8 Facts about beef breeding

Breeding season is a very important time on the farm. For the beef farmer the sooner you can get your herd back in calf, the earlier in the season they will calve and the bigger and faster the resulting off-spring will grow. 

Here are a few facts about beef breeding:

1 A cow cycles (comes into oestrous) every 21 days
2 Cycling cows ride each other to assert dominance
3 Tail painting is the best way of checking when cows are cycling
4 There are two types of breeding, AI (artifiical insemintion) or natural 
5 AI is common in the dairy industry and natural mating is more often used in the beef sector
6 For natural mating an ideal ratio is 1 bull to 10-25 cows
7 Bull fertility will begin to decline after 6-7 years of age
8 The average gestation period of a cow is 283 days so a cow successfully mated on the 22 October is due on 1 August.


Euan.