Cut or keep?

[boondocks]

testicles, that is! Bull calf born late March, great AI sire and grandsire, good mama. Been only on grass. Haven't registered him yet; need to decide this week if he gets cut next Sat.
See anything that would lead to a strong recommendation to cut him?

 

[wbvs58]

Nice calf. He seems deep in the chest and carries it through aft giving him plenty of volume which I like.

Ken

 

[snoopdog]

I like him

 

[boondocks]

I wrote a response but it didn't go through. Thanks for the feedback!
Any other commenters wanna weigh in?

 

[Nesikep]

with his pose it's a little hard for me to see his length, but he has good depth
How old is he? He doesn't look bullish yet.

 

[Ebenezer]

Why do you wonder about him? Do you see faults?

 

[5S Cattle]

Might just be the pic but it looks like he has noassatall disease to me

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Can't tell much by picture. What I see looks OK. But, if you are in doubt, he is a steer prospect. It takes a heck of a good male to be left a bull, IMO.
The biggest question is "what will you do with him if you keep him a bull"?
Are you looking for a bull for yourself? If not, selling a bull in NY is no picnic. Keeping a bull around to breeding age is a PIA. I only sell bull calves. If they are not sold by the time I'm ready to ship my steers to the feedlot, they get cut & feedlot gets them at a discounted price. So, can be costly to to do that. Selling bull calves is not easy. People have to WANT your breeding stock.
Everyone thinks since he's registered, he should be a bull - NO. Most times steering a calf is the most profitable thing to do. You have to develop a reputation in order to sell a quality bull.

 

[Bright Raven]

The picture is not good. But if the picture is doing him justice, he does not appear to be heavily muscled.

 

[Franke]

From the pictures I would say steer.

 

[gizmom]

If he is structurally correct and gaining minimum of 2.5 but to be really good 3.0 pounds for ADG since birth he might make a bull.

Gizmom

 

[ALACOWMAN]

testicles, that is! Bull calf born late March, great AI sire and grandsire, good mama. Been only on grass. Haven't registered him yet; need to decide this week if he gets cut next Sat.
See anything that would lead to a strong recommendation to cut him?

Sounds like he has the backing, just doesn't look like he has it...go get the knife ready...

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Maybe the pic but he looks weak in the back end. To much money riding on the butt to let a flat butt breed.
Cut

 

[boondocks]

Thanks all for the honest feedback. Nesi, he's just turning 5mos. Jeanne, we do not usually sell bulls. We acknowledge that it is not a particular expertise of ours, at this point. (We did sell one last year to someone who saw him and wanted him). We also don't keep one; we are strictly AI. Although our herd is registered, for us, registration is primarily a way to track pedigree and work on genetics. We like to raise cows that are fertile; moderate; have decent manners (although not coddled or pets); hardy (well-suited to our brutal winters and grassfed eats), and calve with zero (and I do mean zero) assistance.
I would never keep a hatchetazzed calf (heifer or bull). He does have some backside, although he's not a monster for sure...Lil feller will probably get steered, I guess!

 

[MRRherefords]

Can't tell much by picture. What I see looks OK. But, if you are in doubt, he is a steer prospect. It takes a heck of a good male to be left a bull, IMO.
The biggest question is "what will you do with him if you keep him a bull"?
Are you looking for a bull for yourself? If not, selling a bull in NY is no picnic. Keeping a bull around to breeding age is a PIA. I only sell bull calves. If they are not sold by the time I'm ready to ship my steers to the feedlot, they get cut & feedlot gets them at a discounted price. So, can be costly to to do that. Selling bull calves is not easy. People have to WANT your breeding stock.
Everyone thinks since he's registered, he should be a bull - NO. Most times steering a calf is the most profitable thing to do. You have to develop a reputation in order to sell a quality bull.

I have seen a lot of people selling bulls lately that really should read this. Your absolutely right, just because it is registered does not mean it should be kept a bull. I actually saw someone go as far as to say that you are failing as a registered program if you have to castrate any of your male calves, as because they are registered then they should be good enough to be a bull. (Hard to believe that any true cattleman would actually think that.) But I believe that poor bull selection is a huge issue in the cattle industry today. Sub par bulls produce sub par offspring, which often will produce sub par price at sale.

 

[gizmom]

MR

Your right, notice I said if structurally correct and gaining 2.5 to 3.0 pounds per day and has good genetics. Once they pass that hurdle they have to hit all the numbers as far as performance as yearlings. We usually have two or three that get culled as yearlings. We steered out 36 nice calves this year all but one or two could have been registered. We were at a Cattlemen's meeting a packer was the guest, he said the biggest problem the purebred industry had was they wouldn't use a knife. If you ever go bull shopping and they tell you they don't have any steers run!

Gizmom

 

[boondocks]

Just for the record, I agree that most registrable males should be cut! As noted above, we have sold exactly one registered bull, as a calf, to a guy who was going to put him thru his paces to see if he stacked up. We don't keep them past 6 months because we don't run a separate herd usually, so when they hit 6 mos, they are gone or steered by then.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Just for your info - it is sooooo much easier to castrate at birth. Until you are "looking" for a bull you might want to consider doing this.
I breed each and every cow/heifer for a heifer. I never plan a mating and say, "this should make a great bull". Nope. If I happen to get a good bull, so be it, bonus for my bull buyers.

 

[boondocks]

Just for your info - it is sooooo much easier to castrate at birth. Until you are "looking" for a bull you might want to consider doing this.
I breed each and every cow/heifer for a heifer. I never plan a mating and say, "this should make a great bull". Nope. If I happen to get a good bull, so be it, bonus for my bull buyers.

We usually do steer at birth or within a few days. But we moved our calving season up this year and we had a couple bull calves born in pretty gnarly weather, so we decided to wait. The vet will castrate when she does preg checks. (We band when we do it at birth).

 

[Nesikep]

Just for your info - it is sooooo much easier to castrate at birth. Until you are "looking" for a bull you might want to consider doing this.
I breed each and every cow/heifer for a heifer. I never plan a mating and say, "this should make a great bull". Nope. If I happen to get a good bull, so be it, bonus for my bull buyers.

I find some cows make great bulls, but can't make a heifer to save their life.. nice meaty bull/steer calves but the heifers always end up lanky and 2 dimensional. Those cows are typically terminal cows around here. I want offspring from the ones that whether it's a heifer or a bull, it's going to be a nice calf... Sadly, only about 25% of my cows fit into that category so far