Fertility of dexter calves

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 12:40 pm

I hope everyone does not mind me repeating this warning on the website again, about the early sexual maturity of dexters.
Female dexter calves really can get served by a bull at at very young age. The youngest I have heard of in this area is one who calved at only eleven and a half months.i.e. served by a bull when only two and a half months old! She required a caesarian, and she and the calf required lots of care, but pulled through.

The other day I had a phone call from an owner whose heifer had just calved to his surprise at 14 months. He has had dexters for a couple of years and said that he had been told that it was fine to keep the bull in until heifer calves were 6 months old. Every year I hear of several similar stories, some with happy outcomes, some not.

It is not an easy situation to know how to handle, other than extreme vigilence. I decided last year to run all those with heifer calves in with the bull as soon as they calved, and thought this was the obvious solution. However, difficulties arose when, after removing the bull, I found one or 2 cows had not held and so I then had the situation of having to run the bull with them again, with an older heifer calf at foot.
Some owners leave the bull in, and then inject the heifers to bring them bulling, but this is not 100% reliable nor do I personally like routinely interfering with natural body rythmns or the possible damage of heifers being served at a young age.

This is not a "holier than thou" preaching. I have a bull who can scale any gate/go through electric fences/hedges etc to be with the girls. He is a man with a mission and keeps me busy making Fort Knox! As I don't like calving in the summer, I hired him out last year. However, I curentlyhave an 18 month old heifer about to calve that he must have served on about his last day on the farm!

Moral: Just watch those heifer calves and watch for telltale signs such as walking stiffly, tail out and possibly some bleeding.

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 2:14 pm

We bought in (without realising) a heifer who had a birthdate of 13.06.03 and who calved (by c/s) on 21.06.04. Mother and babe survived but the vet said mum would never make a decent cow after that experience. We gave her some time off and I can say that she has grown on to make a decent sized animal and she has given us a well-grown calf this year via a normal birth. This is in no way to encourage reckless breeding of too young heifers, just to say that sometimes it is possible to get away with it. The calf from the first birth grew on OK and went to the bull at the correct time. I wait to see what she will produce.

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:47 pm

It is good to hear that it is possible to have a happy ending with these heifers, Sylvia. Often they end up in the meat chain as the owners are concerned that once a caesarian has been done they may not calve normally again. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, and the beef is beautiful, but if someone has a really good heifer, then maybe it will reassure them to keep her on and try again.

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:23 am

We also had a heifer which calved before her second birthday, which stunted her growth. The calf was small. She was able to feed it reasonably well, but I think it will always be smaller than the other calves in the herd. The heifer didn't recycle before we took the bull out of the herd that season, so she didn't produce another calf later that year. During that time she managed to grow to her full size and is now in-calf again and due at the begining of November. I'm expecting her next calf to be much bigger than her first calf.

So if a heifer is left empty after producing a calf at too young an age, they can make up for the loss of growth during that first important year and a half. But its so much better if they can be kept away from the bull until they're 16-18 months old.

Kevin · Post by **Kevin** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:43 pm

If the heifers can breed at that young age, what about the bulls? At what age are they capable of impregnating a heifer? ie. if there are males and females born about the same time in the herd what is the procedure? ???

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:52 pm

Hi Kevin,

best to get them castrated at a young age, then they can all run happily together. I believe a young dexter bull is possible of impregnating a female by the time it is 6 months old. Perhaps someone knows different?

Penny

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:05 pm

Penny, it is a good thing to remind folks now and then about the early maturity of Dexters. I was just chatting to a fellow breeder yesterday and she thought that as long as she took the bull out when the heifers were 5 months old, it was OK. She was very :O shocked when I told her what I had read on this page. I suspect she will be getting the bull out a little earlier now

Kathy