# At what age to start breeding heifers?



## planecrazyusa (Apr 25, 2008)

Just wondering what age to hook up the mini heifers with a mini bull, also some larger heifers with the mini?


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## michiganfarmer (Oct 15, 2005)

If no one els answeres, Im going to suggest that you talk to a vet, or an association for your breed.

I have always used the rule of thumb of breeding them so they freshen at 2 years old, but I have grown up around dairy animals, and we wanted to get them in production asap. 

I dotn see any reason why you cant breed yours at 14 months old. I dont think breeding them any earlier will be much benefit.


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## SRobles (Jun 12, 2007)

We breed ours so they calve at 2


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

calving at 2 years of age is a decent objective. Angus will weigh around 750 at breeding age.


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## Tom in TN (Jun 12, 2007)

Planecrazy,

Maybe I'm being too cautious, but I think this is also customary with other farmers around her, I hold my Angus calves for 16 - 20 months depending on their size before I introduce them to the bull. Not only am I concerned about the difficulty of first calf delivery, but I'm also concerned about the bull breaking the heifer down. My Angus bulls typically weigh around 1800 pounds. As they say. "That's a lot of bull."

Good luck,

Tom in TN


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

While dairys will try to freshen a heifer at the age of two for maximum lifetime production, I try to hold of my beef cows to the magic weight of the 700-800 lbs. range before I turn a bull in for the same reasons as posted above by Tom. Although it's good to get to sale a calf a little quicker, the hasty profits go down the tube when you have one heifer that dies during birth due to being too small bred. I try to breed by weight and not age. I realize you're dealing with a mini, but here's a link dealing with ideal breeding weights for different breeds of dairy cattle. 

http://genex.crinet.com/page638/DeterminingOptimalAgeAtFirstCalving


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## randiliana (Feb 22, 2008)

We breed to calve them at 23-24 months of age. If they aren't big enough to breed at 14-15 months of age, then they probably are not something we want to keep in the herd. They should be close to or more than 60% of their mature body weight at breeding. 

We don't have any wrecks calving them at 2 years of age. Choose the right bull, and you should be just fine. As for the bull being too big, unless he is a really big, mature bull, things should be fine. I know stuff happens, but it is pretty darn rare!!


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

We breed our Jerseys to calve out about 22-24 months of age. We have never had a problem calving.


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## planecrazyusa (Apr 25, 2008)

Thank you to all of you!! I appreciate the input, I really wasn't even thinking about the size of the bull, so you have brought up some great points.


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## genebo (Sep 12, 2004)

The rule of thumb to breed for calving at 24 months old makes sense in an ordered breeding plan. If you have your calf born at the right time of year, then naturally you'll want the next calf born at the same time of year. That means at 2 years, 3 years etc.

Different breeds mature at different rates. You didn't say what breed yours are. Galloways are slow to mature, so are Zebu. Dexters are fairly early to mature.

If your winters are severe or your summers are dry, it makes sense to calve when the grass is avaliable and plentiful. That usually means calving between late March and early June, depending upon where you are.

Kit Pharo came to talk to our grazier's club and showed us a way to pick the optimum time of year for calving. It may be listed on his website. It involved the types of grass, temperatures and rainfall.

Count back 280 days from your best calving time. If your heifer is too immature to breed then, you can wait until next year or accept a later breeding/calving time.

I run a single bull with a family herd. They stay together at all times. The bull manages the breeding times. My Dexters average breeding at 13 months this way. That's about 2 months earlier than the rule of thumb, but it's worked for my herd.

It won't work if you allow the young bulls to remain with the herd, or if you introduce new heifers to the herd. The young bulls have to go and the new heifers need to be held until they are ready to be bred.

Genebo
Paradise Farm


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