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Eastern NE KS | The following stuff is related to heifer choices, young heifer development or just couple of questions from the shared example.
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My neighbor kept his spring born heifers, 53 head. Exposed them to two bulls for 30 days to calves at 2 yo. Preg check showed 39 bred. Months later he sold these 39. Sale barn vet found 38 bred. The remaining one sold as a feeder.
The 14 heifers found open at the farm were exposed to bulls for 65 days for fall calves. Twelve were found bred. Although the 2 opens were coming 2 years olds, they failed to conceive.
Are Freemartins that common? All heifers were singles at birth.
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This pregnancy history is not very surprising but I like the 30 day exposure to identify the early fertile gals and let nature sort them from the others. With just 30 days exposure for round one, I think it is not surprising that so many bred up 4-5 months later in round 2. However if I was the buyer, I'm not sure this whole story was reported when selling round 2. They will be 2.5 years old, big beautiful and will calves Feb-March.
Does early fertility suggest better chance rebreeding with 1st calf at side? My experience is mixed when breeding 1st calf mothers. It seems I always lose 1 or 2 out of my small 10-18 groups.
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Expanding the herd
