Puzzling heat activitiy

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GLZ

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Mar 24, 2008
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385
So I am not sure what to do here, and am looking for thoughts.

I have a cow, who I bred back on the 7th of June.  Since then two heat cycles have passed by, and I have not seen a thing out of her.  No activity at all.  So according to a 21 day cycle if she wasn't bred, she would come back in on Saturday.

Last night between 6:30 pm, and 10 pm she was jumping several different cows in the lot.  I was pretty surprised since I figured I had her bred since I hadn't seen heat for two cycles.

However no other cows are paying any attention to her at all.  I have several 5 month old bull calves in the pen who couldn't care less about her.  (they tipped me off to a heifer in heat just the other day)  The only activity was her jumping cows through that particular time frame.  I saw no cow even attempt to mount her, and after three inches of rain this past weekend, it is pretty muddy.  Most cows she tried mounting have mud on them from her jumping, but she is as clean as can be.

I watched her through the night, and I figured I would see her in standing heat this morning.  I was outside by 5:15, and watched her and every other cow in the pasture for that matter for a good 20 minutes.  I saw no activity at all this morning.  She still appears like noone tried to mount her through the night, and no other cow is interested in her still.  She wasn't interested in jumping other cows this morning either. 

Any thoughts?
 

GLZ

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Mar 24, 2008
Messages
385
Unless she went on a very short cycle (10 days), she should not have been.  Plus it wasn't one specific cow she was mounting, it was several.  None of them were close to standing.
 

Jenny

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Jun 20, 2007
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south dakota
My thought would be,yes, she was in heat.
She did become pg when you bred her back in June, but very commonly, there is early embryo death.  I do not have the stats with me now, but it is quite common.  I hate it because it makes your cow all off for the next calving year. 
I also hate it because you think they are bred and then they are not.
Watch again now in 17-22 days and see if she again shows signs of heat. 
 

Stihlpro

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Apr 23, 2007
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142
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WA
I have a cow that does this every year (5 yrs straight).  Her actions are almost exactly what you described.  She will even have mucous discharge.  Funny thing is that she always ends up being bred to the original AI date.  ??? ???
 

GLZ

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Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
385
I have a cow that does this every year (5 yrs straight).  Her actions are almost exactly what you described.  She will even have mucous discharge.  Funny thing is that she always ends up being bred to the original AI date. 

I wouldn't have any problem breeding her again if she would show standing heat, but she hasn't even gotten close.  Noone has shown the least bit of interest in her, and I feel confident that they would if she was in standing heat.
 

Stihlpro

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Apr 23, 2007
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142
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WA
I echo what I said earlier, could be wrong but I'd bet she's bred.  The first 2yrs I had my cow preg checked and now I don't worry about her behavior unless the other cows are showing interest in her.
 

olsencattleco

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Feb 15, 2007
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245
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Corsicana, Texas
My first thoughts would also be that it could be an early embryo death, but the fact that none of the other cows nor young bulls calves were showing her any interests at all lead me to think that it is just a false heat. We have several each year that will have false heats.  Last year coming on calving season one of our cows showed signs of heat.....bull bred her....two weeks later she calved.
 

fluffer

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Sep 6, 2007
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644
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Springfield, Ohio
I find myself asking myself the same question- is she or is she not in heat.  I have decided that we get so worried about wheather or not we got them bred that we read too much into things.  We get all excited over some jumping or stringing.  Usually turns out that they are bred.

fluffer
 

ratmama2

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Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
71
My oldest dominate cow does jumping too. She even jumps the bull. If he shows no interes tthen I know she is pregnant. I had a beef farmer tell me that it is usually a dominace thing when they sometimes do that. She jumps all the time and still has a calf from her original AI or natural service date. Sometimes our ladies are just strange and funny with their antics. Have a vet check her then you will know for sure.
 
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