# Bred young Heifers



## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

So we got a bit of a surprise at the end of out calving season this year - 3 yearling heifers who we were planning on putting on test started bagging up, and so far 2 have had calves, we preg checked the remaining heifers and they are open. These heifers are only14/14.5 months old! Now they are decent heifers, and calved with no problems, are taking to the calves great, but I'm not sure how much milk they are producing. They have been on silage and WBG all winter, & soon to be on the grass.

We've never had heifers get bred so early (5mo) And its a toss up who the father is, as I had run 2 of our herds together at that time, so its either charolais or simmental (big bulls, +2000# for sure) and it looks to be one of each going off the calf colour. Either way they threw smart little calves, and had them unassisted, which we were nervous of once we saw they were in calf.

When the vet was here, he said the youngest he has seen was 12-13mo before. Anyone else ever have have to deal with this? We're thinking of picking up an old milk cow if we can find one, put the calves on her if she'll take them and try and give the heifers a break for this summer.. Thoughts?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Supa Dexta said:


> Thoughts?


You are very lucky.

Regards, Mike


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

Dad had a brindle heifer at 15 month calf was excellent mother back in the 70's sold the last of her line 2yrs ago. Very smart girl No matter what I did she always new what was up..moving / vaccination etc. Congratulations


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

Ps small bag at 1st birthing never a problem with it


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

Oh we're glad they've been trouble free. Makes up for another few we lost this winter if nothing else. I weighed them this morning, little heifer calf is only 56lbs.. ha We usually calve out at 90-100, so it's a tiny little thing. The other one is a bull calf a few days older and its 74.

Here's a picture.. Its got the same marking on its tail as its mother.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

Momma's in great shape! Shouldn't have any problems


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## Waterway64 (Dec 2, 2011)

You obviously have top management and these young ladies will need excellent care to continue to grow and also raise a calf. I had one who calved at about 15 months with no trouble. I guess nature compensates. She had been my top heifer calf the season before. I don't feel I took good enough care of her during the first lactation as she didn't go on to be the cow that I expected. Mel


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## Dill (Nov 5, 2010)

So what cross is the mom? Orange with a white tail is an interesting color.


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

She'd be mainly charolais and red angus. They'll be some gelbvieh in her too. We'd call her tan, just her winter coat looks a little more red. Been introducing red and black simmental bulls into the mix the last couple of years. And their calves are either coming out red with a white stripe on its face, or black with the white spot on its face. And the charolais calves seem to have the white at the other end.. ha


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

She is in good shape for a young momma. Keep her fed and fit and I bet she continues to grow and raise the calf.

I have kept a nurse cow before when I had several heifers bred. It is nice how the right Jersey will mother every calf in the herd.

I am glad the heifers have done well. Most of that has to do with how well they were kept. You are doing something right.


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

Well thanks, we try. Here's a picture of one of the bulls last summer @ 3 yrs old.


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

And the other culprit










This is the bull we are running with the other open heifers (and you can see more of the white tails)


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## ForemanTX (May 7, 2012)

You are lucky,last time i had accident lost mother and calf she was 15mnths,calf weighed over 100lbs(culprit charolais bull calve). Good set heifers if start early dropping calfs no issues,keepers. Calve look healthly and good,go with what your doing. Well maybe not try luck again,they worth to much to be losing. I built field fence heifer pen,and nothing run close to them, so no boyfriends should get in there. Nice looking Bulls....


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

Well my luck is wearing thin. The last heifer started to calve last night. And I could tell by the feet (foot) it wasn't going to be easy. We got the pullers out and it was a tough pull, took a while, but we got a big white calf out of her. It was unresponsive for the most part at birth. But I could see a heart beat, so I give it a few shakes hanging it from its back feet without much response.

So onto the chest compressions, hard at that for a couple minutes and we eventually got a real wet gasp, so I kept at the compressions and then my father started mouth to mouth...er snout, covering it all except for one nostril. After a good few minutes of that and the compressions it started breathing on its own, although really wet breathing. We managed to milk what little we could out of the heifer while she was still down, and tubed the calf... We spent the next hour rubbing it down, and trying to clear its lungs, but you could tell the calf was played out. We managed to get the heifer up, but she was real wobbly.

Anyways, got to bed in the middle of the night and then out at 5am this morning and the thing is still living! Milked her again, but she don't have nothing much to give, so we'll go see what the dairy guys have around this morning for colostrom - as we don't have any frozen left this late in the season.

Was't one bit of fun to be had out of this one, but atleast they're both still alive at this point. We use this style pullers, thankfully this was the first time we've taken them off the wall this season, but they got a work out, there was one big crack midway thru, not sure what it was, but sounded ahead of the heifers hips at the time -


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

Well we got some milk from a local dairy farm, and tubed him again.. He is brighter now, not able to stand yet. But as long as he's still breathing I'm alright with it.

Not a huge calf @ 75lbs, but this is the smallest heifer of the bunch, and she was likely over weight. Glad this is over with though.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

If you can get any milk out of her mix it with the dairy. If she is reluctant to accept this calf...or spread her poop on its back. Helped me to get a replacement calf accepted


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

Oh yeah, we're getting what we can from her.. And she's interested in it a bit, just not as quick to look after it as the other 2 were.


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

You are very lucky. We had 2 heifers get bred one year when we lost track of time and forgot to pull the bulls. They both needed c section and both calves died. It didnt help they werent in with the heifer bull either. The calves weighed 130 atleast. Now we estrumate all the heifers when they are weaned.


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

One of the last mature cows just calved this afternoon, so i took them home. I can milk her if nothing else, but half tempted to get her to raise the both calves if she will.


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## ontario hay man (Jul 18, 2013)

Pour a dob of molasses down the calfs back. She would take it. Where in canada are you?


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

I'm on the east coast.

Just an update, the calf on the mature cow was 108# at birth, so it's taking all the milk she had, So we ended up putting the heifers calf back on herself and supplementing it with some milk. It took a couple of days for it to stand, and another day or more to teach it to suck - but it's on its way now. And she's producing more milk and looking after it better too. So its worked out well in the end.

I'll probably pull these calves off early in the fall, and give the heifers a chance to catch up before winter sets in anyways.

Now to decide what to do so it doesn't happen again.


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

If you can a yr off would help them a lot


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