Growing a young bull

[J&D Cattle]

I started a thread the other day about young bull prices, well I've all but handed the guy the cash. I've fed out some butcher steers but have never fed any bulls out to then keep for my own use. What feed mix and what percentage of body weight should I feed it at to grow a weaned bull to breeding age? The bull will have free choice hay, fresh water, and good mineral. The hay isn't great though but better than a lot that was available around here this year. Tested 7.15% protein and 45.9% TDN.

I would much rather buy a mix than commercially bagged feed basically due to price. Thanks

 

[dun]

How do you feed your replacement heifers? We raise our bulls the same as we do replacement heifers.

 

[J&D Cattle]

We've been buying them and haven't raised any. Had some saved back this year but with the drought and high prices in the spring we rolled them.

 

[dun]

OK, here's how we do it. If we are retaining a lot of heifers we keep them seperate from the cow herd and feed them hay and if the hay isn't really very good we supplement with lick tubs. The bulls we turn out with the bred cows and they get stockpiled fescue and hay once the fescue runs out and if the hay isn;t very good they get lick tubs just like the heifers. If we're only keeping a couple of heifers they get turned out with the bred cows and the bulls go in the bull pen and get hay and lick tubs if the hay isn;t very good. After the 45 day weaning period when they;re fed about 1.5-2% of their weight in grain per day the only grain they get is when we have to put hay in the bull pen we tease them to the far end with just enough grain to keep them occupied so they don;t help me put a round bale in the feeder.

 

[J&D Cattle]

Thanks for the reply Dun. We would have some bred cows we could turn him out with while he was growing. I was under the impression after talking to a couple of local yocals, who don't really raise replacements, that I needed to drylot and pump some grain into him to make certain I got him growing good and ready to be turned out. I'm looking at using him on 10 or so cows when he is 15 months old.

 

[dun]

It's the bulls that have the grain pumped to them that fall apart when they have to make a living for themselves. As yearlings our bulls aren;t as big as some but the buyers that want animals that are bred to do well on our forage like them just fine. Our stock has been bred and selected for those that will do well in our warped management scheme.

 

[Bigfoot]

I never push a bull much with grain at all. really if you think about what you are getting from him (his genetics) it was decided at birth. To add any feed above what is needed to keep his frame moving forward is waisted. Also when you sell him after 2 or more breeding season, he will only be worth a kill price anyway. I have bought the fall apart bulls, and i have raised my own. the hand raised/home raised bulls seem to go much longer with out developing feet and leg issues.

 

[vclavin]

The problem is high energy feed.... you much slowly change their rumen bacteria back to digest grass/hay.. If you don't they will fall apart. We feed ours a high fiber diet so they can grow but will not fall apart when turned out to pasture.
Blessings
Valerie

 

[JustSimmental]

I started a thread the other day about young bull prices, well I've all but handed the guy the cash. I've fed out some butcher steers but have never fed any bulls out to then keep for my own use. What feed mix and what percentage of body weight should I feed it at to grow a weaned bull to breeding age? The bull will have free choice hay, fresh water, and good mineral. The hay isn't great though but better than a lot that was available around here this year. Tested 7.15% protein and 45.9% TDN.

I would much rather buy a mix than commercially bagged feed basically due to price. Thanks

If you don't have a good health program quit now and go back to buying your bulls

We sell weaned bulls all the time to buyers just like you and won't guarantee them unless they are gaining a minimum of 3 lbs/day.
Any bull that won't gain 3 lbs/day should have his head cut off anyway as this is a bare minimum.
You need to feed that bull a corn based ration of at least 12% CP while maintaining at least 20% forage consumption to keep the rumen active.
Our 12% ration consists of Corn (9% CP), Pelleted corn gluten (18% CP) Soybean hulls (12% CP) and 50 lbs mineral/ton. The corn based ration will keep the energy up, which will reap maximum gains. Normally, but not always, you can expect a bull calf to gain 1 lb for every 5-6 lbs fed.
Growing bulls just weaned should be backgrounded (started on feed slowly)

600 lb bull calf will need 1.5 to 1.6 lbs of Total; protein per day to gain 3+ lbs/day.

600 lb bull calf will eat 2.8% of his body weight in SOMETHING per day, which equals 600 x 0.028 = 16.8 lbs per day total.
On your hay @ 7.15% and 45.9% TDN the feed value (FV) is 0.0715 x 0.459 = 0.033 (FV) 16.8 x 0.033 = 0.55 lbs of Total protein per day as a base figure.
On the 12% ration and 90%TDN the FV is 0.12 x 0.90 = 0.108 ~ 0.11

Starting him out I would feed him 5 lbs of the 12% ration per day with free choice hay, which will be:
5 lbs x 0.11 = .55 TP + (11.8 lbs hay x 0.033) = 0.39 TP = .94 out of your goal of 1.5 to 1.6, which is a good starting point.

Within 10 to 14 days your bull should gradually get on a full feed ration by increasing the amount of feed given per every several days.
By day 10, for example, he would be on 12 lbs of 12% ration, which is 12 x 0.12 x 0.90 = 1.31 TP and 4 lbs (free choice hay) x .033 = 0.132 TP
This would be a Total protein of 1.31 + 0.132 = 1.44 TP which is getting closer to your goal of 1.5 TP. The 4 lbs of hay meets your 20% forage requirement.
Day 14, you should be able to push this bull a bit further to 13 lbs of 12% ration and free choice hay (more or less) which will meet your 1.5 to 1.6 TP goal, which in turn will give your bull a minimum of 3.0 lbs per day of gain.
We feed our bulls 2 times per day instead of just feeding them all at one feeding.

Bulls grow more between 7 months and 14 months, so we take advantage of this growth potential by feeding them, more, during this time. Gaining 100 lbs per month you need to adjust the feed accordingly, while maintaining 20% forage diet to keep the rumen active. Once your bull is consuming at least 10 lbs of feed per day, he will meet his mineral requirement through the feed ration and you will no longer need to supply extra mineral free choice-- but you can.

Your bull should have had 7-way @ 2-3 months of age and wormed with a booster at weaning and wormed again
Post-weaning
IBR, PI3, BVD, BRSV
5 way Lepto
Pasteurella haemolytica
Persistent BVD (blood draw)
and Trich if your bull has been running with any heifers or cows
Wormed every 90 days until 2 yrs old, wormer should be alternated every time e.g. Pour-on / then a Paste .....

JS