Bull year?

[Jake]

We are 80% done calving and don't have exact numbers but it seems like our bull/heifer ration this year is 75/25 or 80/20. Guess it's Gods sign we aren't suppose to keep many replacements this fall.

Last year we were heavy bull calves probably 65/35 but this year is ridiculous. Bred a bunch of cows hoping to get a set of half sisters to keep and don't hardly have any out of those matings.

 

[SPH]

We were the same way last year and a little better this year but still pretty heavy on the bulls. Bummer too because we have always had a lot of interest in yearling heifers and last year we only had 2 we could spare to sell. Everyone of course was asking about the top heifers but after selling several of the top ones in previous years felt it was time we kept a few of them for ourselves for once. On the flip side of that though it definitely meant we had a strong offering in the bull sale pen this year and cut a few bulls to send to the feedlot as steers that might have been good enough some years to feed out as bulls.

 

[Nesikep]

I started out with 8 heifers, 2 bulls.. after 7 bulls in a row I'm still at 8 heifers, but 9 bulls now... so I don't know what to expect.
Last year I had 15 bulls and 8 heifers.

I'm a bit lacking in the quality heifer department right now.. there's one certainty, and a couple maybes, depending on how they fill out

 

[lithuanian farmer]

This year have 9 heifers and 6 bulls so far. 15 girls left to calve. We personally need more bulls, because we get much better price for them than for the heifers. Last year had 11 heifers and 14 bulls.

 

[Isomade]

We are 80% done calving and don't have exact numbers but it seems like our bull/heifer ration this year is 75/25 or 80/20. Guess it's Gods sign we aren't suppose to keep many replacements this fall.

Last year we were heavy bull calves probably 65/35 but this year is ridiculous. Bred a bunch of cows hoping to get a set of half sisters to keep and don't hardly have any out of those matings.

Ive got one to go and 70% heifers.

 

[Toad]

I'm at about 60% heifers and thats because I had a recent run of bull calves. At one point I was at about 80% heifers. Several that already look like they will be good replacements, I'm excited about that.

 

[cow pollinater]

I'm at right about 50/50 but my first month of calving where I'll pick my replacements from was nearly all heifers and all baldies at that and from there on it's been almost all black steers. I'd have liked them tighter together but with last years drought I couldn't ask for a better setup to grow with and still have some light black calves to pay the mortgage with. :nod:

 

[max]

We're running close to 50/50. Last year we were heavy on heifers from AI sires, and heavy on bulls calves from the herd bulls. This year they seemed to have averaged themselves out between the two.

 

[millstreaminn]

6 bulls 1 heifer. With only 3 left to go, looks like I'll be heavy bulls.

 

[Andyva]

75% bulls here. At least the heifers have been out of cows that I really wanted a heifer out of, except for one.

 

[tom4018]

Not done calving yet but probably at 80% bulls here just goes to show how things can differ.

 

[thommoos]

I'm running 57% bulls. But i believe my heifers are all going to be keepers.

 

[Jake]

But i believe my heifers are all going to be keepers.

I'm scared of the same thing. May not have much of a choice but to keep them all.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Wish I could be as confident, most of my heifers are out of cows I don't retain from...my maternal bull ain't been to maternal so far...

 

[skyhightree1]

im 100% bull calves so far only 2 born so far but I got 2 cows due within a month then the rest are scattered through out the year so I will report back Dec 31 :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[Backbone Ranch]

It has been fairly even for us. We have 8 heifer calves and 6 bull calves. We have 3 more to calve this spring and 4 to calve this fall.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I'm very bull heavy this year, and I was wanting it to go the other way, I moved a bunch of Hereford cows away from my brangus bulls to be with a horned hereford hoping to make some more horned hereford heifers to keep for cows. So far I have 100% bulls from that set.

 

[Dave]

But i believe my heifers are all going to be keepers.

I'm scared of the same thing. May not have much of a choice but to keep them all.

I know a guy who keeps them all no matter what the numbers fall out to. After breeding he ultra sounds them and keeps the earliest calving ones with bull calves in them. Sells the rest as bred heifers.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Just this spring we are running 80% heifers and 20% bulls, and we have two more to calve. That is very unusual for us. We are usually bull heavy, and most of those are embryos.
Our sex related to embryos? Over the last few years, we have had about 18 embryos born bull, and only 6 born heifers. We buy embryos to improve our female base... But it seems number one embryos are more often bull than heifer!!!

 

[WalnutCrest]

We only have two on the ground so far (this is the early end of our window) ... one embryo resulted in a FB heifer and AI resulted in another FB heifer. Since we're trying to grow our numbers, we're pretty pleased.