Just Wondering

[I luv herfrds]

I have noticed that so far almost all of our calves have been from our second herd bull. We have had only 1 calf from our oldest bull. He's 5.
We are calving out 52 head and have at present 7 on the ground.
Last spring every calf except for 5 or 6 were out of the older bull.

At what number of calves should I be concerned that the older bull did not do his job?

Vet is coming out later this month to fertility test all 3.
The older bull throws 80+ pound calves and the second bull throws 65+ calves that's how we can tell who the calf is from.

 

[S&S Farms]

Are they all running together? The old bull could have been in a different part of pasture. He could have been injured for part of the breeding season. Usually semen will go bad sixty days after an illness or possible injury and takes some time to work through the unhealthy semen. I guess you should be glad you had more than one bull covering the cows.

Jeff

 

[greatgerts]

I'm sure they all were in good condition. The only thing that came to my mind would be that the younger one had more drive and maybe moves a little more freely. I would make sure the vet does a full BSE on the bulls. We had one that passed a semen test and was in good condition, actually passed the BSE very well. After I sold him, I realized that he only bred 1/3 of the heifers that he was with. The only thing we could come up with was that he didn't have the libido to breed too many females.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Birth weight is not a very reliable way to evaluate possible sire.

 

[I luv herfrds]

S&S they were all running together. When I would check them through the summer the older bull was with one group and the younger bull was with another.
I have no idea if he was injured or not. He was moving pretty slow this winter and we got the vet out to look at him. No sign of injury or other problems.

Greatgerts I am wondering about that. He showed no interest in my Jersey that was in heat back in November. Thanks for thinking of that.

Jeanne the older bull throws calves that are of heavier bone and large hocks. The younger bull throws calves that are lighter in bone and no large hocks.
You can also see on the heads of the calves that they are out of the younger bull.
The weight was just the deciding factor on who the sire is.