A Bull's Worth

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CattleAnnie

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"A Bull's Worth" Feb.27/06
by S. Yewsuk for the Cattleman's Corner of The Grain News

Things in the cattle industry have been improving as time passes. Markets are reopening to us and prices are rising, including for the cull cows and bulls. That's helping cattlemen to finally rid themselves of some older, less productive animals including herd bulls. Auction markets are seeing high numbers of old bulls go through the ring. And with the unloading fo these herd sires, breeders are optimistic as we head into bull sale season.

A cattle herd consists of many breeding females for each bull. Because the number of females is higher, it makes sense to put a lot of thought into the tpye and quality of the heifers. But is enough thought put into the selection of the bull power to breed those females?

How much of an impact does your choice of bull have on the herd? I found a fact sheet put out by the Hereford association that broke it down this way. The sire and dam each contribute 50% of genetics to the calf. Half of the dam's contribution comes from her sire and a quarter comes from her dam's sire. Thus 87.5% of a calf's genetic makeup comes from bulls brought into the herd. So your decsions do affect your herd greatly. I definitely agree that a good bull can improve your herd fast, but a bad bull can wreck it even faster. The impact of a bad decsion in choice of herd bull will be felt much more than the choice of one wrong female, because of his role in the herd.

Choosing the right bull is indeed an important decision in the cattle business, one that should have lots of thought put into it.

As you go out to shop, it's important to decide the objective of your calving program. What's important to you? For instance, do you keep or sell replacement females? If you keep them, maternal qualities are important - qualities you get from breeds like Angus or Hereford. But if you feed out all of your calves or sell them for feeding and don't keep replacement females, then you might want to focus on terminal breeds like Charolais or Simmental.

If you're keeping replacement females to add to the herd, the impact of the choice of bull will be felt for many generations, so you must think ahead beyond just this calving season. It might not be wise to follow the fad because what's hot right now might not be by the time these females are producing their own calves. These calves will grow up to be cows and will be expected to live and survive over years through all kinds of weather (some very harsh weather if you live in the prairies like us). More attention should be paid to amount and quality of hair and thickness of the hide. That will get you farther than just paying attention to the colour of the hide.. The number of cows you'll be breeding and the size of the cows will determine the age and size of the bull you need.

The age of the females is also something to consider. Will you be breeding cows and heifers or just one or the other? If the bull will breed heifers only, then some calving ease will be appropriate. But be aware that choosing a bull for calving ease soley on the basis of his actual birth weight is not the best way to proceed.

The age and size of the cow and how she was fed and even the weather and how far along in gestation she was plays a big role in the size of the calf at birth, but these are things that will change in your own herd, so weights of his offspring will be different also.

It's a bit more accurate to look at birth weight EPDs as they are calculated from different calves born under different situtations in different herds. Instead of selecting for calving ease alone, total conformation should be considered to pass more than one desirable characteristics on to the calves including smoothness for calving ease if that is what you want.

Be careful, as all of the emphasis put into calving ease lately has been getting producers in trouble. Focusing on one trait alone tends to do that. When you choose bulls for calving ease only, that generally means having smaller calves all the way along. The smaller bone structure is what makes them easier to bear and it usually shows later in life. You must decide if that is a trade-off you are willing to take. And, you have to be careful about the trap you get yourself into. Keeping these calves off easy calving bulls for your replacement pen will leave you females that need even easier calving bulls and it will be a hard cycle to get out of.

Producers would be farther ahead if they spent less time and energy finding easy calving bulls and instead put that much selection into choosing females with larger pelvic sizes that can have a normal size calf that can grow up to be a good-sized aniimal later in life, so calving ease wouldn't have to be such an issue. We don't even look at birth weights. We choose bulls with conformation we want passed onto our calf crop, as well as hair, feet and temperment, and we have very few calving troubles.

It's also very important to have enough bull power for your herd. You lose money with open or late cows that might not have been if the bull had not been overworked. It pays off if you're willing to spend money to get enough bulls, and the better the bull, the better the calves and the more you will make for them in return. It's an investment worth making to buy the best bull you can find. You get what you pay for.

These are just some of the things you should keep in mind as you head out to make that all-important decision. Some last tips: Just as you need to make money on your calves, so does the bull producer. It's a costly venture that involves so much more than just keeping the bull from becoming a steer.

Be choosy about who and where you buy from. The bulls in an auction mart are there for a reason, and buying "commercial" or other mixed breed bulls might get you more than you bargained for. You won't know what to expect from them. And you won't have the cushion guarantee to fall back on that you get when choosing a registered bull. Are your cows not worthy of the best?

~
Not that I agree with everything the author wrote, but there were some valid points made and I thought sharing this might give some food for thought for those new to the cattle industry.





Take care.
 
That's all fine, go and tour a herd that has a program. You will find lots of sires that have been used and have left a herd of tightly wound genetics that consist of 3/4 sisters in one way shape and form. You will see that a bull is very important, but a great cow family is what makes a great bull.

Great cow families keep coming to the top regardless of what they are bred to.
 
an old wise man once said that you can have the best cow in the world and she might if your lucky give you 10 or so calves. Your bull over that same time span could give you hundreads of cattle. he will have a more lasting influence on your herd than anything else you have
 
plbcattle":3x7xxjde said:
he will have a more lasting influence on your herd than anything else you have

You might want to think about spending a little time researching Mitochondrial DNA. I'm by no means an expert, but according to what I've read the cow contributes more than 50% because of it. Just my thoughts.
 
msscamp":2c02ws0d said:
plbcattle":2c02ws0d said:
he will have a more lasting influence on your herd than anything else you have

You might want to think about spending a little time researching Mitochondrial DNA. I'm by no means an expert, but according to what I've read the cow contributes more than 50% because of it. Just my thoughts.

Has nothing to do with DNA. Usually a cow only puts a couple of daughters back into herd in a live time, a bull can put multiple daughters back into a herd every year. It's a numbers thing

dun
 

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