Hoof Trimming Question

[SRBeef]

I noticed that over the winter my bull's hooves have gotten longer and the rear ones started to curl up a bit.

Will this likely wear down once he has more area and rocky lanes to walk after I start the spring rotational grazing or should I look into having his hooves trimmed?

It may be my fault for leaving him on the corn for too long over the winter now that he is mature. He is just about 36 months old.

He will be having a BSE exam in May which would be a time through the chute to do it if necessary. Thanks for any experience and advice.

Jim

 

[dburkhart]

What breed is he?

Red Angus, I know, tend to need a lot of hoof care. It is tough to find a hoof trimmer in our area.

 

[SRBeef]

What breed is he?

Red Angus, I know, tend to need a lot of hoof care. It is tough to find a hoof trimmer in our area.

My bull is a registered Hereford. Being in a dairy area, there seem to be hoof trimmer trucks in my town quite often. Strange contraptions on the back of their truck next to me at the gas station.

My Hereford cows hooves look fine, it is just my bull that seems to have longer hooves recently.

I was theorizing that I had my bull in corn a bit too much over the winter. He did fine last year as he was still growing but maybe now that he is about 3 and mature he should not be getting that much protein, etc. Next year the corn with ears is for the animals being processed only. Cows, bull, etc will follow into the stalks only after most of the ears are gone. This would be similar to grazing combine harvested corn...

Jim

 

[dun]

What breed is he?

Red Angus, I know, tend to need a lot of hoof care. It is tough to find a hoof trimmer in our area.

If the Red Angus aorund you need foot care you need to find better genetics. Culling addresses most of those issues, just as it will with any breed and the majority of the problems.

 

[angus9259]

Get a new bull. If the cows don't need trimmed, the bull shouldn't either.

 

[SRBeef]

Get a new bull. If the cows don't need trimmed, the bull shouldn't either.

As I said above, this is a problem caused by me, not my bull. In my grazing corn experiment I left him on corn too long. He is off corn now and will be grazing stalks with no ears only in the future (ear corn is for animals just ahead of processing).

My question is will this likely wear down and correct itself or should I have a hoof trimmer come in?

I am not going to trade bulls. Jim

 

[novaman]

If his hooves are curling up I would say that they will not wear down and trimming would definately be needed. If you don't get them trimmed he will probably have a hard time getting around the way he should. Don't want to scare you as I know how much you value your bull but, it could be possible that he ate too much corn and foundered. Is he walking soft on his feet? By the way corn is very low in protein. Your problem is a result of getting too much starch (energy) which may have caused some acidosis issues and subsequent foot problems that may linger. I see this sort of thing all the time in yearling bulls raised in feedlots in an attempt to grow them out faster to get them looking "nicer" by sale day.

 

[alisonb]

Jim, I would get them trimmed prompto and hope to hang he hasn't foundered.

 

[SRBeef]

Thank you both for the input. T21 has been off of corn and on hay/mineral only for some time. He has not and will not founder. I understand the starch/energy point - too much for a mature bull.

I will make arrangements to get his hooves trimmed as soon as I can. Another beginners error. The corn works great but full eared corn is for cattle about to be processed only. All others will get stalks only. Except retained heifers will get no corn or stalk the first year.

Thank you again for your help. Jim