getting heifers to cycle?

[wrc]

I have a problem that we have been having for years and I'm hoping someone on here has a good solution.  Every year we keep a few replacement heifers and breed them to calve somewhere around thier second birthday.  When these first calf heifers calve its seems that inevitably some of these heifers will not start cycling in time to get them bred back and calving with the rest of the herd.  I have tried breeding them so they calve earlier than the rest of the herd, giving them more time to get cycling before breeding time, but that doesn't seem to help much.  These heifers are kept in good body condition with free choice mineral, but they are running with the rest of the cattle and don't get anything extra.  One thing that I have done in the past that works sometimes is to use a CYDR protocal and at the end pull their calves off for 24 hrs.  It doesn't work everytime but we have had some success.  Is there a better way that you have used with success?  Thanks in advance for any replies. <cowboy>

 

[wrc]

When I said they are not getting anything extra I meant anything that the other cows don't get.  They all get good quality hay and 20% cubes everyday.

 

[jbw]

Run them by themselves, feed them extra, creep feed the calves.

 

[aj]

Calving first calvers 30 days early usually helps.Calcium-phosphorus ratio?Energy? Seems like a certain % are weeded out at this time for me. To much milk for enviroment? I always thought running bulls nose to nose with cows brings females into heat earlier but its hard to keep bull out from them sometimes unless you have a really good fence. Good discussion.

 

[horseshoe b]

When I said they are not getting anything extra I meant anything that the other cows don't get.  They all get good quality hay and 20% cubes everyday.

pull those calves from those first calf heifers when they are 45-60 days old. their daily nutritional requirement will go down and more that likely they will start to gain weight and then cycle.                                                                                                                                                       getting  heifers to breed back  hard to do when you raise your own heifers because you can not calve them earlier than the cowherd . that would make them calve before they were two .  i guess in a perfect world we would  buy our heifers from an outfit that calved 60-90 days earlier than we did

                    p.s. i usualy find some calf roper to sell those doggy calves to . i know to some they may think this is a lost of money but the first calf is a sorry angus or jersey anyway. whats important to me is getting her bred back and keeping her in syn. with the cow herd  

 

[wrc]

I agree that sometimes the first calf isn't what you would hope for, but this year I have 2 reg. angus heifers, 1 is a Duff New Look and the other is a Predestined out of a sister to the 2008 Supreme champ heifer from the Tulsa state fair.  They both have really good calves and thier is no way that you could pick them out of the other calves as being out of first calf heifers.  I wish it was always that way.  I think I knew the best answer to my problem would be to keep these heifers seperate and feed them extra, but I just don't have a good place to do this and still have access to my AI facilities.  I may have to do something different next year as we are keeping quite a few replacement that will calve next fall.  Thanks for all the advice and keep it coming.

 

[jackpotcattle]

About 6 yrs ago, we decided it just wasn't worth even trying to AI wet 2 yr olds. We were running about 50% conception on 2's and that is not good enough, so we just put them with a bull and have had great success with keeping them calving when they should and then turn around and stick AI as a 3. I know alot of ppl think that is throwing away a calf crop, but its not like we use poor herd bulls. And it is worth way more to have cows calving in the first two cycles

 

[Steer4Caddy]

This is TOTALLY nutritonal.  Those females need a lot more than just a little extra to breed back properly.  They are milking, cutting teeth, and still trying to grow.  Just plan on spending an extra $60 to $90 above regular cow costs and time it correctly.  About 40 days prior to and 30 days after breeding is when they really need the help.  Many commercial cattlemen I work with are not willing to do this and I see them get burned all the time.

 

[DTW]

I have to agree with jbw is to keep them seperate.  but on my place i cant do that either.  so i feed them some extra grain. It may take a few mins everyday but once you get them trained to come in to the pen to the feed bunk they come running.  I also AI second calvers once and turn out with a bull so if they dont stick they dont fall behind the rest of the cows.

Ciders are a good tool also.  Had a cow have twins one year and couldnt get her AI back so finally turned her with a bull.  She calved in march and didnt calve the following year till june 16th.  This past year i used a cider at 35 days and she calved may 5.  This year she is due march 30. 
So you can get those cows back with the rest of the group with ciders.

 

[randiliana]

I agree, you most likely have something nutritional going on. What's your mineral program?? They need to be on a rising plane of nutrition (gaining weight) in order to have a good conception rate, and that can be tough when they are raising a calf. So if you are feeding them really well when they are pregnant, you may have to add grain to keep them going after they have a calf on them. The other thing that could be going on is a uterine infection, or something along that. Assisted heifers, or heifers that have a prolonged delivery take longer to come back into heat. Takes them longer to clean out.

We run our heifers with our cows from the time they turn about a year old. They don't get any special treatment, except that we have been trying to have most of them calve in either shortly before or right at the beginning of our calving season, and of course we breed them to an easy calving bull. Last year we ran about 30 heifers with calves on them, had 3 that will calve in May or June the rest are bred to calve at the same time as the rest of the cow herd, March and April. They are bred by bulls out on grass in June and July, we try to keep a 50-60 day limit on the breeding season, but have issues with that since we run in the Community Pasture and they leave the bulls out til late August.

Heifers are often trouble to get bred back, they just have too much going on with them. They are still growing, they have a calf which is a big drain on them, and they have to clean themselves up so they can breed back. That takes a lot of nutrition.