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Central, IA |
What type of date range has everyone seen, or should expect on AI bred 1st calf beef heifers when calving them out?
Here is a little background on what we have. 10 Angus / Angus cross heifers. All AI bred one time with a clean-up bull to follow. Heifers were bred at 13-14 months of age. We time syncronized the AIing - We had them on MGA for 21 days, Shot of Lutalyse, used KMAR heat detection and a lot of close watching, then AI'd. All of this was done "by the book"
AIing was done evening of 05/17, morning of 05/18, evening of 05/18 depending on standing heat observation. 283 day calving period should put calving date on 02/24. Clean-up bull was turned in a week later on 05/24 - 283 day would put calving on 03/02. Should note we observed standing heat on 9 of 10 heifers, AI'd the one that did not show 'standing heat' on evening of 05/18 - She has already calved. My dad did the AIing and has 20 years of AI experience with dairy cows, If that accounts for anything
Here is how calving has gone, According to a 02/24 due date, 283 day calving cycle.
1st calf - 02/16 - Heifer calf - 8 days early
2nd calf - 02/18 - Heifer calf - 6 days early
3rd calf - 02/27 - Bull calf - 3 days late
4th calf - 02/28 - Heifer calf - 4 days late
4 other heifers are really close and could calve today without being a surprise, The last 2 are springing pretty good, but probably a week to 10 days away, about guarentee bull bred with these.
All the AI bulls used were an 11 or higher for CED and a -0.8 or lower for BW. Genex Sires.
I guess I was expecting to see 4 or 5 calves dropped right on the due date. The early ones do not surprise me with heifers and the easy calving bulls, Maybe the clean-up bull got more than we thought? But everything seemed good when we AI'd them.
Do you guys see AI heifers going past their due dates?
I guess I cannot complain yet, all the calves on the ground are well on their way. We pulled the bull calf, But that was only because she was in labor and we moved her to a calving pen and then she would not lay back down. So after about an hour we went ahead and pulled it, Real easy pull and everything is fine, probably would have had it on her own, but after an hour with a heifer I would just as soon help the process along a little.
Thoughts anyone?
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AI'd Heifers Calving Dates
