Third trimester of pregnancy

jhm47

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Since we will be calving in mid/late March, our cows have entered their third trimester of pregnancy. This means that they will require a bit more energy and protein each week as their calves grow. It is also very important that they get a good quality mineral and salt to ensure that the in utero calves continue to grow and develop normally.

Several agricultural colleges have conducted many experiments on bred cows, and they have discovered that by not feeding adequate protein and energy to the cows during pregnancy, the resulting calves are adversely impacted during their entire lives. These calves will have less marbling at harvest, no matter how well fed they are after birth. Their replacement heifer calves are less fertile, and will not last as long in the herd, and their calves will not develop to their full genetic potential.

Here is an excellent website for those of you who are interested in raising and breeding cattle:

http://www.msuextension.org/beefcattle/Documents/NutrConf2012-2-TomGearySlides.pdf
 

WildRoseBeef

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Interesting link, thanks for sharing. Of course there's a lot more good information on there than just the fact about cow nutrition affecting calf vigour. (BTW, for those of you who don't know, IVOMD = In Vitro Organic Matter Digestibility).

I would have loved to be in class or seminar where Dr. Geary discussed and presented that very presentation though. :)



ETA: I haven't read/studied the whole thing, so I saved it to my hard drive to read it later.
 

Symphony

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jhm47 said:
Since we will be calving in mid/late March, our cows have entered their third trimester of pregnancy. This means that they will require a bit more energy and protein each week as their calves grow. It is also very important that they get a good quality mineral and salt to ensure that the in utero calves continue to grow and develop normally.

Several agricultural colleges have conducted many experiments on bred cows, and they have discovered that by not feeding adequate protein and energy to the cows during pregnancy, the resulting calves are adversely impacted during their entire lives. These calves will have less marbling at harvest, no matter how well fed they are after birth. Their replacement heifer calves are less fertile, and will not last as long in the herd, and their calves will not develop to their full genetic potential.

Here is an excellent website for those of you who are interested in raising and breeding cattle:

http://www.msuextension.org/beefcattle/Documents/NutrConf2012-2-TomGearySlides.pdf
This was a great read and I personally thank you very much for posting this link. It will help me improve my future Cattle op.
 

jhm47

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Cricket said:
Do you vaccinate your bred cows?
I vaccinate only for blackleg and anthrax. Since I have maintained a closed herd since 1988, and my cattle do not have fenceline to fenceline contact with any other herds, I have not needed to vaccinate my cows. I do not buy bulls, only introduce new bloodlines through AI.

I do vaccinate my calves before selling them. This is done to protect them from infectious diseases that they might pick up when intermingled with other cattle at the auction markets.
 

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jhm47, what breed (s) or xbreds are you raising and why ?
 

jhm47

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Bossroo said:
jhm47, what breed (s) or xbreds are you raising and why ?
I raise Black Angus, Black Simmental, and crosses of the two. I also have started to dabble in a few Shorthorns as a hobby. Had a red Simmental cow about 10 years ago, and decided to cross her with a Shorthorn. Got a heifer calf from her, and have been breeding her to a white Shorthorn bull (Homedale Blizzard), and have gotten 3 white heifer calves and 1 roan heifer from her. Kept 2 of the white ones and the roan one. Got a blue roan heifer from the roan last spring. Nice calf, but haven't decided what to do with her yet. One of the white heifers will calve in March, the other is to be bred in June.

I really like the disposition and growth of the Simmentals. The Angus are OK, but a bit more high strung. The crosses are good, and make great cows. The only drawback to the pure Simmentals is that I feel that they get too big when mature cows. I try to breed every cow at least once AI, and then turn in the cleanup bulls that I raise myself. Since I am an AI tech, I have a lot of flexibility in my breeding decisions. Get around 70 - 80% conception rate on first services.
 

Bossroo

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What is your opinion of the Belgian Blue double muscled bulls ? I saw one as well as videos of them at the Tularie County Farm Expo. a couple years ago as a display to cross these bulls AI on Holstein dairy cows so that the offspring finish much better meat weghts for more profit. I also saw a double mucscled Hereford bull at UCD about 20 years ago... very impressive MASSIVE bull. :ep
 

jhm47

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Yes, double muscled animals are impressive. If you want to raise them, you'd be well advised to have a good relationship with a large animal vet. The calving problems with double muscled animals is a major problem. They are also not well suited for pasture grazing, since their feet and legs are not nearly well developed enough to support their massive weight.

As to crossing them with Holsteins, I wouldn't want to calve out a bunch of them. Both breeds are known to be difficult calvers. However, there may be individual animals in both breeds that calve out easier than others.
 

greybeard

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jhm47 said:
Since we will be calving in mid/late March, our cows have entered their third trimester of pregnancy. This means that they will require a bit more energy and protein each week as their calves grow. It is also very important that they get a good quality mineral and salt to ensure that the in utero calves continue to grow and develop normally.

Several agricultural colleges have conducted many experiments on bred cows, and they have discovered that by not feeding adequate protein and energy to the cows during pregnancy, the resulting calves are adversely impacted during their entire lives. These calves will have less marbling at harvest, no matter how well fed they are after birth. Their replacement heifer calves are less fertile, and will not last as long in the herd, and their calves will not develop to their full genetic potential.

Here is an excellent website for those of you who are interested in raising and breeding cattle:

http://www.msuextension.org/beefcattle/Documents/NutrConf2012-2-TomGearySlides.pdf
Agree fully with this jhm47, and we saw a lot of outcomes related to this during and right after 2011's severe Texas drought. Cows, tho bred to the same good bulls used in previous years, resulted in calves that were fed the same after birth and thru finishing as usual, produced suprisiongly poor beef due to the fact that the mommas did not get as good nutrition during pregnancy and while nursing as they did during better years. Many here do believe it was caused by poor pasture forage condition that summer/fall, and poor quality ad short quanity of hay that winter. 2 different calves I had personal experience with from that time period, looked like they were going to be great freezer beef, but that was no the case at all. Little marbeling, and very tough compared to calves from the same breed stock previous years. The growth and development that takes place in utero has long term adverse effects that cannot be reversed no matter what we pour in the feed trough of the calf on the ground. Too early to tell about retained heifers from 2011, but I won't be surprised to see a higher % of opens from that bunch.
 
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