Makes me sick

[gizmom]

We had the vet out this morning to calfhood the heifers, we also had him check our 9R9 bull that went bad at the end of the breeding season. The news wasn't good, he is only shooting 14% normal cells everything else looks great the vet doesn't have a clue and recommends we haul him to Auburn for more testing. This is the bull we had every intention of having collected at the end of this breeding season. His SC is 45 protrusion is fine tools all look good. Palpated good just not many good swimmers.



This is picture taken at the beginning of this breeding season. He is a good sucker, his daughters are some of my favorite cows and his bull calves are always the first ones customers pick. Did I mention I am just sick about this.

gizmom

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Hmmmmmm.... that's not good at all.

I hope you find out what's wrong. He's a darn good looking bull.

 

[talltimber]

Bad deal. He looks like a dandy.

 

[Son of Butch]

A Crying shame. But the bull has culled himself.
It would be interesting to find out the cause, though how much money is it worth to find out why?
Sorry for your loss.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Man ... that stinks. Rearing livestock is a head-scratching sort of business some times ...

 

[Gators Rule]

Ouch! did he cover all the cows you had him with? You said he went bad at the end of the breeding season, so I assume something happened....

 

[gizmom]

No he didn't get them all bred we had 20 opens so knew we had an issue we have never had that many opens, and they were all in the pasture with him. We now have a bull in with 15 of them, five went to town due to age or the fact they didn't breed when he was actually working, we know he was good going in he had a good BSE we ultrasounded early March had a bunch of opens but also had a bunch of bred cows in that pasture so figured just to early to call. We had seen the bull working so just felt we had some late. When we palpated we found we had a major problem. This will be the first time we have ever had spring calves but you do what you have to do. We sure couldn't afford to lose that many cows, we will probably market the cows with calf on side in the spring. Did I mention that this totally sucks.

SOB we haven't made the decision yet we have two options take him to Auburn to see if there is a chance to have him collected or send him to the sale barn as a cull. Like I had said earlier we had planned to collect the bull so it might be worth it to see if they can at least get him to where we can collect him. The boss will make that call, I will go along with whatever he decides after all that is why I call him the boss.

gizmom

 

[Andyva]

Could it have something to do with it being Florida in July? Does he have a good wallow hole to cool down his junk?

 

[branguscowgirl]

Sorry to hear that. Maybe you will get another exceptional bull calf out of him yet that's a keeper.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

That just stinks!
How long has it been since he has been with a cow? I know at Genex, if they have a bad bull, they say rest for 90 days or more. Could he have had a high fever? Or is the heat excessive? I know we are having a problem with the hot fescue right now, and cows not sticking because of it...and bulls going sterile...
Just some random thoughts. At least you got some calves out of him!

 

[insurman]

So sorry to hear that gizmom... If you choose to sell him, instead of running him thru the sale barn maybe take him to a rendering plant/meat market. Last year we had a bull that had torn/shattered his left rear hock and it was a bull we raised and I just did not want to put thru the pain of a sale barn and long ride so we took him there and they paid based on hanging weight and I know we did better that way and not to mention he was prob down within 15 minutes of getting there.

For you Texas guys this was Kaspers Meat in Weimar off of I-10.

Have a cow with a bad hip we are going to do the same on once she weans her calf.

 

[Bestoutwest]

There's a suppliment that the bucking bull guys use called Two Bulls. From what I remember, and I've been out of it for several years now, there were a couple guys that said it got some really old (12-14 y/o) bulls back to being able to breed and producing sperm again. You might look into that as it's a pretty cheap option comparitively.

Good luck, he's a really, really nice looking bull.

 

[SPH]

Almost makes you wonder if he somehow injured himself, especially with a good set of nuts like that. Especially if his BSE before being turned out was good, either he did something to injure himself or something environmental caused the low sperm count.

 

[gizmom]

If there was an injury it isn't one the vet could find. I have confidence in our vet he is a good one, only does large animals and does a lot of them so not his first rodeo. His recommendation was "contact Auburn, he is to good a bull to just send to the sale barn". I am going to at least call Auburn and discuss this, the bull looks good I am checking back on past BSE exams to make sure he hasn't lost any SC measurement but I don't believe he has. I sure would like to get him going at least enough to collect him once. His BSE going into the pasture was fine and again no sign of any type of injury. He had to have gone bad after the first 35 days in pasture because we have cows that were bred up to 35 days after he was put in and that is based on ultra sound data. It wasn't hot by Florida standards in February and March so I don't think the heat was an issue. Now the heat could be an issue, it is sure enough hot right now and humid just typical Florida take your breath away heat right now. Did I mention that this sucks? :deadhorse: :deadhorse: :deadhorse:

gizmom

 

[JHH]

If there was an injury it isn't one the vet could find. I have confidence in our vet he is a good one, only does large animals and does a lot of them so not his first rodeo. His recommendation was "contact Auburn, he is to good a bull to just send to the sale barn". I am going to at least call Auburn and discuss this, the bull looks good I am checking back on past BSE exams to make sure he hasn't lost any SC measurement but I don't believe he has. I sure would like to get him going at least enough to collect him once. His BSE going into the pasture was fine and again no sign of any type of injury. He had to have gone bad after the first 35 days in pasture because we have cows that were bred up to 35 days after he was put in and that is based on ultra sound data. It wasn't hot by Florida standards in February and March so I don't think the heat was an issue. Now the heat could be an issue, it is sure enough hot right now and humid just typical Florida take your breath away heat right now. Did I mention that this sucks? :deadhorse: :deadhorse: :deadhorse:

gizmom

Yes it sucks but my question is this. WHY would you want to collect him not knowing what was wrong. It could be a hereditary thing and I wouldn't want that. My suggestion is ship him. Why spend thousands on a bull that will most likey be sub par at best from now on.

I agree very nice looking bull, But time is worth something to. move on.

 

[Chris H]

Can you estimate how long ago he went bad? I would think it's worth the call to Auburn. It could be he got sick, and is now on recovering. I forget how long it takes to get fertility back if lost due to illness, 60 days?