Fat in calf heifers

johnpawl

I've two chx heifers, due to calf in the end of sept. I put them in calf to an ai bull which at the time was 3.75% calving difficulty at around 80% reliability. Just checked the figures there now and I see he is now at 6.9% calving difficulty!!!
The heifers were ai'd at 18 months old and are running with the cows, problem is they are absolutely rolling with fat, even though they were on average silage all winter.
With them being so fat and the calving difficulty after going up, what'd be the best course of action to try to avoid calving difficulty? House them and put them on hay for two months before???

freedominacup

johnpawl wrote: »

I've two chx heifers, due to calf in the end of sept. I put them in calf to an ai bull which at the time was 3.75% calving difficulty at around 80% reliability. Just checked the figures there now and I see he is now at 6.9% calving difficulty!!!
The heifers will be 18 months old at calving and are running with the cows, problem is they are absolutely rolling with fat, even though they were on average silage all winter.
With them being so fat and the calving difficulty after going up, what'd be the best course of action to try to avoid calving difficulty? House them and put them on hay for two months before???

You aied them to calve at 18 months WTF did you do that? I reckon your best course of action is to get two good shots of estrumate and get rid of the problem. No good can come of it. At this stage they aren't really old enough to be aied so you'd have a month or two to deal with any problems the estrumate may cause and then put them in calf at a more realistic time.

moy83

Is it too late to estrumate them ? They are a bit young for calving. I had one calve last year at 18 months by accident . She calved ok but she was too young to put much ways on her calf and id say i left her 9 months or so before bulling again as she needed time to come on herself aswell . If you cant estrumate them they would want to be kept fit for the last couple of months but be ready for hassle from them id say

johnpawl

moy83 wrote: »

Is it too late to estrumate them ? They are a bit young for calving. I had one calve last year at 18 months by accident . She calved ok but she was too young to put much ways on her calf and id say i left her 9 months or so before bulling again as she needed time to come on herself aswell . If you cant estrumate them they would want to be kept fit for the last couple of months but be ready for hassle from them id say

Sorry meant to say I ai'd them at around 18/19 months! They're huge now, far bigger than most of my cows.

pakalasa

I would aim to have them lean, healthy and fit when calving. You don't need to house them, just restrict the amount of grass they get. A good electric fence is your answer. Fodder will be scarce enough, without feeding cattle indoors, when weather is good.
I often have the same problem, when I calve heifers down mid-summer. It can be hard to keep condition of animals that are genetically bred to put it on.;) Chances are things will work out ok. Good luck.

tanko

As long as you are about when they're calving, im sure they'll be ok. Can you say what bull you used?

1chippy

Thats madness having heifers calving down at 18 or even 19 months. 22 would be the earliest round here bar an accident. I wouldnt care how big they were.

redzerologhlen

johnpawl wrote: »

Sorry meant to say I ai'd them at around 18/19 months! They're huge now, far bigger than most of my cows.

1chippy wrote: »

Thats madness having heifers calving down at 18 or even 19 months. 22 would be the earliest round here bar an accident. I wouldnt care how big they were.

You were rushing chippy

moy83

johnpawl wrote: »

Sorry meant to say I ai'd them at around 18/19 months! They're huge now, far bigger than most of my cows.

That makes more sense now

johnpawl

1chippy wrote: »

Thats madness having heifers calving down at 18 or even 19 months. 22 would be the earliest round here bar an accident. I wouldnt care how big they were.

Post edited to avoid further confusion.
Neighbour does my ai and he reckoned there would want to be something done with them pre calving or they'd be in difficulty due to the size of them. I'll prob run them after the cows on bare paddocks I suppose..

Bizzum

johnpawl wrote: »

Post edited to avoid further confusion.
Neighbour does my ai and he reckoned there would want to be something done with them pre calving or they'd be in difficulty due to the size of them. I'll prob run them after the cows on bare paddocks I suppose..

Who's the daddy? :-)

johnpawl

Bizzum wrote: »

Who's the daddy? :-)

I've calves off the same bull(bzb)PT and they were all born small n hardy so I was confident putting him on heifers coupled with his figures. Now the figures are gone to 6.9 you'd be wondering what's the story. I wouldn't have gone above 5%

Bizzum

johnpawl wrote: »

I've calves off the same bull(bzb)PT and they were all born small n hardy so I was confident putting him on heifers coupled with his figures. Now the figures are gone to 6.9 you'd be wondering what's the story. I wouldn't have gone above 5%

I spoke to the owner of BZB some time back and he told me the calves were born very small, so much so that it disappointed him initailly, but they grow on well.
Tighten up the heifers, make sure they get minerals and there wont be a bother on them.

getupthatyard

Put bzb on 3 heifers, first one small and hardy, other 2 a different story, out of a limo heifer and a blue heifer
Caesarean on a massive bull calf and a massive heifer calf, carried 10 days over!
Used him because he was recommended as easy calving!!

johnpawl

getupthatyard wrote: »

Put bzb on 3 heifers, first one small and hardy, other 2 a different story, out of a limo heifer and a blue heifer
Caesarean on a massive bull calf and a massive heifer calf, carried 10 days over!
Used him because he was recommended as easy calving!!

I see he's gone to 7.5% now, still at 95% reliability. I put them on hay n minerals anyway.

Bizzum

johnpawl wrote: »

I see he's gone to 7.5% now, still at 95% reliability. I put them on hay n minerals anyway.

I'd think a lot of lads used him on heifers and now as a result of that the figures are creeping up.
Some of these good scopey Charolais heifers would be good heifers to calve. Best of luck with them, another few weeks and you'll know all.

johnpawl

Bizzum wrote: »

I'd think a lot of lads used him on heifers and now as a result of that the figures are creeping up.
Some of these good scopey Charolais heifers would be good heifers to calve. Best of luck with them, another few weeks and you'll know all.

I've been told that he's been used on a lot of blue heifers also which might also serve to push up the difficulty. I'll throw upa couple of pics of them anyway all going well

moy83

7.5% isn't terribly bad either though ? You have them getting fed right in time anyhow so hopefully you wont have a bother out of them .

johnpawl

moy83 wrote: »

7.5% isn't terribly bad either though ? You have them getting fed right in time anyhow so hopefully you wont have a bother out of them .

Well I used him a lot on cows and calves were all small and hardy, calved not a bother. All cows were plain though. On heifers I'd rather not go above 5 % but hopefully they ll grand. One of my ch heifers is half Piedmontese so hoping for a decent calf off her