Borrowed bull

[bja105]

My neighbor lent me his bull. Actualy, the bull lent himself to me. We were going to get him anyway, but the neighbor kids left a gate open and the bull crossed the road. It waa a month sooner than we wanted, but convenience is worth a lot to me.
Anyway, I am curious what people who know what they are doing think of him. Its the bull we have, I can accept the flaws. We have a very small herd with a lot of dairy influence, including some full Jersey.

 

[Rafter S]

Did you intend to post a picture?

 

[bja105]

 

[bja105]

 

[bja105]

Playing with the water tank was an hour after he got here. He settled down a lot. Nothing aggressive, but I moved the herd away from the house. I have a lot of little kids that I don't trust him with.

I also think I might Lute the little black heifer. She is Dexter/Jersey. I didn't realize how small she is until I saw her standing with the bull. We plan to timed AI our milk cow again, and could do her, too. I don't have any history on this bull, don't know anything about calf shape or size. The neighbor only has one calf from him so far, from a Holstein heifer,\.

 

[A.J.]

It's hard to tell since he wouldn't let you get a good side shot of him, but based on the pictures you have, he looks like he should be a good bull for you. Hopefully he will provide you with some nice calves.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Looks like he'll get the job done.

 

[Alan]

Very decent/nice bull! Lots better than a bunch have posted here. Good muscle and well balanced..... nice bull you have a borrowed/ wondering bull.

 

[dun]

Very decent/nice bull! Lots better than a bunch have posted here. Good muscle and well balanced..... nice bull you have a borrowed/ wondering bull.

Yup, what Alan said

 

[Son of Butch]

Seems to be an ideal bull for you.... you owe your neighbor a favor.

 

[Muddy]

The Dexter/Jersey cow should be fine judging by the size of her next to the bull.

 

[bja105]

I do owe him some favors. He has been a good neighbor and friend. My farming is far ahead of where it would be without him. The first few years of farming here, I lived 1.5 hours away. He looked after my horses, then cows, for a couple years. That saved me a few disasters, I am sure.

Its the second bull of his I used. The first was a mean Jersey bull. Mean, and didn't like fences. But, he did go 100%, with all polled heifers.

 

[Son of Butch]

I do owe him some favors. He has been a good neighbor and friend.

Glad to hear it. Life is so much better when neighbors are good to each other in working together.

 

[farmerjan]

Not a bad looking bull. Seems to be fairly well balanced. I personally have to disagree with Muddy and would lute the dex cross heifer for the simple fact that most, not all but most, hereford calves tend to be a bit more blocky built and I would not want a first calf heifer calving to one. Have used hereford before and like the calves, but the dex will make the heifer a bit smaller and even though she looks of decent size, I would not want her to calve to the hereford for a first calf. JUST MY PERSONAL preference. I worry more about the blocky front end than I do about birth weight per se.
You ought to get some nice beef calves out of this bull, and on the dairy crosses, it will improve their calves to be more beefy. I've raised many hereford and angus calves out of dairy animals; often liked the hereford ones better for disposition. But over the years we have culled for disposition also and have some pretty "handleable" cows now. Good luck with them.

 

[Muddy]

Not a bad looking bull. Seems to be fairly well balanced. I personally have to disagree with Muddy and would lute the dex cross heifer for the simple fact that most, not all but most, hereford calves tend to be a bit more blocky built and I would not want a first calf heifer calving to one. Have used hereford before and like the calves, but the dex will make the heifer a bit smaller and even though she looks of decent size, I would not want her to calve to the hereford for a first calf. JUST MY PERSONAL preference. I worry more about the blocky front end than I do about birth weight per se.
You ought to get some nice beef calves out of this bull, and on the dairy crosses, it will improve their calves to be more beefy. I've raised many hereford and angus calves out of dairy animals; often liked the hereford ones better for disposition. But over the years we have culled for disposition also and have some pretty "handleable" cows now. Good luck with them.

Agree to disagree. Have a 1/2 Hereford calf out of a black heifer and a Hereford bull and she had it without any problems.

 

[farmerjan]

Muddy, the only reason I wanted to post my disagreement was due to the fact that the heifer is a dexter/jersey cross according to the original post. I have had several from good sized angus heifers with a hereford bull years ago and no big problems. I had a BIG brown swiss heifer that had problems from an easy calving angus bull, but she was a wuss. But the dexter/jersey cross being a heifer is just one I wouldn't want to babysit when she was due. And I agree, it is good to agree to disagree.... everyone's opinion is worth something due to their own personal experiences.

Just for conversations sake, tested a dairy that had to have the vet do a C-section on a cow ( 3rd calf I think). It was an ET calf, and it weighed 205 LBS. A heifer and they saved her!!!!!!! Cow is milking good and you would never know she had that huge calf. Calf looked like it was nearly ready to wean..... This is a farm that does alot of ET work and was unbelieveable that this mating produced this massive calf and that they were able to save it. Cow has has 2 normal calves prior so they are sure it is the particular ET mating. Had one a month before that was a couple of weeks early, same ET flush, and the calf was born dead and was very big too. He said he will not be implanting any more of the eggs from that mating...too much risk. So you never know...

 

[Supa Dexta]

Do you know if she calved on time?

Had one this year the vet gloved and called 5mo, but she calved nearly 3mo after the expected date. It was 146 lbs, and dead. No idea where that size came from, but it was obviously large early on.

 

[Rafter S]

My Hereford bull jumped the fence a couple of years ago and bred two of my Brangus heifers. I suspect they were bigger than the heifer you're talking about. They both calved unassisted, but one of them prolapsed, and died two days later. The vet said she had prolapsed because of straining so long trying to have the relatively large calf. So you do what you want to, but I'd be very concerned about letting her have the calf.

 

[Draper]

While I do see the featherneck, the bull looks more fleckvieh than Hereford to me--- Not knowing anything about his background, id be scared to death to use that bull on very fine made cows.

 

[farmerjan]

Supa Dexta the cow they did the C-section on was only 4 days past due date and because it was an ET she was carrying, they were very definite about the date. He has done hundreds of ET's and said that the other cow calved with the very large dead calf was about 3 weeks early....again an ET from the same flush just an earlier implant. Since he has been doing this for nearly 40 years, I know he stays on top of it. Said he had never done that particular mating, and will never do it again as it is not worth possibly losing the cow carrying it. The two cows carrying the ET's were not related at least not in the pedigree for many generations....so not even that to be a factor.

If she were mine, I would lute her and breed AI to an easy calving bull for her first calf.

How big are the calves that the neighbor is getting? Has he had the bull long enough to get a crop of calves on the ground? Can you judge by them somewhat? I realize that different cows have different size calves, but if all the calves are big or all are somewhat small, it would give you an idea of what to most likely expect.