Cakving Interval

[Baker9]

I had a cow calve 27th Feb last year and she calved again on the 11th January, in other words she moved back 47 days. I have never seen this amount of time before, I have seen them coming back 4 weeks OK but not nearly 7 weeks. This means that she came back on heat 30 days after calving.
She is an AI bred AA cow and never has the best quality calf.
Have any others on here had one come back as far?

 

[GTB]

I wouldn't have thought it was that unusual tbh.

 

[Baker9]

I wouldn't have thought it was that unusual tbh.

It looked unusual to me but I have a small number of cows.

 

[Spartacus]

Years ago we bought one with a calf at foot, think it'd been caught really young and hadn't grown a lot so we left it to grow on and slip from August/September calveing herd to a spring calver, ran it with a the bull in may and about a week into June it calved unexpectedly! It gained every year, not a fancy thing but boy did it work for us.

 

[Crex]

Not that unusual really, we've had some come round a bit quicker than that.

 

[M-J-G]

Almost 7 weeks is quite a jump by anyone's standards, but quite believable.

 

[west coast angus]

I have seen quite a few of our AA's calf and come bulling in the same month.

 

[Ashtree]

I've a 12 year old Charolais cow here which had twins on the 23rd of February last year. She reared both to almost nine months and sold off at 347kgs each. They got creep feed to help the old lady along
She calved again yesterday which amazed me! She was never the most prolific cow in the past.
If every cow produced 3 calves every 11 months the suckling game would be a good un.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Not out of the question at all. If the last calf was not over-large it could have been 10 days or so early as well which would put your service date back, as you obviously didn't see her served.

 

[M-J-G]

I've a 12 year old Charolais cow here which had twins on the 23rd of February last year. She reared both to almost nine months and sold off at 347kgs each. They got creep feed to help the old lady along
She calved again yesterday which amazed me! She was never the most prolific cow in the past.
If every cow produced 3 calves every 11 months the suckling game would be a good un.

Did you feed her well after she calved?

I've found twin bearing cows to be fertile next time round, I have always put it down to them calving down a bit leaner and then being put onto a a steeply rising plane of nutrition thereafter.

 

[GTB]

Did you feed her well after she calved?

I've found twin bearing cows to be fertile next time round, I have always put it down to them calving down a bit leaner and then being put onto a a steeply rising plane of nutrition thereafter.

This is exactly what happens. Seen it many times where a cow with an adoption, twins or a problem calf gets kept separate, very often in with the bull as there's nowhere else available. You very often see these cows bulling in less than a month and getting in calf too.

 

[Ashtree]

Did you feed her well after she calved?

I've found twin bearing cows to be fertile next time round, I have always put it down to them calving down a bit leaner and then being put onto a a steeply rising plane of nutrition thereafter.

Yes, after calving I put her in a small paddock on her own and gave her a bit of TLC. So perhaps your theory is quite correct.

 

[west coast angus]

Nail on the head!! It is usually a cow that is in a pen with twins getting fed really well, that comes bulling with in 4 weeks, and quite often find they will have twins again!

 

[dannewhouse]

the suckler game would be great having 3 calves in 11 months but this is only really possible with triplets. but twins followed by a single would be great even better less than 12 months calving. not looking at cow at same point in cycle.
its like the buying cow + calf + incalf = 3 lives, no its 2 lives + pregnancy if its 1 month in calf would you give 1/3 less a month ago and bull it yourself?

I once read up a lot about twinning in America they bred year after year only from twins they had something like a 98% twin % but they couldn't hold a 12 month calving interval regardless of feed. it slipped to a manageable 18months so they rated the twins as 133% ie 4 calves in 3 years as appose to traditional 100% = 3 calves in 3 years (1 per year)

 

[-farmer_girl-]

Not so unusual. Had one cow, which one year calved on June 17th with a single heifer and next year she calved on April 15th with twin bull calves. Have one cow, which lost her calf and went inheat 14 days after calving. Will see if she got incalf already.

 

[M-J-G]

Not so unusual. Had one cow, which one year calved on June 17th with a single heifer and next year she calved on April 15th with twin bull calves. Have one cow, which lost her calf and went inheat 14 days after calving. Will see if she got incalf already.

Loosing or not rearing a calf seems to kick-start cows into cycling very early.

A lot of folks who only allow calves restricted access to their mothers will have cows cycling shortly after calving.

 

[CharcoalWally]

A lot of folks who only allow calves restricted access to their mothers will have cows cycling shortly after calving.

As above ^^. It doesn't work for them all , but the restricted access cows that come cycling early will often do so at 14-21 days after calving.