When to breed a March show heifer

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Gorrell Club Calves

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Joined
Aug 6, 2010
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40
Location
Missouri
What month is the best time to breed a show heifer?  She is a March calf.  Would like to breed sometime the end of April, first of May.
 

frostback

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Feb 7, 2007
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2,068
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Colorado
Really depends on when you want her calving. I like to have the show heifers done early but dont like too many when its can be really cold.
 

OKshorthorn

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Nov 2, 2009
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606
Location
Kingfisher, Oklahoma
For what it's worth, I've always been told, and it's what we do at our place, is that we calve our heifer as close to exactly 2 years old as possible. The exception being just as frostback mentioned, we try and stay away from November-February.
 

mainecattlemother

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Oct 26, 2010
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Minneota
I opened a can of worms a couple weeks ago asking almost the very same question and was told you should not breed before 15 months of age but after talking to the person we bought our heifer from he said go ahead in mid to late april and she is a late February heifer.  Good luck with whatever you choose to do!!!
 

RyanChandler

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Jul 6, 2011
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Location
Pottsboro, TX
mainecattlemother said:
I opened a can of worms a couple weeks ago asking almost the very same question and was told you should not breed before 15 months of age but after talking to the person we bought our heifer from he said go ahead in mid to late april and she is a late February heifer.  Good luck with whatever you choose to do!!!

If she has enough growth, breeding at 13 months will be just fine.  22-26 months old is where I like it.  Any younger and you'll start having problems- After 30mnths you can start having calving difficulties out of first calvers too because their growth plates have begun to fuse their pelvis wont expand like it would had they calved earlier.

I also like having all my calves born after Oct 1 and before the time changes back to cst.
 

SRC

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Dec 24, 2010
Messages
61
Breed her now, get her bellied down for fall run...
 
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