Dud Bulls

[Randi]

It's an uncommon problem for us. Usually the seem to get culled off in the fall because they have attitude problems. We rarely have injury issues as we run each bull in a separate pasture.

This spring, as usual we did BSE's on all our bulls in early April, as the guys we buy most of our bulls from have a sale the first week of April. Usually we don't have any problems, or possibly 1 bull will need to be replaced. This spring BSEíng didn't start out very well with the first bull being a dud as he had injured the end of his penis and it was large and hard. Vet recommended culling him and we didn't even test him... 2nd bull through she recommended a retest. He was at 57%, but she felt he would probably 'clean himself out' and would test good in a couple weeks. Next 4 bulls through tested well and then the heifer bull again was recommended to retest...56%, but again considered that he should test good in a couple weeks....

So bull sale came around and we picked up a 2 year old and a yearling Red Angus. That should more than replace the one we had to cull and take up any slack if one of the other 2 bulls didn't test.

Fast forward to the end of April... All Class sale coming up and we figured we should probably retest the 2 just to make sure, and if they didn't test we could haul them to town. Vet came out and tested them both.... and this was a shock to us all, but they both tested under 5%...

Now, try finding a decent 2 year old (planning to run 30 cows to each bull) in May... All bull sales are long over, except the Last Chance one (possibly well named in more than one way....) We were smart to buy the extra bull earlier, but he's just a yearling and running 30 cows with him is not really something we prefer to do. And to top it off, we have 22 replacement heifers, and need an easy calving bull also.... Took us a bit, and we didn't find a 2 year old, but we bought 2 Shorthorn yearlings and a Char yearling as well...

 

[Aaron]

Good to hear that you got a handle on it before they hit the pasture. Lots of guys here having long, strung-out calving seasons this year because of dud bulls. Some have been calving for 4 months.

 

[Randi]

LOL, we have had issues in the past with bulls, lesson learned. DH didn't want to test the one bull, the vet was quite certain he would be good. I pushed the issue, very glad I did.

Seriously, we've been calving since Feb 25.... BUT, that's 2 separate herds, our original herd which was mostly done by Apr 25, and then a friend's herd that we took on Lease from him which Started Apr 25 (and they are pretty much done a week ago). We figured we could increase the herd, and not have to buy extra bulls.

 

[jcarkie]

We added an 18 month old bull to use on heifers and the breeder ended up selling us 2 bulls. I really didn't think we needed the second one but I liked him alot, first week out one 2 year old bull broke his rear leg now I am glad we had the other. We still have 2 yearlings in the bull pen for next go around.
We preg ckd fall cows 2 open out of 70 not bad.

 

[LauraleesFarm]

I hear your pain. Its just that easy to run out of bull power.

We had a similar scenario. A Charolais bull I raised to use needed to go to work in May. I tested him at 13 months in March and no-go. I bought a really sharp little Angus bull that tested great. That bull started prolapsing his rectum when he would breed the heifers. Fortunately he was returnable.

Ended up buying two super nice Maine-Angus bulls off the farm from a nice older couple. Both tested hot to trot and I was glad, since one is only 13 months old. In the meantime I had moved my dad's 6 year old Angus bull for some overtime on the heifers. Now I gotta rearrange bulls and sell the Angus ( the original plan) so that we can cover his daughters at some point this year.

I guess the lesson learned is don't count your chickens before the eggs hatch.

 

[frieghttrain]

It's an uncommon problem for us. Usually the seem to get culled off in the fall because they have attitude problems. We rarely have injury issues as we run each bull in a separate pasture.

This spring, as usual we did BSE's on all our bulls in early April, as the guys we buy most of our bulls from have a sale the first week of April. Usually we don't have any problems, or possibly 1 bull will need to be replaced. This spring BSEíng didn't start out very well with the first bull being a dud as he had injured the end of his penis and it was large and hard. Vet recommended culling him and we didn't even test him... 2nd bull through she recommended a retest. He was at 57%, but she felt he would probably 'clean himself out' and would test good in a couple weeks. Next 4 bulls through tested well and then the heifer bull again was recommended to retest...56%, but again considered that he should test good in a couple weeks....

So bull sale came around and we picked up a 2 year old and a yearling Red Angus. That should more than replace the one we had to cull and take up any slack if one of the other 2 bulls didn't test.

Fast forward to the end of April... All Class sale coming up and we figured we should probably retest the 2 just to make sure, and if they didn't test we could haul them to town. Vet came out and tested them both.... and this was a shock to us all, but they both tested under 5%...

Now, try finding a decent 2 year old (planning to run 30 cows to each bull) in May... All bull sales are long over, except the Last Chance one (possibly well named in more than one way....) We were smart to buy the extra bull earlier, but he's just a yearling and running 30 cows with him is not really something we prefer to do. And to top it off, we have 22 replacement heifers, and need an easy calving bull also.... Took us a bit, and we didn't find a 2 year old, but we bought 2 Shorthorn yearlings and a Char yearling as well...

Could we get some pictures?

 

[Nesikep]

I had a bull break his penis at some point.. bred a couple cows, then the rest started coming back into heat.. it was a blessing in disguise because despite a longer, later calving season, we got a far better bull with a better temperament too.
That's the reason I keep the home-raised bull around... Despite only having 25 cows, the last thing I want to do is to have to go bull shopping in june.. At least this way if one of them fails I can put them all together and still get it all done.

Did the vet give any indication as to why they might only test 5% now? It sounds like Trich or some infection that would cause them to fall that low.

 

[Randi]

Bulls are fun...eh? Got ours all turned out now. Photos of bulls will come, eventually....that was part of my plan for today, until it rained and we couldn't get out to the pastures.

Vets were quite surprised that the bulls didn't test, but offered no suggestions as to why it happened, other than possibly testicular degeneration. No signs of infection. As for Trich, I don't think that is a problem, I think if it were we'd be seeing some major problems with cows. Cows, and bulls for that matter are all vaccinated with Express 5 vl5 every year, and we don't run bulls in community pastures or anything like that.

 

[Randi]

The 2 duds....

Our heifer bulll

And the Shorthorn we raised

 

[frieghttrain]

Those are some nice looking bulls!

 

[Nesikep]

beautiful failures.. Now you just gotta get yourself a mangy ugly bull off craigslist and you'll be sure he'll pass with flying colors! :P