Expert: Karin - 12/6/2011

Question
i have a hereford that is weighing about 600 pounds and she is a bout 10 months old and  the bull that i am going to breed her to is around the same age but he weighs about 650. is it ok for me to breed her at that age i was just wondering i know she has went into heat about 2 times so far.

Answer
Hi Shamus,

If I were you I would wait another five months before you can get her bred. She sounds like she's an early-maturing heifer, but quite often at that age she's still growing and her reproductive organs are still in the maturing stage as well.  Same with the young bull. I would love to know the mature weight of her dam, the body condition score of the heifer (600 lbs seems pretty light for a heifer, unless she's a low-line Hereford) and the birthweight of the bull, because if you're going to breed her at that age, or any age, she must be bred to a calving-ease bull so calving problems for her won't be a big problem, especially since she's a small heifer for a typical Hereford.

I've seen heifers start puberty around that age and have many heats before they are finally bred.  The rule of thumb that should be made for all heifers is that either they're at least 15 months old, and/or they are at least 65 to 70% of the weight of their dams before they're bred.  If her dam has a mature weight of 1200 lbs then forget breeding her now.  But if the dam is 900 lbs and she's only 10 months old and around 600 lbs, I'd wait a bit longer before putting the bull in with her.  Also, if she's thin (which I don't think is the issue here, but I honestly don't know), you need to feed her up so she's at a proper weight and condition to be bred.

Good luck!

-Karin