Improbable - drought related? - Six calves this year - all male

The Whitfield Herd · Post by **The Whitfield Herd** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:25 am

I've just had my sixth calf this year, and its a boy, again. They are all boys! I put this at a 1 in 64 chance.
Funny things happened at lambing as well, two (out of 13) didn't lamb at all, and the rest had fewer lambs: one who knocked out 4 (albeit one stillborn) last year only managed one this. And there was a higher proportion of ram lams.
Is this something to do with the drought we had in England last year, do you think? The bull went in on 21st July, and I was having to feed haylage in August. Any ideas?

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:05 am

I've had a decent percentage of male calves this year for the first time - I put it down to sod's law because I understand that the 2nd beef premium won't be paid on these because of the change over to SFP which it will surprise me greatly if we get having never managed to buy SCQ in the 3 years we have had the Dexters. As for the Shetland sheep they turned out about 50/50 as usual.

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:49 am

Lady Luck plays the strangest tricks with small numbers whereas in large herds or across the country as a whole things tend to average out. I think this is partly why there are so many pet theories on bulldogs etc. Of the first 14 calves my herd produced 11 were heifers but nature has now evened up the score. This year I have three heifer calves and one bull. Some years ago I managed to get 4 bulldogs out of 3 cows in less than 12 months.

But your sheep would give me cause for concern as a vet and I think you should consult your own vet about potential causes for infertility, abortions etc. There may well be nothing there but it is important to find out, preferably before tupping time.

Duncan

Paula Edwards · Post by **Paula Edwards** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:28 am

Hello All,

The eastern parts of Australia, were we live, have been in drought for the past 2-3 years, yet my Dexters have produced 9 heifers from 13 births in 2002-03 and 8 heifers from 11 births in 2003-04. That's 70% heifers in the past two years. Great for my up-grading program.

However, as Duncan says, over the long term it has been pretty much 50-50, with 39 females out of 70 births, for us.

One of our Australian breeders swears by a method of timing the cows cycle and joining or AI as just before visible signs of heat (ie. early in the cycle) to get a higher rate of females calves. I have heard the same about humans.

Best of luck !

MDX · Post by **MDX** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 5:12 pm

The timing system does work. The male sperm gets to a egg faster then a female sperm. So if the egg is ready when the male gets to it, you get a bull calf. If the egg is not quite ready then the male sperm dies and the female sperm is left and timing is correct for a heifer. If new sperm keeps entering the cervics then the male sperm will continue to get to the egg first and you are at a higher risk of getting a bull.

Try out this site. it has good info on the process of ovulation. It does not explain the sperm therory but understanding that, it will all fall into place.

http://www.iaea.org/program....ex.html

Kathleen · Post by **Kathleen** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 2:27 am

Hi All ...and thanks for the info on 'how to breed heifers'
...I will let you know how it goes next year *smile* as my two bulls (who were put in with the females a couple of weeks ago) have been 'on the gun' -so to speak- and I have seen them serving some females before they are properly on and then not 'bothering' later in the cycle!
As to percentages my first bull gave 50/50 but my current older bull has allways given 2/3rds bull calves ...that is over 50+ calvings and over several years.
As to drought causing more bulls ...well that goes against what I was told once ... that is that in drought you get more heifers than bulls ...something to do with survival of the species or some such reason...*shrug* but I have not seen any significant signs of it.

All the best
Kathleen.

The Whitfield Herd · Post by **The Whitfield Herd** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:10 pm

I like the male /female sperm theory. There might be something in it in this case. The bull was a youngster and he is definitely short; whereas he went to all longs (natch). He didn't seem to be able to "reach" at first, and it maybe that he became more determined as the cows heat progressed, thus actually catching them later in their cycle.