HOSS
Well-known member
I was at a cattleman's meeting recently when one of the local seed stock producers was asked if he steered any of his bull calves. He said that he does not castrate any at all that they were all being sold as breeding stock. A few other seed stock producers in the room nodded in agreement that this was also their standard practice. A couple of other breeders spoke up to say that they do castrate the calves that are sub-par at a certain age and only keep the best bull calves for sale as breeding stock. I was dissapointed that it seemed to be mostly the local BA breeders that did not castrate any bull calves as that is the breed that I am raising. I see really good Herf and Charolais bulls in local pastures but very few BA bulls that look good. Now I know why I and my two neighbors are having to go out of our area to get good bulls. I wonder if this is more widespread then just this area due to the increasing poularity of the BA breed and I wonder just how bad this practice is hurting the breed overall.