Q&A for How to Tell when a Cow or Heifer is in Estrus

It's not recommended, especially if you don't know the history of your bull and the dams of these heifers as far as genetic abnormalities are concerned. Inbreeding can bring out the ugly in terms of genetic defects and abnormalities, which can result in poor-doing or stillborn calves. Use a different, unrelated bull on the heifers to avoid this.

Yes, that's right.

It's not safe at all if you try to do it immediately after. You must wait 90 days after she's calved to get her bred again. This gives her uterus time to shrink back into normal shape and size, and allows her hormone cycles to get back to normal, where she is cycling regularly instead of irregularly.

These articles can help you: how to tell if a heifer cow is pregnant and how to tell if a heifer cow is about to give birth .

You need to feed her so that she will lose weight, which will mean dramatically reducing grain intake and moving her water and feed around so that she has to walk every day to feed, water, and back again. The reason she's cystic is because she's likely got too much excess weight.

Like cows, the average estrus for heifers lasts around 24 hours.

Don't let a cow breed back until she's 60 to 90 days post-calving.

No. Blood is normal and is a sign that the ovum was released and the corpus luteum had ruptured. You would know if AI failed if she came back into heat or standing heat 3 weeks later.

A cow will come back into heat 18 to 20 days after calving, but this is absolutely not a good time to get her bred. She needs time to allow her uterus to involute (shrink back to normal), and for her estrous cycle to get back into normal rhythm, which will be two or three months after birth. So you should breed her when her calf has reached two or three months of age, depending on her fertility and how regular her heats have become.

Well, it's not AI if you're implanting fertilized eggs, even if it's from the same breed, into your best cow. That is called Embryo Transfer, a different topic altogether. But, the calf would be considered a purebred IF those eggs were fertilized with sperm from a bull that was the same breed as the cow from where those eggs came from, or the donor cow. Your recipient cow, which is being used to raise this embryo to full-term fetus, has no influence on the genetic breeding of the resulting calf.

One to two years of age. Older bulls tend to be heavier, and can be too heavy for a first-time heifer.

You don't. You wait 60 to 90 days for her to get back into normal estrous cycles again. If you push her too hard and get her bred too soon, you could invite issues that could be detrimental to the cow.

There certainly is. Using hormones like Estrumate or Lutalyse will certainly get a cow to come into heat within a day or two after the initial injection. There are other hormones that are used to purposefully synchronize estrus in heifers and cows, and these include the use of GnRH, PGF2-alpha, IN-SYNC, Fertagyl, CIDR, Cystrolrelin, and Factrel. There is not enough space to explain how syncing heats work, but basically the use of prostaglandins, in different programs, will bring most females into heat at the same time for easier artificial insemination.

It's 60 days, usually, before you can take a blood test, or 90-120 days before a rectal palpation can be done to confirm pregnancy.

Yes. Even though they have their primary "sources" removed and they can't actually breed a cow, they still act as great estrus detectors and will try to mount a cow or heifer in heat.

Heifers can be 6 to 8 months old when they first reach puberty and begin to cycle. Breeding shouldn't be allowed to happen, though, until they're around 15 months old.

Depends how significant the discharge is. If it's just a tiny bit, it's a signal that the heifer or cow has ended her heat/estrus period. If it's a lot, call your vet immediately.

The main rule of thumb is to wait 12 hours after seeing standing heat.

A cow carries a calf for 9.5 months.

As noted in the article above, check the vulva, and note any abnormal behaviour she may be exhibiting. It can be subtle, so subtle that she may be having what are called silent heats. A bull will solve the problem of determining if she's in heat and ready to breed or not.

Most likely. Keep an eye on her heats (or lack thereof) for the next couple of months, and get her pregnancy-checked 60 (blood-test) or 90 (rectal palp) days after breeding to confirm that she is indeed pregnant.

No. It's extremely rare and unheard of for cows to be cycling all at the same time. Cows can come into heat in the same space of time, like over a week or two-week period, but not all at once, like all in one day. Ideally, a herd of cows should be coming into heat over a few weeks. In a breeding season that lasts only 60 days, that encourages about 70 to 80% or higher of the cow herd to calve in the first week or so, and the last 30% over the last month and three-quarters. This is a great way to catch the lower-fertile cows that may need to be culled.

It could be that she's just having a false heat, and that she's actually bred. False heats are rare, but they do happen. Keep an eye on her for the next few weeks to see if she comes back into heat again.

Try putting her with a bull and leaving her with him for a couple months. He might be the best way to tell if she's in heat and even better, get her bred for you. You can hire a bull from a neighbor or a local breeder (preferably the latter) to use on her by paying a daily stud-fee without worrying about and wasting money buying a bull.

Questions to consider: No results as in she keeps coming up open and in heat? Have you waited sufficiently long enough to let her get bred? Have you done AI before or is this your first time? What breed is she? What body condition is she in? What are you feeding her (feed and mineral)? Have you had a vet check her out for cystic ovaries or being a freemartin? And, are you breeding her at the right time so she does catch? Check with your veterinarian, a feed nutritionist, and talk to someone else who is much more experienced with AI than you. If it's not you, or the feed, then it may be the heifer. Eliminate all potential possibilities before thinking of selling her.

This discharge is probably nothing to worry about if she's not showing signs of heat after estrus. No mention of what the discharge looked like, so its hard to tell what the indication of that discharge actually is. Continue to keep an eye on her for the next while to ensure she doesn't come back into heat again.

It's possible, but very rare. You may actually have a crypto bull, not an actual steer. Crypto bulls' testicles are up in their body cavity, making them still able to breed, but not impregnate a cow. You may need to take this "steer" to the vet to get him checked out.

There's no particular count that is needed. Only one will fertilize the the ovum of the cow, but several hundred thousand or a few million are needed to ensure just a few get a chance to reach the egg first--past all the hazards presented from going from the cervix to the uterus and up into the Fallopian tube--and see who gets embedded into the ovum first!

It is, definitely. The reason is because your heifers will have a smaller pelvic size than the older, more experienced cows, and the lower birth-weight bull will make it easier on the heifers to calve out. This will be the same when they calve their second calf. Once they're able to have their third calf, they'll be able to calve out bigger calves. Note that all calves that come from these heifers should not be used as replacements in your herd; they should all be sold.

Get the heifers out at weaning, and inject some Lutalyse or Estrumate at weaning to make sure any heifers that may have been bred abort their calves so that they aren't made to carry a calf too early.