everyone's experience using virgin heifers as receipts?

DLZ
I'm not sure why someone would try this, unless their embryo calves are "heifer safe". Even then I'm not sure I'd take the chance of using a heifer.
 

Bulldaddy

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 5, 2009
Messages
1,131
Location
Valley Mills, Texas
They settle better that than cows, but milk less and have dystosia more often.  Unless they are maternally bred and the eggs going in are calving ease, I would stick with mature cows for recips.
 

LN

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 15, 2008
Messages
767
Location
South Texas
dutch pride said:
What has been everyone's experience using virgin heifers as receipts?

DLZ

None, I wouldn't put an embryo in a heifer. I don't implant embryos in my cows until they are 4.
 

Warrior10

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 9, 2010
Messages
1,653
Location
Mason City, Ne
Possum Trot Ranch said:
They settle better that than cows, but milk less and have dystosia more often.  Unless they are maternally bred and the eggs going in are calving ease, I would stick with mature cows for recips.
Interesting, didn't know that. Nice to know.
 

Pleasant Grove Farms

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
199
if you are going to all the expense and the work to put in embryos, why wouldn't you want to give that ET baby the very best momma possible?
We put our embryos into mature cows that can themselves produce replacement females or bull prospects;
cows that milk well, breed easily, calve easily.

you do embryos with the idea that the resulting calf will exceed the value of a live natural calf from most of your other cows;
superior genetics or superior sale value.
if the resulting calves from ET aren't worthy of a great momma, then probably they aren't of the quality that you should be bothering with.
 

woltemathangus

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 1, 2011
Messages
241
Location
Nebraska
Some of our best E.T. calves are out of virgin heifers. The embryos that are put in them are out of calving ease bulls and our popular donors. Just watch the matings I guess.
 

cowman 52

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2009
Messages
719
Location
San Angelo Texas
In the early 70's we used holstien heifers, they all calved close together, then doubled up the calves and sold one heifer that would usually pay the bill on the work. They settle easy, don't have attitude problems, and will love you if they know where the feed bunk is
 

RankeCattleCo

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
715
Location
Southeastern Wisconsin
Cow an-
Exactly. Going to start taking the Holstein x angus cross heifers from our farm and use em for recips. Those calves should be some low bellied ground sows with all that milk!
 

Medium Rare

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
459
Location
Missouri
cowman 52 said:
In the early 70's we used holstien heifers, they all calved close together, then doubled up the calves and sold one heifer that would usually pay the bill on the work. They settle easy, don't have attitude problems, and will love you if they know where the feed bunk is

Reminds me of putting 3 or 4 calves on sale barn dairy culls and turning them out to pasture as a kid.  Tax man was wondering what kind of scheme we had going on and the neighbors drove by every day trying to figure out what in the world we were doing.
 

Medium Rare

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
459
Location
Missouri
I used a heifer once with good results, but she was a big blue roan from a large framed big milking cow line that had 4 generations in the herd at the time.  The experience with the cow line and her size was the only reason we felt safe.

Heifers are just to unpredictable for me to put valuable embryos in, but if I had a consistently cheap source of nice beef/dairy cross heifers it would be a little different story.
 

RankeCattleCo

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
715
Location
Southeastern Wisconsin
We had one of our best cows have a stifle injury in our dry pen 8 months along with a heifer calf so we felt we needed to keep her. Let her calve, took that heifer away and let 3 bull calves work on her for 4 months and these bull calves practically drag on the ground they're so deep  (lol)
 
Top