Still nursing. Can she be bred?

[Jeri Watts]

Hi all. I am new to this cattle business, so this is probably a dumb question. One of my cows had her first calf June 16, 2016. Occasionally I still see her calf nurse but I also see our bull nurse on her sometimes! Can she get pregnant while this is going on? If so, will she produce colostrum at time of calving? Thanks of any help. Jeri
PS - I have been told that bulls sometimes do that (nurse on cows with milk) but should I stop it somehow? I hate to separate him from the herd because after all, his job is to get them bred.

 

[jhm47]

You must separate the cow in question immediately. The calf should have been weaned by the time it was 8 months old, and the bull should never be nursing. And, yes, the cow is likely bred if she has adequate nutrition and body condition score. The cow will not have colostrum if you allow the others to nurse up until she gives birth again. The bull does not need to be separated, the cow does.

 

[cjc]

As @jhm47 said separate them.

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings and welcome to BYH from NE Texas. I know next to nothing about cattle or raising them, aside from the fact that they taste delicious grilled. I am trying to learn myself though as I need a couple of steers on my property very soon. We do have a group of very knowledgeable cattle folks here, 2 of whom you've already "met". Hope you'll stick around and participate! Browse around as there's lots of good info and experience shared in the various threads. Make yourself at home.

Please consider putting at least your general location in your profile. Typically when you ask for help/advice, where you're located has a large bearing on the answers. Hope you'll share some pics of your animals as well. We all love pics here

 

[greybeard]

The original questions have been addressed already, but the other side of that is the milk stealing bull and the year old still nursing calf will drag the cow down nutritionally. She shoulda been dried up months ago.

 

[jhm47]

Also, get rid of the bull. He's a "sucker", and likely can't be rehabilitated. He will forever steal from any cow that has milk, and her calf will go hungry. Not worth keeping one like that.

 

[farmerjan]

As everyone else has said, the cow needs to be completely dried up so that the last 2 months of her pregnancy her energy is going into the growing calf inside and then her producing colostrum for her new calf. The normal practice is for most farmers to wean their calves in the 6-9 month old range. Depends on each different farms situation, selling market etc. Then the cows have a few months of dry period, calve again and start over.
There is no reason a bull of breeding age should be sucking a cow. He will steal the colostrum, and the milk from the new calf. We would not tolerate it for more than a minute. Period.
How many cows do you have? Maybe breeding them AI would be a better way to go if you have sufficient facilities to catch them? Keeping a bull for only a few cows is an expense that most don't factor in for him to do very little work. But then it might not be practical to catch the cows in heat so a bull is necessary. I would definitely find a different bull and get any older calves from last year weaned off at once.