Tag: Calving

How Soon Will a Cow Breed Back After Calving

Posted on by Weicks-Webmaster

How Soon Will a Cow Breed Back After Calving

Article courtesy of BioZyme® Inc.

(SAINT JOSEPH, Mo., April 30, 2024) We expect a lot from a cow. She spends roughly 283 days in gestation, delivers a calf, and then we prepare her for breed back and expect her to conceive problem free during her first heat. That is a lot for the body to handle, and the cow does it, hopefully, year after year after year.

The time it takes for a cow to breed back after calving is often referred to as the postpartum interval. Its length of time varies based on several factors, including the cow’s health, body condition, age, breed, nutrition and management practices.

So, how soon will a cow breed back after calving?

The Timeframe

On average, most cows are expected to breed back within 45 to 90 days after calving. This period allows the cow’s reproductive system to recover and prepare for the next breeding cycle. A shorter postpartum interval contributes to a consistent calving interval, allowing the cow to calve at approximately the same time each year.

Keeping your herd on the same calving interval also keeps your calf crop consistent and uniform. This helps with weaning and marketing as buyers look for calves of consistent age, size and weight at weaning and sale time.

Factors That Influence Postpartum Interval

Body Condition

Cows with a good body condition score at calving tend to have a shorter postpartum interval. If a cow is underweight or in poor condition, it may take longer for her to regain reproductive function. Get your cows ready for breeding with a good plane of nutrition.

You don’t want to have them be too fat or too thin. Although they are calving during spring, when grasses are at their lushest, remember that grass is often watery and may not contain the DM needed for the cow. You might need to supplement with added grain or hay, especially since they are raising a calf and preparing for breed back simultaneously.

Age

How soon will a cow breed back after calving? It’s often going to depend on their age. First-calf heifers may take longer to breed back compared to mature cows because they are still growing and recovering from their first calving experience.

Remember, as nutrients are partitioned out, growth is a priority. Reproduction is the lowest priority for younger females. So, you need to provide for your young females nutritionally to support long-term reproductive success.

Nutrition

Adequate nutrition plays a crucial role in reproductive recovery. Cows receiving proper nutrition and mineral supplementation are more likely to breed back sooner. This is where we can help your herd with a vitamin and mineral supplement like VitaFerm® Concept•Aid®. The Concept•Aid products promote effective, easy breeding when fed 60 days pre-calving through 60 days post-breeding. Concept•Aid products contain:

  • AO-Biotics® Amaferm®, a prebiotic research-proven to enhance digestibility.
  • Organic copper, iodine and zinc for maximum bioavailability, innate immunity and hoof health.
  • High levels of Vitamin E to support reproductive tract repair and milk quality.

Available in a variety of formulas, in both loose and tubs, VitaFerm makes a Concept•Aid formula for every management scenario. Find the Concept•Aid best for your operation with our Concept•Aid Product Navigator.

Breed

Some breeds or genetic lines may have a shorter or longer postpartum interval due to differences in reproductive efficiency. Record keeping is an important tool to track which genetic lines do indeed breed back faster. If you have continued challenges with the same cow each year, it might be time to consider culling her.

Management Practices

Proper management, including minimizing stress, providing adequate care and ensuring a suitable breeding environment, can influence the postpartum interval. This includes providing shelter and space as needed, fresh, plentiful water and ensuring that your herd remains healthy postpartum.

Estrus Cycle Resumption

After calving, cows undergo a period of reproductive recovery known as the “anestrus period.” This is the time between calving and the resumption of estrus (heat cycles). Factors such as nutritional status, stress and body condition can affect the duration of this period.

Estrus Synchronization

Some producers use estrus synchronization protocols to induce estrus and shorten the postpartum interval. This can help manage breeding more efficiently and achieve desired calving intervals. Using CIDRS or other hormone injection techniques are the most common synchronization methods. To discover the protocol right for you and your operation, work with your veterinarian or your beef genetic supplier or reproduction specialist.

BioZyme® Can Help

At BioZyme, believe in care that comes full circle for every animal. That is why we want to help you determine how soon will a cow breed back after calving. To ensure cows breed back in a timely manner, it’s essential to focus on the following:

  • Maintain cows in optimal body condition through proper nutrition.
  • Reduce stress and provide a clean and comfortable environment.
  • Monitor cows for signs of estrus (heat) and use appropriate breeding methods (natural service or artificial insemination).
  • Implement breeding protocols that align with herd management goals.
  • Ensure cows receive adequate mineral and vitamin supplementation – VitaFerm Concept•Aid.

If a cow doesn’t breed back within the expected timeframe, it may be necessary to evaluate her health, nutrition and management to determine any issues and implement corrective measures.

Get your VitaFerm Today

Not sure how soon will a cow breed back after calving? Well, with the help of VitaFerm, it will be a lot sooner than your neighbor’s cows who isn’t using VitaFerm!

Are you ready to add VitaFerm to your mineral program? We hope so! Not only will VitaFerm help with easy, effective breeding, it will also increase digestibility, helping keep your entire herd healthier. 

Not sure what product is right for your operation? Refer to the Concept•Aid Product Navigator to help you discover the product best for you.

Are you looking for a handy gestation calculator to help you determine the right time to breed back your cows based on when you want to calve? We’ve got you covered there too! Check out our automated Gestation Calculator.

Looking to buy the VitaFerm products locally? Find a local dealer here. 

If you’re not seeing a dealer in your area but still want to support local businesses, consider referring a dealer. 

About BioZyme® Inc.

BioZyme Inc., founded in 1951, develops and manufactures natural, proprietary products focused on animal nutrition, health and microbiology. With a continued commitment to research, BioZyme offers a complete line of feed additives and high density, highly available vitamin, mineral, trace mineral and protein supplements for a variety of animals including cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep, goats, horses and dogs. BioZyme brands include AO-Biotics,®, VitaFerm®, Gain Smart®, Sure Champ®, Vitalize®, DuraFerm® and Backyard Boost®. With headquarters in St. Joseph, Missouri, the company reaches a global market of customers that stretches into countries across five continents. For more information about BioZyme, visit www.biozymeinc.com.

June 2024

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Your Guide to Strategic And Scientific Bull Selection

Posted on by Amy Wold

Your Guide to Strategic And Scientific Bull Selection

Strategic and scientific bull selection, live or in a frozen straw, is one of the most important reproductive decisions you will make regarding your herd. Depending on what sector of the industry you represent, this decision can directly economically impact not only your cow herd, but your replacement heifers, animals on a retained ownership, and even feedlot or rail performance if you feed out yourself.

Knowing your herd and market are certainly cornerstones in making these decisions, but there are also other outside scientific figures that may be of equal importance. Research, data and statistics can bring some new perspectives to your breeding program you may not have otherwise obtained just looking at your own population.

Significance of Genetic Change

Every new sire you bring into your herd, on the hoof or in a tank.  Brings in some permanent genetic change. Operations who retain their own heifers in closed herds are already somewhat limited in their genetic change.  Relying heavily on new sires to bring in any new traits you desire. Even if you are practicing culling and retain only half your heifers, there will still be some “average” quality animals in the population. To bring those up and increase the population average, you need a significantly higher quality sire. Heterosis is one way to accomplish this in the commercial herd.

Genetic change is accelerated in crossbreeding programs with heterosis. These are due to additive and non-additive genetic effects. Additive effects are the portion of total genetic value that can be transmitted from parents to offspring; they are heritable. Non-additive effects are the dominance and epistatic effects, which have to do with the interaction of genes on the loci, or points on a gene.

Dominance is the interaction of paired genes on each locus, and epistatic are the interaction of genes across the loci. The sum of the two are what creates the heterosis seen in the resulting progeny.

Each parent animal only contributes one gene, so a single parent is unable to transmit dominance effects (or heterosis) to its offspring within the breed. But multiple breeds are able to have a significant effect, one that is visible in the resulting phenotype of the progeny. This is why heterosis is the superiority of a crossbred progeny compared to straightbred parentage.

Regardless of straight or cross-breeding, the bloodline of the sire in question will be around for awhile. Sires used in the last three generations in a cow herd keeping replacement animals will contribute 87.5% of the genes in a calf crop.  So it pays to be picky.

A Look at the Numbers

EPDs do some of the work for you in giving the heritability of specific traits and what changes you can expect to see, while of course accounting for genetic variation. The more progeny a sire has, the more data going into his EPDs for enhanced accuracy. As genomics gains more traction in the beef industry, genomically enhanced EPDs (GE-EPDs) are even more accurate.

Dollar indexes are a way of condensing multiple EPDs and their meanings into an equation. Giving an estimate of how much more economically an animal is worth in specific areas. It allows producers to consider offspring in terms of net profit.

Right now, there are several indexes to choose from that are pre-ordained. However, word has it there is a research project in the works at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Collaboration with Kansas State University, the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center and Thera Solutions, LLC to create a tool that would allow producers to develop their own index based on their herds specific needs.

Don’t forget to look at the EPD percentile rank, which is an easy way to see where a particular sire ranks in relation to the rest of his breed for specific traits. The closer to 1% the more positive for said trait. Be familiar with the breed associations you work with and what the benchmarks are.

Breed According to Need

Once you know what you’re looking for in terms of a sire, the next step is getting him the right cows to service. Remember, your dream bull may simply not work for all your animals. Breeding by group, or in some cases by the individual, is ideal.

Dr. Darrh Bullock of the University of Kentucky and Dr. Megan Rolf of Oklahoma State University put herd sires into six broad categories in an extension fact sheet.

These include “heifer acceptable” bulls with high calving ease. Of course they will not be exceptional for weaning weight.  But they will increase the likelihood of young and at-risk dams having a safe calving.

The “terminal” sires refer to groups where the focus is on offspring created as strictly feeders and without retaining heifers. These have an emphasis on birth and weaning weights along with dollar indexes.

The “balanced trait” bulls are those who produce well-rounded calves with both growth and maternal characteristics.

For operations with a focus on reliable cows with strong maternal instincts. They may want to look at “low maintenance” sires who produce smaller daughters that are capable of growth and milk. These animals are usually smaller framed and may have to live in environments with limited labor and resources.

Thes “high productivity” sires are those designed to increase calf productivity.  Typically in the top third of the breed for traits including growth and maternal characteristics. Feeder calves born from these sires and grow and maintain well and daughters have enough maternal strengthen to join the herd.

Finally, there are bulls who fit into the “carcass merit” category and are ideal for producers planning on trained ownership. These are the power bulls for all traits of economic and grading performance. This is similar to the terminal sire. But instead puts more focus on the traits at the packing house. As opposed to ones tied to feeding and or average daily gain.

Small scale producers who fill their own niches can find themselves in especially challenging positions. Selecting for a well-balanced herd sire is perhaps among the most challenging.  Because statistically and factually there are negative correlations and trade-offs.  Between things like carcass quality and performance traits or calving ease and weaning weight.

Artificial insemination is a powerful tool in this area and can allow you to use multiple sires for many groups. Likewise, separating your herd according to different bulls for live cover is also an option as well.

Home – American Cattlemen

August 2020

Convenience Traits Are Important

Posted on by Amy Wold

Convenience Traits Are Important

Convenience traits are important traits to cattle that contribute directly to savings in time, facilities, drugs and labor in a cow-calf enterprise. Some examples of these traits would be temperament, polledness, structural and udder soundness, disease and pest resistance, heat tolerance, doing or fleshing ability, mothering ability and calving ease. Many of these traits of convenience are not highly heritable but contribute to the ease of participating in and enjoyment of the beef cattle industry.

Temperament

Temperament is a measure of the relative docility, wildness or aggression of an animal toward unfamiliar situations, human handlers or management interventions.  It reflects the ease with which animals respond to handling, treatment and routine management. Animals with bad disposition problems are a safety risk to handlers, themselves and other animals within the herd. Disposition affects handling equipment requirements, operation liability exposure, beef quality assurance, carcass quality and performance.

Wild, hard to handle cattle are a danger to themselves and the people working with them. They are the ones that create handling and gathering problems. Once they are confined, they are the gate and fence crashers. They are wild eyed upon leaving the chute and exit the head gate on the run. They may look for something to hit and when extremely agitated may look for a human being and charge.

In addition those wild, unmanageable animals do not perform as well as calmer cattle in the feedlot. Research from Iowa State University has shown that these types of cattle gain nearly one-half pound per day less than easily managed cattle and returned $61 less profit. Also easily excited cattle tend to produce carcasses that have a higher incidence of dark cutters, which are heavily discounted in market price in the packing industry.

What can Cause the Temperament

Results of a survey of Tennessee cow-calf producers, conducted during three performance tested bull sales, revealed that temperament was rated 4.13 out of 5.0 as being important in sire selection. Cow-calf producers do not want a bull with a bad attitude. Heritability of temperament is moderately high and directional change can be made by selection and culling. The North American Limousin Foundation has developed their own breed EPD for docility or temperament which aids in making directional change in their breed for disposition.

Dr. Temple Grandin, has found that location of the hair whorl on the forehead in cattle is associated with temperament. Cattle with hair whorls above the midpoint of the eyes are more susceptible to excitement than cattle with hair whorls below the midpoint of the eyes. Excitability is measured when the cattle are in the chute by temperament scores assigned to them according to their response to restraint.

Udder Soundness

One of the most important functional traits of a beef cow is udder and teat conformation.

Beef producers are less likely to consider udder shape and characteristics as would dairy producers, but these attributes affect cow productivity and longevity and should be considered in a beef cow-calf operation. Udder and teat quality are important functional traits and appear to be heritable. Their soundness should be an important concern because of their relationship to injury and mastitis and calf performance affected by reduction of milk flow.

Oversized teats provide difficulty for newborn calves to nurse and receive adequate colostrum, which could lead to a higher incidence of scours or decreased immunity levels in the newborn calf.

What the Scores Mean

Research at the New Liskeard Agricultural Research Station in Canada examined factors related to the transfer of antibodies from the dam to her calf during the first four hours post-calving. Measurements were recorded for maternal behavior, calf vigor, calf time to first standing after birth, calf time to first suckling after birth and physical structure of the cow’s udder. Cows with higher (more desirable) maternal behavior scores had calves with higher calf vigor scores. Calf vigor scores were highly related to time to first standing of the newborn calf and time to first suckling for the newborn. Also, time to first suckling for the newborn was related to teat size score in which cows with more desirable teat scores had calves that nursed sooner after birth.

Usually teat circumference will cause problems much more often than teat length. Short to medium length teats are preferred over long teats. Sound, well attached udders are less susceptible to injury than very pendulous poor attached udders. The teats should be placed squarely under each quarter. When viewing the udder from the side view, the udder should display a level udder floor without any quartering. The median suspensory ligament is the support that ties the udder to the cow’s body wall. A weak suspensory ligament allows the udder to hang down too far from the body and subject the udder to serious problems.

Structural Soundness

Sound feet and legs are essential in order for bulls to cover many acres of pasture for mating with cows and obtaining adequate nutrition. Structural soundness is not an all or none situation but expressed in various degrees. Inspect prospective sires in a systematic manner. Inspect the bull’s feet, toes, heels, pasterns, knees, hocks and sheath. When viewed from the front, the feet should point straight ahead, both when the bull is standing and walking.The feet should be large and round with a deep heel and with toes that are similar in size.

When viewing from the rear, the legs should be equally far apart at the hocks and pasterns and then toe out slightly from the pasterns to the ground. The bull should move freely with each hoof striking the ground evenly. When on the walk, a structurally sound individual’s hindfeet will cover the footprints made by the front feet. Short, choppy strides are usually the result of the hind leg being too straight (post legged) and/or not enough angulation to the shoulder. Bad feet, pigeon toes, excessively straight or sickle hocks and loose pendulous sheaths are examples of the more common structural problems.

Replacement females should remain functionally sound to advanced ages. Proper foot, leg and udder structure is important in the beef cow or replacement heifer to insure longevity. A cow’s udder should be well attached, level across the bottom and have small to moderate sized teats that are not excessively long or excessively large in circumference. Soundness of the udder will generally deteriorate with age. Cows with impaired mobility, unsound mouths, pendulous udders or excessively large or a balloon teats are candidates for culling.

Polledness

De-horning is a labor intense management practice that requires additional health attention. Polled cattle are less troublesome when working them the possibility of injury to both producer and animal is reduced. Cattle without horns require less time and labor. De-horning can be accomplished by selection of a polled bull since the polled gene is dominant to the horned gene.

Calving Ease

Assistance at calving is labor intense and can be greatly reduced by selecting herd sires that have below breed average birth weight EPDs or an excellent EPD for calving ease. Also, stress incurred by the cow and calf at birth can lower the resistance of the newborn calf and make it more susceptible to disease and health problems. In addition, stress incurred by the cow during a difficult birth may delay her return to estrus following calving and lengthen the following year’s calving season.

Disease and Heat Resistance

There are breed differences in cattle for heat tolerance and disease resistance. The Bos Indicus (Brahman based) cattle are known to be more heat and disease resistant than the British and continental breeds other than the Senepol breed.

Doing Ability

Doing ability or fleshing ability is a measure of the adaptability of the cattle with their given resources on which to produce. Hard doers are those that do not adapt to their given set of resources and require extra attention or feed to produce. It also affects the longevity of the animal in question. The Red Angus Association has developed a Stayability EPD, which measures the likelihood that an individual will stay in the herd past six years of age.

The cow-calf industry is composed of many part-time operations that are maintained to supplement other farm enterprises or off-farm income. Labor is a limiting resource in many of these operations. There is a trend in selecting for improvement in convenience traits while maintaining optimum performance. Many of these convenience traits are not highly heritable, but by selecting for them and culling those that do not fit the producer’s objectives, improvement can be realized and enjoyment increased.

Reprinted from www.southernlivestock.com

Home – American Cattlemen

July 2020

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