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Quite simply, the normal timing of puberty is dependent on the central nervous system being mature enough to begin the release of LH and FSH. Next month, we'll visit about those minor factors and managing them to produce better heifers. This month we will talk about the major effectors of puberty, and their management.
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All other factors have minor impacts on age at puberty usually changing age at puberty by a month or less.
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Those three factors can affect the age that heifers attain puberty by several months. Simply, there are three major controls breed, age and nutrition. It is the beginning of release of LH and FSH and the response of the ovary and eggs to these hormones that indicates the onset of puberty.Ĭonsiderable research, including some of mine, has gone into understanding the factors controlling the onset of puberty. What keeps heifers on hold is the absence of these reproductive hormones (LH and FSH) being released from the brain to cause egg development. In fact, some dairy embryo transfer companies are using hormone treatments to produce embryos from young heifers. These waves grow and regress on approximately a weekly basis, but a mature fertilizable egg is only released every 18-23 days just after the heifer is in heat.Įxperiments have demonstrated that heifers as young as 2 months of age can be induced to ovulate a fertile egg if they are given the proper hormone treatments. However, these eggs will start to develop and grow in waves as puberty approaches and continue for the rest of her life. Unlike bulls that make new sperm daily after puberty, heifers do not make new eggs. Heifers are born with all the eggs (oocytes) they will ever have several hundred thousand eggs. What about the most expensive member of the herd, the replacement heifer? Understanding how heifers develop will allow producers to do a better job of managing and developing replacement heifers. Over the last several months, we have focused on the reproductive biology of the beef cow. Hall, Extension Animal Scientist, Beef, Virginia Tech To see our latest newsletters and current information, visit our website at (through April/May 2009), and are provided for historical purposes only.Īs such, they may contain out-of-date references and broken links. These files cover more than ten years of newsletters posted on our old website You've reached the Virginia Cooperative Extension Newsletter Archive.