Calving ease-bull conformation

[Hpacres440p]

On an untested bull, do you look at ratio of head to body/shoulder size to decide about using him or not? LBW is important, but a big-head/shoulder combination can make a difference too, right? With our previous goat experience, we used to look for skull width as it usually translated to overall body width/meat capacity. Same principle?

 

[greggy]

I am only new to this really, and have not selected a bull for breeding......but...

It may come down to what the bull throws, not his actual physical proportion.

So if mating heifers...you want one that is known to give smaller birth size......but you could prob screw that if you overfeed too

Have a search here if no one chimes in that knows exactly, forum usually has threads on topics like this....

 

[Ebenezer]

One quick check is bone size in the canon bone. Then look to see if shoulders are abnormally straight. True masculinity of the bull (shoulder width)proportion to rear are not true calving problem indicators. Find somebody who knows something about the maternal grandam and the birth weight she carried. Or ask if the calves come either long and tall or short and like a basketball. A heavy long and tall type calf (at birth) is worth 2X what a short one will ever do for you or return in $'s.

Tailset on heifers (plus the condition issue already mentioned) will either aid or hurt calving ease. A sloped rump and flat topline is the best of it all. Bonsma shows illustrations on the bones involved. Sway backs and ski slope rumps were culled in the past due to a purpose before folks seemed to want to pull calves or have more problems. I don't get it. They swap out proper structure with low BW bulls (usually just short gestation) to get calves on the ground and then they are stuck in the low BW bull deal to never keep the size and muscle in the herd.

 

[Nesikep]

I look for smooth eyebrows, a bit a longer head.. a long calf will come out easier for a given birthweight than a short one

 

[Hpacres440p]

I look for smooth eyebrows, a bit a longer head.. a long calf will come out easier for a given birthweight than a short one

Makes sense.

 

[Hpacres440p]

One quick check is bone size in the canon bone. Then look to see if shoulders are abnormally straight. True masculinity of the bull (shoulder width)proportion to rear are not true calving problem indicators. Find somebody who knows something about the maternal grandam and the birth weight she carried. Or ask if the calves come either long and tall or short and like a basketball. A heavy long and tall type calf (at birth) is worth 2X what a short one will ever do for you or return in $'s.

Tailset on heifers (plus the condition issue already mentioned) will either aid or hurt calving ease. A sloped rump and flat topline is the best of it all. Bonsma shows illustrations on the bones involved. Sway backs and ski slope rumps were culled in the past due to a purpose before folks seemed to want to pull calves or have more problems. I don't get it. They swap out proper structure with low BW bulls (usually just short gestation) to get calves on the ground and then they are stuck in the low BW bull deal to never keep the size and muscle in the herd.

I've wondered why the "club calf" phenotype is so popular-all I see on some is an uphill battle for a calf to be born.
Thanks for the input-I like to know structural predictors rather than just choosing by pedigree. In my opinion, most bulls should be steers unless there is an outstanding reason for them to continue a bloodline-and I don't have nearly enough experience to pick an unproven animal solely on pedigree.
I guess I'll stick with AI and EPDs for now-at least there is some data available for making bull choices.