Q&A for How to Breed Beef Cattle

Preferably, and ideally, every single one. Any heifer that doesn't get bred within that time should be on the short-list for culling because they're going to slow you down as far as productivity is concerned.

Wait at least 1 year before breeding offspring. Try not to over-breed a line, instead introducing new bulls in every several generations.

No. You must let the cow have a rest and recovery period of 60 to 90 days after calving before breeding again. This allows their uterus to get back into its normal pre-fetus shape, and lets them get back into their normal estrus cycling. Their estrus cycling will be out of whack immediately after calving.

Fertilization occurs a few hours after she's been bred by a bull or via artificial insemination.

No. Outbreeding is far better. "Outbreeding" or breeding females to an unrelated bull is a much better guarantee of a good calf crop for sale. Inbreeding will guarantee you inferior cattle with bigger problems down the road, even stillborns and different types of birth defects. You don't want that. You need good, healthy, lively calves that hit the ground running. Inbreeding is only for the professional breeders that have all the paperwork they need to know what they're doing and why.

If the heifer doesn't take during breeding than yes, she can have a cycle. But if she takes and gets pregnant then no she will not have a cycle until after the baby is born.

Using natural breeding, maybe about 30 to 50 or so. With artificial insemination, there are top bulls with over 100,000 offspring!

At least two years.

There is no best cross-breed, just like there is no best breed! It depends on your area and what breeds are suitable for that area. I don't know where you live so I honestly cannot tell you what breeds, composite, F1s or whatever, are best for you. Ask 10 different cattlemen what the best breed of beef cattle and you will get 10 different answers. Your location is very important, and so is what you're using that breed for besides just "for beef." Is this for selling all offspring for beef? To make a breeding herd? For grazing purposes where you are not wanting to spend so much on feeds to pamper your cows with, or not? Keep these questions in mind when making a choice!

No, steer are only used for meat. They are males that have been altered and thus cannot be used for breeding. As cattle aren't generally kept as pets, a steer sold at a fair would have no other use other than for meat.

He must be at least a year old.

One year, assuming that the timer is started from the time they are bred to when they successfully calve. If the start of the clock is from when those heifers are born to when they actually have their first calf (and if all of those heifers successfully give birth to live, healthy calves), then the second answer would be two years.

It depends on the breed, but most are mature around 24 months.

No, not unless you know the pedigree history of both that go over many generations. It's best to use different bulls on the new heifers.

Yes. She'll need to be allowed to take her time to allow the calf to get up and start nursing.

A heifer should be 15 months old (18 months for Brahman-type heifers) to be ready to breed.

She may have a false heat, which may give the bull the wrong impression that she's ready to breed. It doesn't happen that often, though. Usually once a cow is carrying a calf, she is null for being able and willing to breed.

From the start of contractions to when the calf is born (and not including the "birth" of the placenta), it can last from 10 to 24 hours. It depends on the level of experience of the cow. Cows having their first calf will take longer than those that have had several calves.

A heifer should be bred 15 or 18 months of age. Brahman heifers tend to get bred later because they reach sexual maturity later than the European breeds, which will be ready to breed by 15 months old. Heifers that reach puberty by 6 or 9 months are not ready to be bred.

Not die, just have a big problem trying to birth their calves, and will need a lot more help than if they were bred to bulls of a breed their size or smaller. The risk of death is there, but it's more the cow having a lot of trouble trying to birth a big calf that may or may not fit through the larger birth canal.

Yes, he's not on her for long -- just a few seconds.

Once every 21 days, on average.

You can use three yearling bulls or two mature bulls for 45 cows. A mature bull can breed 25 cows in one season. A yearling or young bull can only service 10 to 15 in a season. There's nothing wrong either with having a mature bull with one or two yearling bulls. Just beware bulls like to scrap when together, and it can be worse when both bulls are the same size and weight and see each other as competition. Either rotate the bulls one at a time every week or few days through the herd, or divide the cowherd up so that each bull has his fair share to breed for the time allotted to breed them.

It means at least one is in heat. The cow standing to be mounted is in standing heat, and the ones doing the mounting may be going in or out of heat.

There is absolutely nothing you can do to ensure they birth females. The only possible thing you can do, which is much more costly and risky than it seems, is to artificially inseminate them with sexed semen. The chances of them catching, though, are far lower than just using a bull and accepting the odds that there's a 50% chance of each heifer being pregnant with a female.

A heifer should be 15-18 months of age to be ready for breeding. A cow, which is a mature bovine, would be ready to breed 2-3 months after she has calved.

No. Time will tell if it's been successful or not.

Yes, bulls that get over 2000 lb are too heavy for a 1000 lb heifer to handle, so much that it can injure her spine and hips, which may show up when she's older. This is why younger bulls are best used on heifers, not older bulls.

Yes, though the meat from older cows isn't going to be as good as from younger stock. They also need to be fed a lot of grain or plenty of high-quality forages to even get a decent finish on them for slaughter, otherwise the meat may come out a bit too lean, and not much of it, unlike with beef cattle.

There is no particular method to get a cow to give birth to more than one calf. For one thing, it's not really advisable because most cows cannot produce enough milk to raise more than one calf on, resulting in at least one calf needing to be separated from its mother to be bottle-raised.