Severe prenatal under nutrition is usually associated with low birth weights in offspring and disorders including hypertension, obesity and diabetes. Whether alterations in maternal nutrition insufficient to impair birth weight or prenatal growth impact the cardiovascular, stress or metabolic systems is unknown. In addition, little is known about the effects of maternal dietary restriction on development of the reproductive system in mammals. Here, we use the bovine model, which has a gestational length and birth rate similar to humans, to show that offspring from nutritionally restricted dams (during the first trimester) were born with identical birth weights and had similar post natal growth rates (to 95 weeks of age), puberty, glucose metabolism and responses to stress compared to offspring from control mothers. However, an increase in maternal testosterone concentrations was detected during dietary restriction and these dams had offspring with a diminished ovarian reserve (as assessed by a reduction in antral follicle count, reduced concentrations of anti-Müllerian hormone and increased follicle-stimulating hormone concentrations) enlarged aorta and increased arterial blood pressure compared with controls. Our study links transient maternal under nutrition and enhanced maternal androgen production with a diminished ovarian reserve and potential suboptimal fertility, enlarged aortic trunk size and enhanced blood pressure independent of alterations in birth weight, postnatal growth or stress response and glucose tolerance. The implications are that relatively mild transient reductions in maternal nutrition during the first trimester of pregnancy (even those that do not affect gross development) should be avoided to ensure healthy development of reproductive and cardiovascular systems in offspring.