As your heifers begin to mature, your thoughts will logically turn to deciding when to breed them.
While the desire to hurry up and get them bred can be tempting, you don’t want to rush things too quickly – breeding your heifers too soon can cause health problems for both her and the calf. Of course, you don’t want to wait too long either – unproductive animals are a money and resource drain on the farm. Deciding when to breed can be quite the balancing act – but here are some things to look for and consider to help you make the right decision.
Weight and Size
The traditional approach for heifer development has been to shoot for 65 percent of mature body weight at breeding time in order to maximize pregnancy rate. Many areas of the country have abundant feed resources, so it’s easily possible to have heifers weighing 900 pounds or more at 14 to 15 months of age. If a heifer weighs 500 pounds at 200 days of age and the target is 800 pounds, we only need a gain of 300 pounds in 235 days, or 1.3 pounds/day.
While 65 percent of mature body weight has long been suggested as the optimum poundage, Eldon Cole, livestock specialist with The University of Missouri Extension, notes that research now has backed this down to 55 to 60 percent. If your cow herd averages 1,200 pounds, then breed in the 700 to 750 pound range.
Age
Thirteen to 15 months is generally the age when heifers are mature enough to breed.
In her book Storey’s Guide to Raising Beef Cattle, Heather Smith Thomas wrote, “It takes nine months of gestation to develop the calf after the heifer becomes pregnant. Feed her properly so she can breed and conceive at 15 months of age. Then she’ll calve at about 24 months of age.”
It is not recommended for heifers to calve at under 2 years of age, so producers must take age into consideration when choosing their breeding season for first calf heifers.
Veterinary Recommendations
It’s always best to have your veterinarian check your heifers over before making your final decision to breed. This can help you catch potential problems before they cause costly issues down the road.
“The best way to determine if a heifer is ready and suitable to breed is by having a veterinarian do a breeding soundness exam on her when she’s 13 to 15 months of age,” said Cole. “The vet can give her a tract score, check for any reproductive tract abnormalities, determine if she’s already bred and measure her pelvic opening.”
You can also use this opportunity to develop a nutritional program that fits your heifers needs and will help them reproduce successfully.
After you determine when to breed your heifers for the first time, make sure you keep good records of their size, general condition, etc., at the time of breeding to help you in future seasons.
Also, keep records during pregnancy and after calving, as you will want to reference these as well in the future.
Tip for calving first-calf heifers:
Keep heifers separated from the mature herd. Bred heifers require a little more attention than the mature cows. It is much easier to provide adequate care if they are not co-mingled with the mature cow herd. Additionally, this will help you to watch them during calving time and provide additional supplemental feed when necessary. If possible, continue supplementing feed and keep the heifers separated from the main herd until after peak lactation (90-100 days post-calving).
