Looking for a nice heifer bull.

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ksmit454

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Ran across this bull for sale on Craigslist near me. I know nothing about EPD's but I want to learn. Just really wanting a decent bull that will be good for heifers. Thoughts?

 
EPD wise he is definitely a heifer bull. Lower growth. Curious what are they asking?
 
Heifer bull means he will throw a smaller calf, for starters. CED is calving ease direct... the higher the number, the MORE LIKELY he will throw a calf that will be smaller, and "easier to calve"... BW is birth weight so a minus means it should be lighter weight than the average calves from a less CED.... in other words, the calves again should be a little smaller. The WW is weaning weight, and YW is yearling weight.... they are decent for an easy calving bull of that high a CED...
Yes, in plain english his calves SHOULD be smaller at birth, the heifers should have very little trouble having them... they will not grow like gangbusters, but should grow decent but will not mash any scales at weaning... the RADG is residual average daily growth (I think that is it) and will not be very fast growing...
BUT you want smaller calves so you are not pulling them... you want the heifers to "spit them out" and the calves to get up and get to nursing without any traumatic birthing problems. If these are your own heifers, part of the calf's growth will come from the milking ability of the heifers themselves....if the dams of the heifers are good milkers, then they will hopefully milk good and the calves will grow better.
If the bull is decent to look at, and you want an easy calving heifer bull, then is not a bad bull to buy. If he were close to me I would go look at him... our 2 easy calving bulls are 10 yrs old now... weigh 1800-2000 lbs maybe and we are still using them... they are easy gentle breeders and have not had an injured heifer from either one.... But how much longer are they going to be "good and fertile" ?
We don't keep alot of heifers out of first calf heifers.... unless they raise a real nice one... then we know that they have milked good, and the calves often catch up by the time they are ready to calve themselves and we have to look back to see who they are out of.

We want a CE bull so that the heifers can spit them out and they get up and go about being a momma.... traumatic calving sometimes makes a heifer just not want to be a momma, or worse... paralyses her and then what have you got.
 
You can use the % to help gauge where they stand vs the breed. This bull is top 10% calving ease direct (CED) and top 5% Birth weight (BW). Those should translate into a heifer safe bull, if they hold true.

Not a growthy type, but I would want daughters out of him. Looks to be low maintenance type that will put on fat more easily. Are the breeders into grassfed? That's about the only place you see EPD's like this bull has.
 
Ran across this bull for sale on Craigslist near me. I know nothing about EPD's but I want to learn. Just really wanting a decent bull that will be good for heifers. Thoughts?

Angus is a calving ease breed and his epds put him in the top 10% of the angus breed for calving ease. Definitely best use is on heifers.

According to his epds
His calves are in the bottom 5% for weaning weight, yearling weight, carcass weight and mature weight. So they are definitely smaller than average and stay that way. His daughters are in the top 10% for energy efficiency, which is a benefit if you are going to keep replacement females from him.
 
You can use the % to help gauge where they stand vs the breed. This bull is top 10% calving ease direct (CED) and top 5% Birth weight (BW). Those should translate into a heifer safe bull, if they hold true.

Not a growthy type, but I would want daughters out of him. Looks to be low maintenance type that will put on fat more easily. Are the breeders into grassfed? That's about the only place you see EPD's like this bull has.
I'm not too sure on if the breeders are grass fed oriented. Neat that epd's show what cattle put in fat better than others, that's an important quality! Can you tell me what epd shows that? And how to read it?
 
Heifer bull means he will throw a smaller calf, for starters. CED is calving ease direct... the higher the number, the MORE LIKELY he will throw a calf that will be smaller, and "easier to calve"... BW is birth weight so a minus means it should be lighter weight than the average calves from a less CED.... in other words, the calves again should be a little smaller. The WW is weaning weight, and YW is yearling weight.... they are decent for an easy calving bull of that high a CED...
Yes, in plain english his calves SHOULD be smaller at birth, the heifers should have very little trouble having them... they will not grow like gangbusters, but should grow decent but will not mash any scales at weaning... the RADG is residual average daily growth (I think that is it) and will not be very fast growing...
BUT you want smaller calves so you are not pulling them... you want the heifers to "spit them out" and the calves to get up and get to nursing without any traumatic birthing problems. If these are your own heifers, part of the calf's growth will come from the milking ability of the heifers themselves....if the dams of the heifers are good milkers, then they will hopefully milk good and the calves will grow better.
If the bull is decent to look at, and you want an easy calving heifer bull, then is not a bad bull to buy. If he were close to me I would go look at him... our 2 easy calving bulls are 10 yrs old now... weigh 1800-2000 lbs maybe and we are still using them... they are easy gentle breeders and have not had an injured heifer from either one.... But how much longer are they going to be "good and fertile" ?
We don't keep alot of heifers out of first calf heifers.... unless they raise a real nice one... then we know that they have milked good, and the calves often catch up by the time they are ready to calve themselves and we have to look back to see who they are out of.

We want a CE bull so that the heifers can spit them out and they get up and go about being a momma.... traumatic calving sometimes makes a heifer just not want to be a momma, or worse... paralyses her and then what have you got.
Thank you for all of the good info! I want to go take a look at him. Or at least ask for pictures because there were none on the ad posted.
 
I'm not too sure on if the breeders are grass fed oriented. Neat that epd's show what cattle put in fat better than others, that's an important quality! Can you tell me what epd shows that? And how to read it?
Butch mentioned the EN or energy requirement EPD. If the EPD holds true, this bull will need less high energy feed to maintain condition than 90% of the breed. In theory this bull should put on fat easier than 90% of the breed.

Couple that with smaller Mature height (MH) and mature weight (MW) this bulls offspring should be easier keeping and faster maturing in theory.
 
I'm not too sure on if the breeders are grass fed oriented. Neat that epd's show what cattle put in fat better than others. Can you tell me what epd shows that? And how to read it?
Carcass Fat 50% - exactly breed average, combined with below breed average height and weight, I'll go out on the limb and say expect daughters to maintain body condition a bit better than average.
 
I'd ask to see results of the breeding soundness exam. I agree with Son of Butch, the bull's daughters might be good replacements.
 
I'd ask to see results of the breeding soundness exam. I agree with Son of Butch, the bull's daughters might be good replacements.
Yes, that is a great point. I am not really wanting to keep any replacement heifers. The offspring will be to finish out as feeders.
 

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