Bulls, weaning weights, yearling shots...

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

All this bull talk made me drag out my camera and take a few photos tonight.
First, for our fall bulls. They decided the girls across the wire looked great, so they posed for a few shots for me. These bulls range from early October to late November. The biggest black one was weighed on August 30th, and was 1200 pounds even, and is the oldest in the group. I would bet the other three are at least 1000 pounds. The other black bull is the youngest, so a little smaller.

And I liked this one because they were black=red=black=red!

The biggest black one is the oldest, and he is the bull that won the Open and Junior show at state fair this year. We are going to collect him before selling him, and have used him on two cows that are due to pass over this week. Not sure if he is old enough to know how to breed yet, but his testicular size says he is!

This next set is our two Feb bulls we just weaned. The black one was born feb 1st, is an embryo (sired by Steel Force), and weaned off on August 30th at 724 pounds, no creep. Just grass and milk. The red one was born Feb 7th, if I remember correctly, and weaned off the same day at 736 pounds. His mom is pictured later standing behind a June bull calf. The white faced steer is a DECEMBER!!! So not all of our genetics are great, and thus is why he is a steer. he was 660 pounds, just for reference on the size comparison. Not sure why he did not grow as well, but he is sired by a herd bull, not an AI sire.

And this is the only Feb heifer we had, and she weaned off at 514 pounds. Her mom is the first calf heifer I pictured in the udder thread that had a VERY TINY udder, but as you can see she had enough milk to wean this calf. This heifer will not make a great show heifer, so we will keep her and sell her as a bred 2 year old.

These last two are our only June calves. We try not to calve so late, and both cows will be rolled to fall this year. They are going to be flushed. These bull calves are both sired by a bull we sold to KY last year, who also did a lot of winning. I think they have potential, but their testes are still not safe yet! The cow pictured with the second calf is the dam of the red bull calf above. She is a Shear Force and always weans one of our bigger calves, but only weighs 1100 pounds herself. She might be a 5 frame!

So now you have seen EVERY bull we own! ;-)

 

[Ohrmundt Simmentals]

Excellent all around. The Steel Force has nice length and depth. :clap:

 

[Limomike]

Wow.. nice nice looking set of bull calves. You are doing the right thing with those for sure.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Wow.. nice nice looking set of bull calves. You are doing the right thing with those for sure.

same here...

 

[3waycross]

That's a good looking bunch of bulls!

You seem to be in the same boat as me. My bulls look good this year and the 3 heifers I got, one was real nice ,one was just avg, and one(out of my biggest cow) is just plain sorry.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

That's a good looking bunch of bulls!

You seem to be in the same boat as me. My bulls look good this year and the 3 heifers I got, one was real nice ,one was just avg, and one(out of my biggest cow) is just plain sorry.

Oh, you don't know how true that statement is! ALL calves last fall were bulls, and these four pictured were the only ones that made it through. We kept the youngest to feed out for a steer for the freezer (December). This spring, we had a 50/50 split. Our two Feb bulls are probably the best we have raised (we have high hopes for the black Steel Force, since he is an embryo he is not related to anything in our herd so we plan on using him for clean up for the first time). We have one fantastic heifer (the Club King I have pictured), one pretty good heifer, one average, and one blah. The blah one needs more time, and feed before I make my final judgement on her.
We are super excited about this fall. Three due in the next 10 days (two embryo calves and one AI), then three in October (one embryo and two AI), and one in December. I can hardly wait!!! :banana:

 

[HOSS]

I really like your bulls. You are getting some pretty impressive weaning and yearling weights. You are doing something right that is for sure. Excellent cattle and thanks for posting.

 

[glacierridge]

Excellent all around. The Steel Force has nice length and depth. :clap:

What he said.
Nice azzes on them!!
And super lengths!!

 

[midtncattle]

I like the length on that oldest black bull. I would like to get weaning weights that high. I know genetics is the major factor, but I wonder if grass quality and weather are not significant factors as well.

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Good looking cattle for sure... thanks for posting!

 

[Jake]

I like the two black bulls. The one red calf doesn't have enough spring of rib or depth for my taste but nice cattle.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

Those top four bulls were born around 10/2012 correct? If so, they make mine look like a runt! Nice set of cattle for sure.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Those top four bulls were born around 10/2012 correct? If so, they make mine look like a runt! Nice set of cattle for sure.

The big black one and two red in the pen of four were born last October, so 11 months right now. The smaller black was born in later November, so her is 10 months old, almost.
Thank you, we try to put out only the best bulls. Sometimes I wonder if we cut too deep, but bulls are expensive to raise and develop so we try to keep our bull numbers down.
I agree with Jake, the younger red bull calf needs a little more rib at this stage in his life, but he is extremely heavy muscled and big boned. I think he is going through a growing stage right now, and hopefully will deepen in the rib cage as he grows. As a calf, before he was weaned, he had no problem with depth, so time will tell.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

I don't see how its possible those bulls are only 12months old! Those things are huge, what type of feeding program do you have?

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I don't see how its possible those bulls are only 12months old! Those things are huge, what type of feeding program do you have?

They were weaned at around 6 to 7 months, ranging from 560 (red bulls, twins) to 689 pounds, on grass and milk. Once they are weaned, we move them to our front pasture, which has a ton of clover and grass mixes, along with 18 pounds of bull ration a day, each (2% of their body weight is what is recommended, but we do not like to push them that hard). The black bull, oldest, was 1200 pounds on 8/31, the others are all at least 1000. Stocker on here can attest to their size, he came out and looked at them. I can assure you their age is accurate, and all of them have been shown at various times this year and they are the same size as their contemporaries. The big black bull won MO state fair in open and junior divisions, which is not an easy feat (and our first time winning open against the big boys).
We just had our steer processed this summer, and he sported 3.5 ADG on the carcass contest. Won it in fact. He was on 18 to 20 pounds of grain and full pasture, fed with the bulls on most days. Our bull calves we just weaned are in with the December steer, so three head, and they are eating 50 pounds a day of winter creep. So that averages around 16 pounds a head a day. They do not have a good pasture access right now, so we are tossing them a flake of orchard hay twice a day to keep them happy.
No special recipe, grain that everyone around here feeds to grow bulls. It does have ruminson in it, which helps with conversions. We are blessed with good forage, and those weaned Feb bull calves were just pulled off a pasture that was 60 red clover, then rye and orchard, with fescue. Good stuff for growing cattle. Only a few two year old cows are showing any rib right now, and once again no grain. But we manage intensive graze our land, so it treats us well when we get enough moisture. We are on a downward spiral right now, no rain in more than 4 weeks. Not a pretty site... Hoping to get some soon!

 

[inyati13]

Those are nice bulls. I have seen your pictures but this is the most impressive lot I have seen. Come to think about it, I don't think I have seen anything like this considering the age.

 

[Chuckie]

A very nice group of bulls. They look super. I think the first person there will have a tough time trying to decide which one he wants.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

OK, thought I would update this thread with weights. We weighed the bulls today, in preparation of Farm Fest (a REALLY big farm show here in the Ozarks). We put cattle on display there, so today we brought the bulls in and clipped and weighed them. They have not been worked since State Fair, back in early August.
Our 3/4 blood bull, FSSR Rainin Fire (the black bull with scurs, sired by Make It Rain) is 1295 today, and is an October 6th born bull. He will be 1300 pounds by his first birthday.
Our two red bulls, the identical twins, sired by Rendition, are 1150 and 1190, and born October 15th. Remember, there dam raised them both on milk and grass.'
Our smaller black bull, also a 3/4 sired by CCR Force (a Shear Force son), weighed in at 1120 and was born on November 10th, so just 10 months old. He goes in for his BSE on Wednesday. Stocker on here bought him. He will still be at Farm Fest, but after his BSE he can go to his new home if David wants.

I think our bulls look great this year. We are very proud of them and will be happy to see them working in other herds. We are going to collect the 3/4 blood bull that won State Fair, so if anyone wants to buy some semen, let me know.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Just had the (almost) 11 month old bull done with a breeding soundness exam, and he passed with flying colors. I love it when our young bulls are sexually mature at a young age, that is a sign of early maturing heifers in their offspring!