How old can a healthy cow be and still breed?

Question

My cow is going on 7 years old and is pregnant for the 4th time. How many more calves can I expect from her?

Answer 1

It different among the breeds of cattle, but cows can breed well into their 20's.  Some breeds like the Texas Longhorn cattle have been able to breed into their 30's.

Answer 2

Depends upon how tough her life is out in the pasture. Well fed and kept free of parasites she can live to maybe 20. If living a hard scrabble life then maybe 12 years. You've got a 4th calf heifer there:^) She is just getting started. Barring a catastropic illness you will notice at some point in your cow's life that she begins to look old just like a person would. To me the age will show in the face first. Something about the shape of the nose and mouth. Look at cows you know are old and then at young ones. I think you will see a difference. This is the way my grandfather taught me to judge a cow's age at the auction. Not perfect but cows around here do not usually come with a birth certificate. He and my dad taught me to judge the wieght of clves also. They could guess within 20 pounds most times of a calf. I knew a man once who miss judged the wieght of a chicken by 20 pounds;^)

At some point the cow will begin to lose weight. She will not be fat anymore but will get scrawny. At this point she will be subseptible to pnemonia and other diseases. She might make 2 or 3 years and a calf or two after that.

Answer 3

Most cows are productive until they are 12-15 years old. With proper nutrition and care, cows can have calves as old as 20 years of age!

Answer 4

if you only have one as a hobby most likely she will be good until 15 maybe older but if you are doing this as a money making venture as cows become older they dont do as good of a job raising calves i try to cull our cows out after they reach about ten years old

Answer 5

2, maybe 3

Answer 6

You say that you have one cow.  What is she...beef, or dairy?

One cow, taken care of by a responsible owner should breed into her 20's, possibly even 30's.

Until she becomes a "broken mouth" she should be able to breed and produce calves no problem.  Broken mouth cows are missing teeth.  Missing teeth means they cannot graze and feed themselves so well, and sometimes cannot support a pregnancy, or eat enough to produce milk for a calf.

A lot of people build up a nice herd of cattle by buying broken mouth cows that are pregnant.  

If she is just starting to loose her teeth, the cow can often support the once last pregnancy.  The broken mouth cows sell for cheap.  The farmer then has a nice healthy calf crop, dropped and carred for by experienced mothers.  He can then sell off the broken mouth cows, and start with a healthy young herd.

Expect your cow to keep going for many, many more years.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 7

I know an 11 year old cow who is due to deliver this year.  I would be surprised if cows are much different than horses.  I've seen horses in their late 20's having healthy foals.

Answer 8

she can go tell 20 but they do get broken mouth,. alot of the times at 12 and 15

Answer 9

a healthy cow can breed up to 16 - 18 years of age as long as she still has teeth if your cow is healthy i can say you can expect at least 3-5 more calves but remember as a cow reaches up into her teens she can also have reproductive problems also, there are many things to look at and consider, you might want to keep her next heifer calf to replace her soon

Answer 10

if she breeds every year and you take good care of her she may live to be 25 years old and have a calf every year so that's another 18 calves coming.