Keeping my first bull

[Ebenezer]

Not promoting cleanup bulls but if you have a strong market for bred cows and want to sell late breds as such, shifting different bulls in and out will cause some cows to breed to the second bull within the first 2 weeks of exposure. I'm guessing it is related to pheromones. Seen it a number of times and speeds up the cycle while adding some profit to cows to be culled.

 

[OzssieDave19]

Have you thought about rotating your existing bulls every 3 weeks amongst movs to keep them interested and cover slow workers?

They say cross bred bulls are more virile and hardy and fertile. We dont really have long horns in Australia.

I remeber watching an old disney movie as a kid about a rancher that introduced a hereford bull to long horn country. The film ended after a snowy cold winter witb hereford calves running into the yard behind colourwd mothers. I have always loved farming. I dont remember much more of the movie than that.

 

[Bullitt]

Have you thought about rotating your existing bulls every 3 weeks amongst movs to keep them interested and cover slow workers?

They say cross bred bulls are more virile and hardy and fertile. We dont really have long horns in Australia.

I remeber watching an old disney movie as a kid about a rancher that introduced a hereford bull to long horn country. The film ended after a snowy cold winter witb hereford calves running into the yard behind colourwd mothers. I have always loved farming. I dont remember much more of the movie than that.

The movie is The Rare Breed from 1966 starring James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, and Brian Kieth. Maureen O'Hara plays an English woman who takes her Hereford bull to Texas. The bull does not survive a really cold winter, but the bull produces many calves. I always laugh because the calves are Herefords, not Herefords crossed with Texas Longhorns.

I do not think it is a Disney film, though.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060884/?ref_=nv_sr_1


"One of the most desirable qualities of the Texas longhorn breed is its high fertility. No other cattle breed can match its amazing high reproductive rates. This breed also goes through very early sexual maturity (gives birth). Texas Longhorn heifers typically conceive for the first time at the age of 15 months and then continues to calf yearly until the age of 16 years. Longhorn females also possess a naturally larger birth canal than other breeds. Texas Longhorn Females are also known to hide their calves from any predication."

http://longhornfacts.weebly.com/to-cons ... facts.html


"Texas Longhorns are known for their high fertility and live birth percentages. It is common for herds of longhorn cows to achieve live calving percentages of 99% or more, a trait which is obviously highly valued by all cattlemen (commercial and otherwise). On the male side, Longhorn bulls are known to have higher live semen counts than bulls of other breeds, a fact which not only makes them more prone to successfully service their entire herd but is also directly linked to younger breeding ages in female offspring.

Most animal scientists agree that high fertility rates are the single most important economic trait in the cattle industry. Indeed, the surest way to a death sentence for a cow is to fail to breed back. In the case of Longhorns, the process of natural selection over the past few hundred years assured that only the most fertile bulls and cows would contribute to the gene pool. Modern day Texas Longhorns retain this influence from their recent ancestors, and it is a trait which, when introduced into a crossbreed program, can provide an almost immediate reversal of the problem of lower percentage of live births which plague many other breeds."

http://www.fairlealonghorns.com/Default.aspx?id=1052

 

[mpassmore85]

Pic attached best one I could find of one of them. This bull is older I believe 5 or 6

 

[Bullitt]

Pic attached best one I could find of one of them. This bull is older I believe 5 or 6

Is this the Simmental X Longhorn?

 

[mpassmore85]

Yea. Can't really tell much majority of my longhorns are solid and not as lean as most.

 

[Bullitt]

Yea. Can't really tell much majority of my longhorns are solid and not as lean as most.

He looks very good.

This is the clean-up bull?

 

[mpassmore85]

Yea had him doing his thing with the older cattle for summer also figure extra virility helps he should be able to do 60 - 80 easy with other bulls as competition and he isn't shy about it lol

 

[farmerjan]

Cull cow prices are giveaway right now, so don't know what we are going to do if there are very many open cows. I'm not expecting many/any to come up open except maybe a couple of old cows.

If you do have any open cows, can you allow them to stay in with the bull for another month or so and see if they get pregnant? Or do you not waste the time on those open cows?

If the cows are old/no teeth/ or have any problems like feet or legs they will go in a pasture to be sold as soon as we see an uptick in the price. If they are young, or good cows that failed to breed, they might get a one time pass to go with the next calving group. We calve spring and fall. So they will lose 6 months. No I don't want them to be with the bull for an extra month and see if they catch because then they are out of sync with the rest. I don't have time to be watching for calves when we are in the hayfield, and I certainly don't want winter calves like late dec or jan or early feb. Our weather can be too chancey. We have had nice weather in dec and snow in dec. Jan is almost always cold and some snow and early feb has too many temp/precip swings. If they can't get bred on time, there needs to be a good reason, or they go. And if they do it once, and get a second chance, and it happens again, they are gone. The only exception to that is a couple of real good old cows that produced a lot of calves for us, they were given 18 months between calves the last 2-3 times. This gave them a chance to have a little break in between. It was deliberate because we didn't want to sell them yet. So after 10 or 12 calves, there were 2 old cows that got to stay around for 3 more calves, spaced 18 months apart, so they got an extra 6 months. Both finally came up open and went after that.

 

[andybob]

Bullitt The traits of high fertility and early maturity are common to most "unimproved" breeds, I often wonder if the Longhorn had been selected for more commercial conformation within their environment, if they would have been the base breed for todays commercial ranchers rather than their having been crossed out to "improve" the ranch herds of yesteryear. Looking at the breeds developed from native African cattle, both Sanga (Taurus Afrikana) and African Zebu which are popular both as adapted breeds for ranch conditions, and as part of crosses and composites breeds depending on market demands and personal preferences of the ranchers.

 

[Bestoutwest]

Just me, but if my main bulls weren't getting done what a longhorn cross was doing, I'd be getting new main bulls.

Texas Longhorns are very fertile. They get the job done.

First bull I ever owned was a sterile longhorn. Bought him young and thought he'd do the trick. We ended up having him tested b/c we saw him jumping everything about every 28 days. Vet said he'd have enough sperm to get our few cows done, but he never could. Didn't even slaughter that good, so I'm not too disappointed he didn't get anything bred.

 

[Bullitt]

Just me, but if my main bulls weren't getting done what a longhorn cross was doing, I'd be getting new main bulls.

Texas Longhorns are very fertile. They get the job done.

First bull I ever owned was a sterile longhorn. Bought him young and thought he'd do the trick. We ended up having him tested b/c we saw him jumping everything about every 28 days. Vet said he'd have enough sperm to get our few cows done, but he never could. Didn't even slaughter that good, so I'm not too disappointed he didn't get anything bred.

I am sorry that happened.

There is always that one in a million that doesn't get the job done.

 

[Stocker Steve]

We keep one bull calf a year. We look at him based on phenotype and structure (genetics also play a role) and choose the lucky one from there.

Been there, done that, and it has been a humbling experience. Some things change over time. This spring I did not band three bull calves. Down to one now. We will see after weaning.

Some small cow guys think you are overfeeding if you have less than 10% open. We have been 0 to 5 % open so obviously I don't agree. We leave the bulls in, cull a couple opens in the late fall (about 3% this year), and sell a couple late calvers in the spring (about 5% this year-- all old cows).

Like a lot of things - - if you cull for late calving then the problem should go away.

 

[greatgerts]

Texas Longhorns are very fertile. They get the job done.

First bull I ever owned was a sterile longhorn. Bought him young and thought he'd do the trick. We ended up having him tested b/c we saw him jumping everything about every 28 days. Vet said he'd have enough sperm to get our few cows done, but he never could. Didn't even slaughter that good, so I'm not too disappointed he didn't get anything bred.

I am sorry that happened.

There is always that one in a million that doesn't get the job done.

Are you only talking about Longhorns? I've seen many bulls that can't get the job done. Spend some time around a bunch, and you'll see it.

 

[Bestoutwest]

Texas Longhorns are very fertile. They get the job done.

First bull I ever owned was a sterile longhorn. Bought him young and thought he'd do the trick. We ended up having him tested b/c we saw him jumping everything about every 28 days. Vet said he'd have enough sperm to get our few cows done, but he never could. Didn't even slaughter that good, so I'm not too disappointed he didn't get anything bred.

I am sorry that happened.

There is always that one in a million that doesn't get the job done.

I'm glad we weren't dependent on the calves to pay off the cows. It sucked, but pushed us in a different direction, and it taught us some lessons.

 

[Muddy]

Yeah don't buy junk Longhorns and put a black bull on them.

 

[Bullitt]

First bull I ever owned was a sterile longhorn. Bought him young and thought he'd do the trick. We ended up having him tested b/c we saw him jumping everything about every 28 days. Vet said he'd have enough sperm to get our few cows done, but he never could. Didn't even slaughter that good, so I'm not too disappointed he didn't get anything bred.

I am sorry that happened.

There is always that one in a million that doesn't get the job done.

I'm glad we weren't dependent on the calves to pay off the cows. It sucked, but pushed us in a different direction, and it taught us some lessons.

Someone posted on here not long ago that he always has at least two bulls just to be on the safe side.

I suppose if there are two bulls that do not get along, they could be switched out instead of being together.

 

[Bullitt]

Yeah don't buy junk Longhorns and put a black bull on them.

Yeah, put a black bull on them.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q ... 6604634890


I do not understand the obsession with black cattle.

 

[Son of Butch]

It's all about money.
Young black calves can trick unaware buyers into believing they are buying something they are not.
The more they mature the more they reveal themselves for what they are.

 

[Bullitt]

It's all about money.
Young black calves can trick unaware buyers into believing they are buying something they are not.
The more they mature the more they reveal themselves for what they are.

That is probably the best explanation I have read or heard.

It seems like the professional buyers would be able to see passed the black hair.