5 Cows Ai'd to Belgian Blue - 1 calved at 291 days 4 gone 296 days

patjack

Hi all, as per title, 5 cows ai'd (synched) last year 1 calved. all in calf to DBZ Belgian blue bull, supposed to be short gestation. 4 have now gone 296 days, all well softened and sprung, question is would ye have expected them to have calved earlier than this?

onyerbikepat

Genghis Cant

I suppose I would have expected to have more than 1 calf at 296 days. Hopefully you'll have 5 good healthy calves at 297!

Gestation length is a gripe of mine in recent years, it's getting common place now for cows to carry 300 days. The calves ain't getting any smaller inside in them either!

moy83

What determines gestation length ? Is it just breeding bigger cattle that pushes it out or what ?

patjack

onyerbikepat wrote: »

I know, I know, personally don't care if they go another week, was just curious as to what a short gestation period is for cows put to a Belgian Blue bull, I thought the average would be a lot lower than 296, that's all, I know there are a lot of variants.

tanko

What date were they inseminated?

Genghis Cant

It must be possible for ICBF to have figures to see if there's an upward trend in Gest length. Maybe I'm imagining it!

J.O. Farmer

patjack wrote: »

I know, I know, personally don't care if they go another week, was just curious as to what a short gestation period is for cows put to a Belgian Blue bull, I thought the average would be a lot lower than 296, that's all, I know there are a lot of variants.

I thought belgian blues were generally short gestation anyway compared to other continental breeds so I would have thought short within blues would be even shorter. 296 doesn't sound short. Even 291 doesn't sound short. I'm going on roughly 9x30+10=280 as a starting point for cows calving. I know they can go much longer but at 300 it sounds long as it's nearly 10 months.

patjack

tanko wrote: »

What date were they inseminated?

15th July

Genghis Cant

What breed are the cows? Some of our Lims and Blondes can really hang onto a calf!

patjack

Genghis Cant wrote: »

What breed are the cows? Some of our Lims and Blondes can really hang onto a calf!

1 Lim, 1 AA, 3 HE, (The AA being the one that's calved)

patjack

moy83 wrote: »

What determines gestation length ? Is it just breeding bigger cattle that pushes it out or what ?

Not sure Moy, I always thought that the bull was the main influence on gestation length and Angus and BB were considerably lower than other breeds, however not that well up on it to be honest.

Genghis Cant

patjack wrote: »

1 Lim, 1 AA, 3 HE, (The AA being the one that's calved)

Given that 4 out of the 5 are traditional breeds I'd certainly have expected calves sooner.
I had them as continantal in my mind anyway.

Still, no need to panic just yet!

tanko

patjack wrote: »

15th July

I'd call that 23 days gone tomorrow. A neighbour of mine puts easy calving blue bulls on Friesan cows and he says that on average they go 10 days .
I had two calves today, a lim heifer carrying a lim heifer calf which was ai'ed on July 19th and a lim cow carrying a sim heifer which was ai'ed on July 26th.
Cows which go a long time can have bigger calves which can lead to calving difficulties.

patjack

tanko wrote: »

I'd call that 23 days gone tomorrow. A neighbour of mine puts easy calving blue bulls on Friesan cows and he says that on average they go 10 days .
I had two calves today, a lim heifer carrying a lim heifer calf which was ai'ed on July 19th and a lim cow carrying a sim heifer which was ai'ed on July 26th.
Cows which go a long time can have bigger calves which can lead to calving difficulties.

will keep a close eye, if no stir by Friday will consult vet. Cows all seem happy out so far so won't panic just yet.

tanko

Good luck with them, let us know how you get on.

onyerbikepat

DBZ is 285 Days according to ICBF. Half the genetic influence for gestation comes from the cow. You resally see this when you have Lim cows etc.
Study done in the US here. (Google is great!)
Month when cows go in calf plays a rule, as does the age of the cow. Cows carrying bulls tend to go longer too.
http://aipl.arsusda.gov/publish/jds/2009/92_2259.pdf

patjack

onyerbikepat wrote: »

DBZ is 285 Days according to ICBF. Half the genetic influence for gestation comes from the cow. You resally see this when you have Lim cows etc.
Study done in the US here. (Google is great!)
Month when cows go in calf plays a rule, as does the age of the cow. Cows carrying bulls tend to go longer too.
http://aipl.arsusda.gov/publish/jds/2009/92_2259.pdf

Yip seen that on ICBF that's why I was worried, one more calved, normal calving, normal size so hopefully will continue that way.