Evaluations on bull calf please

[townfarmer]

I've kept a registered Red Devon bull calf intact to be our clean up bull after A I later in the year. I had six bull calves to choose from. I ended up keeping the guy in the photos below intact. He's a polled calf a couple of weeks shy of six months in the photos. I don't know his weight sorry but he's never had any supplementary feeding. I'm fairly new to this so I'd appreciate some honest comments on this calf. I'm wanting to learn here so I wont be offended by critical comments.

Andrew

 

[Son of Butch]

I've kept a registered Red Devon bull calf intact to be our clean up bull after A. I. later in the year.
I had six bull calves to choose from. I ended up keeping the guy in the photos below intact.
He's a polled calf a couple of weeks shy of six months in the photos.

I assume you had good reasons to select him over the other 5.
He appears to have properly shaped testicles of decent size. That would be my 1st consideration when choosing
a bull calf to keep as a cow freshner/clean up bull. I might have kept a 2nd bull uncut as a backup just in case he
turns out to be a deadhead (lacking libido) but no reason to believe that he is or that he isn't a good choice given
your needs and circumstance.

 

[Rafter S]

I don't know anything about the breed, but he's a nice looking calf.

 

[townfarmer]

I assume you had good reasons to select him over the other 5.
He appears to have properly shaped testicles of decent size. That would be my 1st consideration when choosing
a bull calf to keep as a cow freshner/clean up bull. I might have kept a 2nd bull uncut as a backup just in case he
turns out to be a deadhead (lacking libido) but no reason to believe that he is or that he isn't a good choice given
your needs and circumstance.

I should have specified that in the second picture he is the calf in front. I did have a look at his testicles and they seemed a reasonable size.
The process of elinination I used was pretty basic

1.) Want a polled bull so that eliminated one down to 5 left

2.) Visual appraisal. Two were carrying more red meat and expressing more masulinity. down to two.

3.) kids moved them through the yards and into the crush a couple of times. One was a lot calmer and quieter which made the decision a bit easier.

What made the decision a little trickier was out of the final two calves I prefer the mother of the 2nd placed bull. Prefer her pedigree, she has a better hair coat that slicks off quickly in summer and is the first to breed back. The Mother of the calf i retained is still a good fertile cow but I prefer the other one.

The other question I have on visual appraisal is how much of a factor is milk supply on the appearance of a six month old bull calf?

Andrew