The objective of this study was to compare pituitary responsiveness to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) throughout the early postpartum period (PP) in beef cows suckling in single calf vs cows which had calves removed at birth. The experiment utilized 48 cows in a 2 X 4 factorial. Main effects studied were suckling status (suckled or nonsuckled) and days PP (d 3, 10, 20 or 30). Covariates studied were pre-treatment concentrations of progesterone (P), estradiol-17 beta (E), luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Suckled (S) cows nursed one calf, while nonsuckled (NS) cows had calves removed at birth. Treatment was a single im injection of 100 micrograms GnRH dissolved in saline. Pre-GnRH plasma concentrations of E, P, LH and FSH and post-treatment plasma concentrations of LH and FSH were determined at 15 min intervals (-30 to 360 min) in blood samples collected via jugular cannulae. Post-treatment plasma concentrations of P were determined at 6 (n = 23) or 8 (n = 23) days after treatment to monitor ovarian response. Concentrations of E, LH and FSH before GnRH injection did not differ (P greater than .1) between S and NS cows at any PP stage and data were pooled for statistical analyses. Pre-treatment LH, but not FSH, increased (r = .43; P less than .002 (with days PP and concentrations of LH were greater (P less than .05) at 30 d than at 3 d PP. Pre-treatment P was greater (P less than .05) in NS than in S cows on d 30 PP and P was correlated (r = .51; P less than .01) with days PP in NS cows. However, the frequency of cows exhibiting plasma P greater than or equal to 1 ng/ml prior to GnRH was low on all days studied and was similar for both groups. LH release after GnRH was correlated with increasing days PP in both S (r = .73; P less than .001) and NS (r = .61; P less than .002) cows, Releasable FSH was not related to days PP in either group. Mean peak LH and total LH released were greater (P less than .025 and P less than .05), respectively) in S than in NS cows at 30 d PP. Mean peak FSH and total FSH released were greater (P less than .05 and P less than .07, respectively) at 10 and 30 d PP in S cows than in NS cows. Pre-treatment E, but no P, LH or FSH was positively related (P less than .01) to GnRH-mediated LH release in both groups. When pre-treatment E was partitioned into separated regressions for S (ES) and NS (ENS) cows, increased pituitary LH response in S cows on d 30 appeared to be due in part to a greater sensitivity of S cows to E modulation. We found no evidence to suggest that pituitary responsiveness per se is decreased in beef cows suckling a single calf.