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Calving order - heifers first or cows first?
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Markwright
Posted 3/3/2010 18:14 (#1103415 - in reply to #1103178)
Subject: RE: In Dak


New Mexico
it makes some sense to calf May thru Mid June too ( run the bulls for 43 days ).

The first year doing that you'll clean up your less fertile cows, and by the 3rd year your herd will calf 80% of em within the first 21 days....Soo, that's May.

Yeah it might lighten your weaning individual calf weight by maybe 50 lbs in the fall. THAT though is more than made up by having more live calves generally and less health stressed calves.
Thus your total calf weight tonnage is sometimes actually MORE on the May calfers than Mar/April calfers.
Also it takes less feed to winter a May calfer vs a Mar/April calfer.

The feed savings is due to warmer weather in Mar/April when your cows have huge nutritional requirements:
Takes less feed for a P 3 cow than a Pair, AND you save winter feed in January and Feb too, because your May cows are a P 2 nutritional requirement then whereas the P 3 Mar/ April calfers are a P 3 nutritional requirement.

70% of the CALF's development while inside a pregnant cow is in that P 3 ( last trimester ).

Buffalo calf in May in North America....for a God made survival reason ( MO ).
Seems to me like Mother Nature must just know...that in May almost all of em "make it" easier.
Calfing anything on green grass slips out 50% easier than calfing on hard feed.
Dropping em on warm ground is a huge plus over dropping em on a mud,snow and ice sheet too.

The NICE thing this year about the bulk of folks calfing in the mud and snow is that after a hard feed winter they'll lose plenty of em.

Couple that to a low numbered cow herd....Face it sometimes 5% to 10 less supply of any commodity can result in a large enough perceived shortage to actually make the ones left worth 30% to 200% MORE than they were before.

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