Bull Penning

[MudHog]

I'm seeing the effects of having a bull on our herd all the time, but this is the way my grandfather always did it. I'm guessing his cows never got out of cycle to one another or he just dealt with it. I don't remember as a kid having calves at different times. So far, I've had a calf Jan 5th and another calf was born this past Saturday. Three of the other cows are in sync and one cow didn't breed as she got a horn that broke off. She is in heat now though as the bull is hanging around her.

I'm planning to build me a 25x25 catch pen with a chute. Could I use this to house my bull in to separate him from the cows? Is there a certain amount of time to pen him up to achieve my goal of getting all the cows to sync to one another?

 

[Bigfoot]

Sounds a little small to just leave him in, even if your haying him every day. Getting all your cows calving in say a 90 window, might be a big task, that or cost you a bunch of cows standing open for a while. IDK if cold is a concern in your area, but heat probably is. I do'nt want calves december, January, or first half of february. After that, I don't worry about when a cow calves, as long as she calves once a year. I just pull the bulls accordingly. I'll be putting them in May 15th. They'll be behind hot wire untill then.

 

[dun]

Our bull pen is 36X60. He's only there for a couple of months during calving season and pre-breeding season. We also use it as a sick pen on occastion. It ajoins our working/catch pens. With the ice and snow this winter he had the bull pen and the catchpen to roam around in.

 

[Supa Dexta]

You can put a bull in an inside pen like 10x15, for months on end as long as its sturdy. But ya gotta get in there and clean him out.

I calve now, bulls go out near june, and come back in oct/nov.

 

[SPH]

Depends on what you are comfortable with calving but we only have the bull out with the cows during a set time, any cows that don't get bred are usually culls unless we have a good reason to hold one over. Our calving season typically runs late February (and those are mostly AI calves) and then our first natural sired calves are in early March as we don't turn the bull out till any sooner than March 1 calving and pull him so our latest calf would be no later than mid May so that usually means the bull goes in late May and out in mid August. We even had a 1st time experience this year that will make us re-think how we pen the bull during calving season going forward as we had a cow come in heat exactly 1 month after she calved. Typically we have the herd bull in with our maternity ward since we don't usually have enough lots to keep him separate plus typically cows don't cycle back that quick but since we are between bulls right now we luckily did not have a bull in the same lot with her otherwise if she had been serviced and settled she would have late Dec calve and can't imagine how hard that would be on the cow to have 2 calves within the same calendar year as she would only be a few months weaned from the current calf before having the next one.