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Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 9:20 am
by Broomcroft
I am working my way from all year round calving to early spring calving only (may end up with some in autumn though). I put my bull in end of April which is early but I'm working my way towards my end goal, need another year to get there because of heifers calves still being with their dams.
My question is, if you want a reasonably tight calving, how long would you leave your bull in with the cows at this time of year? He is 4 years old and with 30 cows. They will all be scanned however many days after removing the bull.
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:50 pm
by domsmith
Until they are all in calf!!
i wouldnt remove him, even if its late surely a calf in june is better than no calf at all.
dom
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 6:52 pm
by AlisonKirk
We put our bulls in with the spring calving cows on 12 June 2009. We started calving on 14 March 2010 and by 16 April had 36 healthy calvings, with a further five in May. The bulls are taken from the cows when we house beginning November.
Many of our cows calve almost to the day each year.
Heifer calves receive a dose of Estrumate three weeks after removal of the bull.
To get a close calving pattern each year, we ensure cows are in condition score 3 ..... not over fat and not too thin. Bulls are also healthy and not lame or suffering from anything which might prevent them doing their job. If you speak to a commercial suckler cow farmer, his spring calving cows are not turned out looking round and fat, they milk 'off their backs' and with careful grassland management, they are just ready for the bull in June.
Even with our strict management policy we still get the odd cow which calves a month later, but better late then never. If they are really out of sequence we drop them back to the autumn calving when we calve approx 12 cows.
A close calving pattern certainly makes life a lot easier.
Alison Kirk
Boram Dexters
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 7:36 pm
by Broomcroft
Thanks dom/Alison. I think I will take him out after about 9-10 weeks which will be quite soon. Looking at last year, even though I left him in for ages, all calves were born in the first 9 weeks, most in the first 5 weeks. I think he's working but you can never catch him at it! Same last year but all were pregnant.
Calving should be Jan-Feb-Mar in 2011. Then in 2012 I'll try and slip another month. I don't really want late calves. I'd cull the cow instead to be honest.
Edited By Broomcroft on 1276540668