Bull/cow ratio

[jcissell]

How many breeding bulls do ya'll run with your cows? I have heard one bull can service up to 125 cows. Then I had a vet tell me 1 bull for every 20 cows. We have one bull for about 40 cows.

Josh

 

[Jake]

a mature bull should cover 40 cows in a non-range condition. by range I mean something under 200 acres that the herd has to run on. The 125 number sounds like you've been talking to Pharo cattle company.... don't test your luck, that will burn a bull out fast.

 

[TheBullLady]

We have one mature bull ( 4 years old ) on 65 cows. .. but, we don't have a "breeding season", so he's turned out with the cows all year. I'd rather have a longer breeding season than two bulls fighting.

 

[Craig-TX]

We generally don't run more than 30 cows per bull, assuming mature. No major problems with multiple bulls. As mentioned somewhere else, the presence of competition tends to keep them home. We also run them year round.

Craig-TX

 

[txshowmom]

We run most of our bulls year round as well. Each bulll is out wiht about 50 cows but we also AI so with some of those cows he's there "just in case".

 

[CattleAnnie]

We put the bulls out with the cows when they're still at home in the beginning of May and pull them when we vaccinate and deworm the herd in November.

General rule of thumb for us is one bull per 30 or so cows.

Take care.

 

[Fleckvieh DPB]

Craig-TX wrote

We generally don't run more than 30 cows per bull, assuming mature. No major problems with multiple bulls. As mentioned somewhere else, the presence of competition tends to keep them home. We also run them year round.

what does that have to do with multiple births?

 

[Craig-TX]

Craig-TX wrote

We generally don't run more than 30 cows per bull, assuming mature. No major problems with multiple bulls. As mentioned somewhere else, the presence of competition tends to keep them home. We also run them year round.

what does that have to do with multiple births?

Hu?

Craig-TX

 

[Fleckvieh DPB]

oh sorry read that one wrong!!

multiple bulls not births.
al

 

[RockenG]

Now we run one bull with about 30 cows or so...We use to run more cows and two bulls they would always fight it out and tear up some fence but never a injury. We take the bulls off the cows now and pasture them together. They get along fine until we put out some cubes.. haha.

 

[endebt]

we run two herds of cows. the bulls (2) go in may 1 for 63 days and come out. they go back to work dec1 with the next herd. this way we have a pay day twice a year. this seems to work for us. we try to have about 50 head in each herd. we cull all that dont breed. we save hiefers and AI them to black angus bulls. we save bulls and replacement hiefers.