Commercial home kept bulls

[Lazy M]

I use homegrown, unproven bulls on heifers every year......But I have forty years of breeding in these bulls. Pretty confident in what they are going to produce.

I'd say if any cattle were predictable, they'd be yours.

 

[elkwc]

I'd never put a home grown unregistered bull on heifers. You don't know what might line up and show up.

No different from registered bull that was unproven....lot of folks got burned with registered bulls.

Got burned on what? Sure not birthweight using a registered Angus bull. The EPD'S and DNA testing has eliminated birth weight issues on the high side using Angus. IMO the calves are getting to small in the Angus breed.

TG overall I agree with you. But I know of a few instances where breeders have got burned bad using registered Angus bulls that were surefire calving ease bull. One breeder pulled all but one out of a sure fire bull. I still say you never know until you get some calves out of them. We just sold a bull who the breeder and the EPD's said wasn't a calving ease bull and we never pulled a calf sire by him out of a heifer. But overall I agree the Angus calves are getting too small and many sires are too light everywhere.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

Used one our bull one year and another bull next year. Both have left good daughters. Photo of one. He was AngusxCharx. Wish we had more daughters from him.

With his mom and half sister.

 

[Jake]

Buying bulls never used to be in the budget growing up. We'd AI a few of our best cows and then keep sons and grandsons. So I have a ton of pictures of home raised bulls that I'll spare everyone from posting them all.

 

[NonTypicalCPA]

Used one our bull one year and another bull next year. Both have left good daughters. Photo of one. He was AngusxCharx. Wish we had more daughters from him.

With his mom and half sister.

He's a nice looking bull! However I try to never align my head directly over top of any of my cattle's heads!

 

[ez14.]

Used one our bull one year and another bull next year. Both have left good daughters. Photo of one. He was AngusxCharx. Wish we had more daughters from him.

With his mom and half sister.

He's a nice looking bull! However I try to never align my head directly over top of any of my cattle's heads!

yeah they can whip their head up pretty quickly!

 

[Tbrake]

Here is one of mine. Coming 2 year old chisum son. Have a few calves due to him mid February, we'll see how they do. He is out of one of my best cows. I have is full brother in the keep pen at the moment waiting on some calves to hit the ground. As with most chisum calves, tame as a dog. He is not as deep as I would like, but overall I like him. His foot structure is great. I had to put him to work earlier than I wanted last spring, so I don't think he is going to get real big. I am guessing him at around 1400lbs now. Good or bad comments much welcomed

 

[Tbrake]

 

[slick4591]

My home raised guy. I don't think I developed him correctly as he was raised on milk and grass mainly. He did got a few cubes on occasion, but not really enough to count. I would like him better if he were taller and a bit longer.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

My home raised guy. I don't think I developed him correctly as he was raised on milk and grass mainly. He did got a few cubes on occasion, but not really enough to count. I would like him better if he were taller and a bit longer.

Must not be as much leg there as the picture shows then...he looks fairly tall...

 

[slick4591]

My home raised guy. I don't think I developed him correctly as he was raised on milk and grass mainly. He did got a few cubes on occasion, but not really enough to count. I would like him better if he were taller and a bit longer.

Must not be as much leg there as the picture shows then...he looks fairly tall...

He's about 4" shorter than his sire, but he's a little wider made. These Pieds just aren't as deep sided as most commercial, so the looks can be a little deceiving. He doesn't have any problem covering anything here tho.

 

[Tbrake]

Too good to not share. Craigslist treasure. "This calf will dominate the show ring, $4500 cash only" I bet that guys phone is blowing up.

 

[slick4591]

This pic has been passed around apparently. Shows up around here as a guy asking whether it's a potential herd bull.

 

[Tbrake]

This pic has been passed around apparently. Shows up around here as a guy asking whether it's a potential herd bull.

This one is listed as a show steer for 4500$

 

[Coosh71]

Wow $4500/calf. If you hear of anyone buying him let me know. I have 14 just like it LOL WHOOO

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I sold a red heifer this fall that was 3 weeks old at time of sale for $4500, but never a steer and sure I never will.

 

[Big Cheese]

I've always wanted to have a homegrown bull. Since we have started using Charolais bulls we do have a couple of full blood Charolais cows and I'm wanting to keep one and raise him up to use. Its just something i've always wanted to do lol I'll try it one day!

 

[Coosh71]

TBrake your bull looks exactly like a group of express ranch bulls for sale now in my area ($3500+). Like you said he ain't perfect but as a home raised keeper id be interested to see his calves. good luck!

 

[True Grit Farms]

Keeping a home raised bull makes absolutely no sense to me, unless you sell bulls. There's a lot of cost involved with a bull if your going to do it right. Growing and conditioning is expensive then you need to add a BSE, and if your going to put him on heifers a DNA test can help you determine if there might be a BW issue. Personally I like to see 8 or 10 young bulls in pens together and pick out which ones look the best to me, then look at his EPD'S and go with it.

 

[Big Cheese]

Keeping a home raised bull makes absolutely no sense to me, unless you sell bulls. There's a lot of cost involved with a bull if your going to do it right. Growing and conditioning is expensive then you need to add a BSE, and if your going to put him on heifers a DNA test can help you determine if there might be a BW issue. Personally I like to see 8 or 10 young bulls in pens together and pick out which ones look the best to me, then look at his EPD'S and go with it.

A lot of people can't afford to go buy a bull whenever they need too. If somebody has a really small operation, 25 or less cows its not really cost efficient to go buy a $3000+ bull when its going to take a long time to recoup the money. It can also be the other way around....if somebody has herds that are 250+ and they run 5-7 bulls per herd then you can get away with keeping a homegrown bull from time to time. Most farmers that are that big though have their own full blood stock so that they can raise their own bulls and cut down on that cost. I know a farmer that does this and his bulls are really nice Full Blood Charolais bulls, we have actually bought a bull from him and we will start having calves out of him around the end of March to First of April. Some people also may have a herd of 60-70 cows with one mature bull on them and may just want to keep a homegrown bull to run with the mature bull as a clean up bull in case the mature bull is stuck on another cow or something happens that they don't know about and they won't lose a calf crop. It doesn't add up spending 3000 when that's all you need it for. Then, you can sell the homegrown bull with the mature bull then buy two young bulls at the same time to replace them. Plus if you have to buy more then just one bull then bulls can get expensive! Small farmers can really save by just raising one homegrown bull when they have to buy multiple bulls at one time. Also, some farmers may just like raising their own bulls. All of this is based off of farmers who run their bulls year round like we do.

I personally liking getting good young registered bulls for our herd because I believe it really does make a difference in your calves. I just want to raise a homegrown Charolais bull just to see how it goes lol. This is all based off of my opinion just saying.