How to decide?

[pwilli3]

How do you decide which bulls to keep intact and which should be steers?

 

[CattleHand]

we dont keep any of them intact to keep to breed. The sale for steers here is usually a bit better so they all get cut.

 

[Limomike]

We steer all of our bull calves. For a year, I didnt steer any of them just to see if there might be a difference at the sale barn. Definitely a difference between steers and bulls. (young ones that is) Weaned, vaccinated steers bring a much better price than bull calves do. No doubt. It is why I am back to banding at birth.
But if you are breeding for bulls to sell... then you would have to ask someone besides me about that.

 

[dun]

For 40 (mumble) years we've cut every bull calf. This year for the first time we kept one to see how he would turn out. I asked several breeders that I respect the opinions of and they agreed. The decision for us was that he is superior in muscle to his sire, has the attributes that I look for when I buy a bull and he's out ofa an excellent cow. Time will tell, he just made the second decision time at weaning, now we'll see how he matures.

 

[bandit80]

How do you decide which bulls to keep intact and which should be steers?

Good question with a lot of answers. Those in the business to sell breeding stock cull very strictly. Fact is, not every bull calf should be a herd sire and not every heifer should turn into a cow.

The way I do it may or may not be right, but it works for me. If the calf is out of an AI sire, has an acceptable birth weight, and it out of a good cow, then I will leave him intact until weaning time. I do not keep any bulls intact that are out of my clean up bulls, they get banded at birth. This is simply because I want to sell the best possible genetics, and my herd bulls are good bulls, but they are not AI quality bulls.

At weaning, I re-evaluate the bull calves, and cull for undesirable phenotype, poor performance, under developed testicles, etc.

I then feed them through the winter on a high forage ration, and review again as long yearlings. Normally if they have made it this far they will be OK, but you will have some that don't develop like you wanted or will develop a feet/leg problem that you didn't/couldn't see before. Mine then get sent to a test and get marketed as 18 month old bulls in the fall.

 

[ArrowHBrand]

we dont keep any of them intact to keep to breed. The sale for steers here is usually a bit better so they all get cut.

Ditto, then we buy a good herd bull to bring in new genetics. If you are going to breed any species of animal, you should always strive to advance the breed genetically, JMO.