Hello and welcome to the June edition of the BTL newsletter. This month we celebrate Fathers on the 18th and welcome the summer solstice on the 21st.

Father's Day is a holiday honoring one's father, or relevant father figure, as well as fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. The single most common date among world countries is the third Sunday of June, which was founded in the state of Washington, United States by Sonora Smart Dodd in 1910. Father’s Day is a time for celebrating our fathers; the men that have devoted their lives to giving us the best shot at a happy and healthy life of our own. While every day should be an opportunity to honor our fathers, this occasion is a nice reminder that we shouldn’t take our dads for granted.

We have been enjoying reconnecting with clients during the busy season and appreciate all social media likes, tags and shares. As always we hope the season brings forth healthy calves in 2024!

This month we are pleased to share some key points from an article from the Beef Cattle Research Council on heifer development along with a few BTL tips on flushing heifers.

~ Andres, Melissa & Lisa

Heifer Development

The management and development of heifers prior to breeding and before, during and after their first calving will set the tone for a female’s entire productive lifetime. Heifers require attention to ensure they are bred early, calve successfully and re-breed within an acceptable time to raise a calf each year. Whether producers retain females from within their own herds or purchase them, replacement heifers come at a cost and are an investment into the future herd. Selecting the right animals with proper management is necessary to meet on-farm goals and improve the longevity of the heifers as future breeding cows.  

Replacement heifers are necessary on farm to:  

• replace older or culled breeding cows,  

• increase the herd size or rebuild following a herd reduction and

• improve the genetic and productive potential of the cow herd.  

   

First-calf heifers are expected to breed, deliver and raise a calf and rebreed in a timely fashion, all while they are still growing. By implementing nutritional, breeding and herd health strategies specific to the growth and development of first- and second-calf heifers, producers can help to ensure that they will be productive breeding cows in the future.  

Key Points

Many producers retain their own heifers for reasons to maintaining control over herd genetics, to reduce the introduction of external diseases and to avoid the cash outlay required to purchase replacements. 

Buying heifers from an external source provides the potential to purchase genetically superior heifers, can reduce the bull power needed (if purchasing bred heifers) and allows for the ability to grow the herd or change breeding programs more quickly, without the cost and risk of raising heifers from weaning to breeding.

Both raising and buying replacement females come at a cost. It may make sense to purchase, retain, alternate or both raise and purchase, depending on market conditions and feed supplies.  

Post-calving, first calf heifers need a high energy and protein diet (at least 62% Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN) and 11% Crude Protein (CP).) Feeding replacement heifers separately from the rest of the herd allows for a specific ration to support growing heifers and reduces resource competition between young heifers and mature cows.   

Optimally, producers will calve bred heifers at around two years of age, which means heifers need to be cycling by 11-14 months of age. Ensuring appropriate growth and body weight can be key to having heifers reach puberty on time. 

Maintaining an optimum body condition score (BCS) of 3.0 is a valuable way to maximize the reproductive momentum of a beef producer’s entire herd, including replacement heifers. Breeding heifers to calve early in the calving season, or prior to the main cow herd, can allow the heifers to have enough time to recover from calving and resume cycling before the next breeding season starts. 

First- and second-calf heifers that have problems at calving are less likely to rebreed and birth a live calf during the next calving season.

Implement vaccination protocols and disease prevention strategies in consultation with a veterinarian. Most veterinarians recommend, at minimum, a modified live pre-breeding vaccine for infectious bovine rhinotracheitis/bovine viral diarrhea (IBR/BVD) for heifers.  

When purchasing replacements, producers should buy from a known and reputable source with good health and a good vaccination program. 

Consider working with a veterinarian to develop a standard biosecurity protocol for purchased cattle.   

Can you flush heifers?

• In general heifers are more unpredictable and produce fewer embryos than mature cows.  Depending on the breed, you may get 3-4 embryos from a heifer compared to 6-7 embryos from a mature cow, this can also be due, in part, to the smaller dosages of super stimulatory drugs used when setting up heifers.

   

• Heifers cannot be flushed many times, if they are kept open for too long they usually become overly fat making it more difficult to get them in calf later.

   

• Despite their good showing careers, beef heifers have not proven breeding ability. On the other hand, for dairy breeds there is not much guess work to do with all the breeding values and production data that producers have available on hand.

   

• Heifers are more sensitive to the super stimulatory drugs; although, conservative dosages of FSH are used in heifers, there is always a risk of over stimulation and unsuccessful flushing, on rare occasions, affecting the reproductive functionality in these animals.

At Bova-Tech Ltd. we offer services that will help to increase your herd’s productivity and value. Producers depend on us to optimize their most valuable cows by generating more embryos and pregnancies that will extend the impact of outstanding cattle genetics. Our programs are designed to meet producer’s specific needs, offering all our services either in-clinic or on-farm.