My grandfather, Maurice Boney, always told me to buy the best bull you can afford. If a bull at the sale barn is the best bull you can afford, then be darned sure and try and get the best one there. If you can afford more, do research, understand what works well with your own cows. Talk to other ranchers, experiment with AI, use EPD's if available, but always BUY THE BEST BULL YOU CAN AFFORD.[/quote]
I have met your Grandfather and have a lot of respect for his cattle knowledge. I want you to know that this is just the kind of post i was hoping to see from you when i chided you for just coming here to advertize. I also want to tell you that i totally agree with your grandfather. However there are always going to be those out there who go to a bull sale with the idea of buying a bargain and they are always out there. Sadly, they almost always demonstrate their true worth sooner or later. I always laugh when i see someone who cusses those overfattened feedlot bulls so he goes to a bull sale and buys one that doesn't meet that criteria. Only to find out that he just bought a bull that couldn't gain under the best of circumstances.
To illustrate the value of Maurice's words I will relate how it can effect you. Two years ago i had sold my good Angus bull with the idea that i would AI everything straight Gelbvieh and then just run my cows with my firnds Angus bull to clean up. He was in fact an amazing example of the breed and a breeding machine. As it turs out we had a catastrophic failure when the semen tank went dry and i only had a 30% success on the AI. If it werent for the quality of that bull i woud have little or nothing to sell this year. As it turns out a have a real nice bunch of Balancer bulls on test.
Like Maurice said buy the best bull you can afford.........or like they say buy once, cry once.