I was told a long time ago by a very good cowman that you, "Breed for your cows and hope your bulls are good enough". What that means is that since you are keeping your own heifers for replacements, you want a bull that comes from a strong maternal herd.
People will get all excited about one individual bull, show me the cows. When we look for a herd bull, we look at their bulls, all of them and then if we are interested, we look at their cow herd. See if you like what the cows look like because that is the best indicator of all.
A.I. is a useful tool for operations that are either small or have a whole bunch of manpower. We don't have the manpower to A.I. Also, it depends on your conditions. Many people that A.I. also run a spring and fall calving groups within their herds. We can't because of our feed conditions. If we had irrigated ground, it really wouldn't make that much difference but we don't.
You also need to purchase a bull that will work well in your country. If you have tough country and bulls need to get out and work for a living you really don't want a bull that has been hand raised. We have gotten many customers because they don't want bulls that have been raised in a feedlot. Whether it is true or not, they say they don't know how to forage for grass.
I wouldn't buy a bull at a sale unless I knew about the ranch first. I hate to say it, but some people are not honest. I was at a sale Friday and there were a couple of bulls that were blatantly short-aged. If you do go to a bull sale, don't get excited about WDA because that is only as good as the person who is turning in the numbers. Same for birth weights, weaning weights, and yearling weights. Many producers do not have certified scales on their ranch. They use tapes to figure out how much and animal weighs or they have those scales in their chutes. When they show you weights, ask how they got them, was their scales certified?
I am not saying that you cannot buy a good bull from someone who only raises a few bulls a year, but ask whoever you are buying a bull from, how many bulls they cut. You can get a good feel for how they operate their herd.
I would not ever, buy a bull over a video. We went to a large production sale to buy a bull. We had done our homework. We looked at the video, checked out the numbers and the pedigree. There was one bull that fit our program perfectly. We got to the sales yard the day before the sale, after flying half way across the country. We were there early, no one was around. We got out of the car and there were over 100 bulls penned. One bull stuck his head up and started watching us. I wasn't even close enough to read his number but I had this sinking feeling. Yep, he was the bull we had selected. So we went through the bulls that we had rated and found another bull that actually was much better looking than he was in the video. The day of the sale the first bull we wanted, was ramming fences and he wasn't even brought into the ring. The bull we did buy has ended up to be great. But that was after he got sick, looked so bad we hid him for six months. His proof was in his calves that are now sale bulls. Also in his heifers, who haven't started calving yet but hopefully will be good mothers.
We would have bought that bull over the video and not know his disposition until we got him home. Notice when they sell bulls or horses on those videos, it isn't in the ring but videos taken earlier? I am not saying video marketing isn't a great tool, I would buy or sell a set of feeders off a video but I would not buy a bull where disposition is important.
