Running Bulling Heifers with Milk cows

[William Mellor]

Could do with bringing a group of around 10-15 bulling heifers back to ai soon but I am (like everyone else) very short of grass round the farm as the milk cows are eating everything. Currently thinking of running them with the milk cows, never do it before but doubt they’d come in the parlour or near it. See the advantages as they’d be coming back twice a day so pretty easy to separate one off to ai at each end of the day. Not served any since beginning of May when they were turned out calve all year round so need a steady supply of heifers entering the herd thro out the year My question is does anyone else do this and what are your experiences? Dry cows and close to calving heifers already run with milk cows so not a big problem running animals with the herd that aren’t in milk, very rarely get any dry cows and calving heifers coming near the parlour but they do come back with rest of the herd twice a day.

PS out of the parlour and other than grazing they are only receiving bales hay so no concentrates would be fed.

 

[Princess Pooper]

I would be concerned that the bigger cows might damage them hassling them all the time when they are bulling - OK a bull is heavier in 'real life' but not normally a lot of them to hassle bulling heifers. Plus your cows will run themselves ragged in this heat jumping them. That said, I've seen others running bulling heifers with their cows. Even though not competing for concentrate, the cows may also bully them which will make them more timid and less likely to cope when they do come in the herd.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

We did this for many years when dad was AYR calving with no problems. There would always be a few heifers running with the cows, they would go in a a few weeks before service and come out as soon as they were PD+. Ours would come through the parlour 2 X a day and get a sniff of cake as well so they were pretty well parlour trained pre calving.

 

[William Mellor]

I would be concerned that the bigger cows might damage them hassling them all the time when they are bulling - OK a bull is heavier in 'real life' but not normally a lot of them to hassle bulling heifers. Plus your cows will run themselves ragged in this heat jumping them. That said, I've seen others running bulling heifers with their cows. Even though not competing for concentrate, the cows may also bully them which will make them more timid and less likely to cope when they do come in the herd.

My heifers are all running as 1 large group atm, a group currently of 58, in that group there is a mix of in-calf heifers, bulling heifers and younger heifers down to around 10 months old anything younger than 10 months is in a separate group and “topped up” with concentrates as the main lot aren’t fed on any concentrates just graze a block of 30 acres which is unsuitable for mowing. There is more bulling heifers in the group than in-calf heifers and are some of the bossiest animals in the group so although I see it as a potential problem I would also see the bulling heifers bullying some of the stale cows a problem.

 

[vantage]

Yes my spring heifers,only 11 in number are with the herd,no problems. 20+ with the herd last year.May be for large single block herds it would be problematic due to large numbers but suits here fine.

 

[Big_D]

Good chance to get them through the parlour and trained, give them some cake for a boost to help them hold

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

We run heifers with the cows here if we want to ai them they might fight for a bit but soon sort out who is boss.

 

[William Mellor]

Good chance to get them through the parlour and trained, give them some cake for a boost to help them hold

Thanks will see if they want to go thro but I’m not going to try and force them thro the parlour if they don’t want to

 

[William Mellor]

We run heifers with the cows here if we want to ai them they might fight for a bit but soon sort out who is boss.

That’s what I’m hoping will happen, they can soon sort them selves out(well I hope they can)

 

[William Mellor]

Yes my spring heifers,only 11 in number are with the herd,no problems. 20+ with the herd last year.May be for large single block herds it would be problematic due to large numbers but suits here fine.

Was hoping that only running 10-15 would be a problem and wouldn’t stress the system, I can see running a large number would cause problems

 

[O'Reilly]

Thanks will see if they want to go thro but I’m not going to try and force them thro the parlour if they don’t want to

No, make sure they go through, else once they've calved, they'll still think that they don't need to go in, then you will have trouble.