How many cows are you breeding? I realize that bulls aren't cheap, we have 7-10 at any one time to take care of cows out on the different leased places we have. Therefore at an average of 3500 per bull; which you can find good genetics here for that, especially if you can buy a yearling and keep him for a little while and not use him too heavy the first season; then you are looking at a cost of $125.00 per calf for a 30 cow herd. We have seen bulls bring 5-10,000 and have one that cost over 5,000 right now, but we saw his heifer calves and liked them and so was willing to go that price. Use him at least 2 years, any heifers you keep you will not want to run with the older cows so a separate bull for them. By the second year of just the 30 cows now you are talking $65. per calf. You can barely take the time to AI cows for less than that if you figure semen, catching them, watching heats etc. So the idea is how many cows are you spreading out the cost over. We buy all registered bulls, and have a registered "percentage" bull that I am not thrilled with but bought him on looks and "his paper" records. No more percentage/crossbred bulls for us. If you keep the bull for 4 or 5 years then the cost per calf is small. We have kept good producing bulls for more than 5 years if they stay fertile, and are easy breeders, and the calves sell well.
When we were starting out we couldn't buy very good bulls, and gradually worked our way up to better bulls. We have kept a couple of nice bulls out of our best producing cows, and some have worked and some haven't. How about checking with a neighbor or someone at the local cattle assoc to see if they are going to "trade in" their bull for a new/younger one due to keeping alot of heifers. Cull bull prices here are in the $1.00 range so an experienced bull that someone can no longer use due to genetics, may be a less expensive way to go. You can pay more than slaughter price and still not spend as much as some at a reg sale. We also lease out a couple of bulls to farmers who only have 15-30 cows. Are there any lease bulls available? You would only have to keep and feed him for a few months. I would be a little cautious about keeping a bull that had longhorn in it, especially if the commercial cattle you have could have something in their background other than what you see. A recessive horn gene might not show up if you continue to breed purebred with a polled breed, but if a recessive horn gene matches up with another recessive horn gene, you could get several with horns....ouch.