Have you ever wondered how long a cow is pregnant? The answer might surprise you!
How Long Are Cows Pregnant?
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It seems like we have had pregnant cows around here for a long time. We still have two more ladies who need to have their babies, and the waiting takes forever! So… how long are cows pregnant? How much longer will we have to wait?
Cows are pregnant for around 9 months, the same as people!
And they get to looking pretty big when they are getting close. Between their rumen (which can hold up to 50 gallons of fluid, food, and gas) and the calf (which can weigh 60-100 pounds when it is born), there isn’t room for much else inside their bellies!
Just look at those big pregnant bellies! The cows actually still get around pretty well. They take their time laying down and standing up, but since they really don’t have much to do except eat, sleep, and chew their cud, they can take all the time they want. (Don’t worry, when the corn comes out they still come running up to the barn!)
Cows have their babies anywhere from 38-44 weeks after conception (usually 38-41 weeks). Cows tend to be very consistent from year to year. If a cow has her baby at 39 weeks this year, she will probably have it at 39 weeks next year.
We do one round of artificial insemination with our ladies, so we know what their conception date should be. We also use a “clean up” bull. He comes to live with the girls for 1-2 months after the artificial insemination. His job is to hang out and get anyone pregnant who didn’t get pregnant with artificial insemination.
(Hard job, right?)
About a month after we move the clean up bull away from the ladies, we check all the cows to see who is pregnant. We can tell, based on how big the fetus is, whether the cow got pregnant from artificial insemination or from the bull. Then we know about when our calving season should be.
Hopefully, all of our cows get pregnant with the artificial insemination, so they should all have their babies within a few days of each other.
In reality, it almost never goes that way. This year, only two of our cows got pregnant the first time. Everyone else got pregnant with the clean up bull. So we had two calves (Randy and Joyce, if you’ve been following along on Instagram) born about a month ahead of everyone.
Since the bull is in with the cows for 2 months, and because cows’ gestation can vary by about 3 weeks, the rest of the calves can be sort of spread out. We have had 5 more calves born since Randy and Joyce were born, and we are still waiting on two more.
They should be along any day now!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram to see more pictures of our cows and calves, and to see some other behind-the-scenes stuff!
What other questions do you have about food and farming?
If you have more questions (and I hope you do!) ask me in the comments!
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Neat!
Great post! Especially for your readers who did not grow up in the farming/ranching world! I love posts like this that teach in that way! Thanks for sharing at country fair blog party, come join us in June!
It’s my pleasure to share some “behind the scenes” to our farming life. I didn’t grow up in the farming world either, so I’ve been learning a lot as we go. Thanks for stopping by!