Bull prospects this year

[cowgirl8]

This one looks just like the bull.




Another, my husbands fav..


Getting rid of a few older bulls this year... Had one that kept nursing the cows. Had one break his penis and one cracked his poll.. one grew skurs, that doesn't bother me but the guys don't like how he looks now...

 

[Bright Raven]

Why does scurs bother your husband? I have a cow that is scurred. You hardly see it. Must be a bad case.

 

[cowgirl8]

They just give his head a boxy look.

 

[76 Bar]

How old were they in the photos?

 

[Muddy]

I like the red one better than the brindled one.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

why don't you sell those ,, and buy from a good outside source ?? And I'm not picking, I'm asking...

 

[cowgirl8]

why don't you sell those ,, and buy from a good outside source ?? And I'm not picking, I'm asking...

We do... last one was a reg angus who broke his penis 1 month into breading season, sold for 1/3rd what we paid for him a few months before.
We do get outside bulls, but since we have 5 herds, it makes it easier to raise our own bulls. More people are going to commercial bulls. Our commercial bulls almost always outdo the reg ones. This red bull that produces these stocky meat makers weans calves over 600 and buyers likes them, red, black, brindle, lots of leather, doesn't matter they like them. Last year most his calves brought over 1000 dollars each. So we're working on getting as many bulls out of him. Looking forward to pairing them with another bulls blood. Red bulls heifer calves are outstanding but we're finding that they aren't good milkers, at least with the first calf heifers, we kept several of his first years heifers. So everything this year out of this bull is terminal except for the 5 bull calves we left intact. If they continue to grow at the rate that makes them stand out on hay, we'll give them a chance..

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Good meaty bulls.
With 5 herds, how do you keep track of your performance of your cows and/or bulls, if you don't eartag your calves?

 

[cowgirl8]

Good meaty bulls.
With 5 herds, how do you keep track of your performance of your cows and/or bulls, if you don't eartag your calves?

We try to keep bulls in types per herd. Its not prefect but we aren't a reg business. We sell in groups off the herds and just go by the sale averages. BUt, you can just look at the calves too. We've found that tagging the calves is only important if you're moving the cows during calving season. If I get a calf that's not growing good, a dink is what my FIL has named them, its easy to find the cow who produced it and its noted if its milk related.
Last year we pulled all the red bulls steer calves off and sold them as a group. Keeping in mind that we have a 3 month breeding season so calves were spread out in this 3 month age, red bulls calves averaged 651 pounds. Doesn't take a scale to know that these were going to be heavy. We knew just by looking at them they were going to average high.
One herd we ran 6 black bulls. Do we know who performed the best out of all the bulls...no, but unless you're doing DNA testing, no one would...right? I can pick out one bulls calves, some of them at least. But the other solid black 5 simangus bulls, nope. Red bull is with a b/wf sim-angus, very easy to tell who is whose calf....

 

[NEFarmwife]

Good meaty bulls.
With 5 herds, how do you keep track of your performance of your cows and/or bulls, if you don't eartag your calves?

We try to keep bulls in types per herd. Its not prefect but we aren't a reg business. We sell in groups off the herds and just go by the sale averages. BUt, you can just look at the calves too. We've found that tagging the calves is only important if you're moving the cows during calving season. If I get a calf that's not growing good, a dink is what my FIL has named them, its easy to find the cow who produced it and its noted if its milk related.
Last year we pulled all the red bulls steer calves off and sold them as a group. Keeping in mind that we have a 3 month breeding season so calves were spread out in this 3 month age, red bulls calves averaged 651 pounds. Doesn't take a scale to know that these were going to be heavy. We knew just by looking at them they were going to average high.
One herd we ran 6 black bulls. Do we know who performed the best out of all the bulls...no, but unless you're doing DNA testing, no one would...right? I can pick out one bulls calves, some of them at least. But the other solid black 5 simangus bulls, nope. Red bull is with a b/wf sim-angus, very easy to tell who is whose calf....

I understand your thought process but... How do you know which mommas to cull if you aren't getting any performance data? When we start culling for new replacements, that data is extremely important to us.