Managing a 14 month old bull

[DCB4]

Turned a recently purchased 14 month old angus bull out on to 15 cows for his first breeding season. I was wondering how to go about continuing to supplement his diet in addition to hay. In the fields this group is in there is no way to bring him in by hisself and allow access to feed. Do I bite the bullet and put feed in a trough for all the cows? Any other tips/precautions for managing a young bull would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[M-5]

prolly gonna look like he the the water rung out of him in a couple months if you don't feed him. just think of what would happen if you were a teen age boy and had a group of 15 horny older women.

 

[DCB4]

I don't doubt that one bit, he'll definitely be getting a good workout in! I'm not questioning rather or not to feed him but the best way to go about doing it. 16 cows are going to go through feed a lot quicker than just 1 lol. Is there a more cost efficient way to go about it?

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Is there any way to set up a pen with temp panels or hotwire? He really needs extra groceries, and most can be easily trained to come in when they are called, and the pen closed until he is done eating, then opened so he can go back out with the cows.

 

[Bigfoot]

Between winter, and chasing the ladies, he'll melt like a popsicle. That's just the way of it. Kinda the normal progression of things. If bought him for use, I'd put him to use and not worry about it.

 

[jerry27150]

if he can't breed 15 cows without losing much weight you need a different bull

 

[dun]

if he can't breed 15 cows without losing much weight you need a different bull

My thoughts exactly

 

[pdfangus]

I used to use yearling plus bulls back from bull test as cleanup behind AI....

they were with a lot of cows but most had been serviced at least once via AI.

I would feed these young bulls with a feed pan and just stay with them to keep the cows back....easier if you feed along side a fence so yo just have to watch one side....often i would park the truck along side the fence and put the feed pan between the truck and the fence and the bull can go in and eat and it is easy to keep the cows back....

make sure the bull knows a feeding routine before he goes to the cows.

normally after a couple of times feeding the bull will come looking when he sees you coming....Mine looked for the feed pan and bucket and they were on the way....Often they would follow me into the working facility or just thru a gate to an adjoining field and i would shut the gate and let them eat and then turn them back a few minutes later.

 

[dun]

Through the years our method has been to just let the bull eat the same as the cows, i.e. pasture and maybe hay if there is snow. Of the 4 yearling bulls we've used, only one lost much condition. I think this is where you get to genetics. The yearling bull we used this year continued to grow and settled all but 1 cow out of 27 cows/heifers. Based on palpation for pregnancy, there is 30 days from the expected due date of the first and last calf.
My simple opinion is it depends on genetics and forage management. A lot of that goes back to the selection process of the cow herd at producing animals, bulls and cows that work in your environment under your management

 

[pdfangus]

s anyway

Through the years our method has been to just let the bull eat the same as the cows, i.e. pasture and maybe hay if there is snow. Of the 4 yearling bulls we've used, only one lost much condition. I think this is where you get to genetics. The yearling bull we used this year continued to grow and settled all but 1 cow out of 27 cows/heifers. Based on palpation for pregnancy, there is 30 days from the expected due date of the first and last calf.
My simple opinion is it depends on genetics and forage management. A lot of that goes back to the selection process of the cow herd at producing animals, bulls and cows that work in your environment under your management

well I have done that as well....

but a bull that has been on test can fall off pretty badly when turned out to forage for himself and breed cows. Also very often I was looking to sell that same bull come spring time so I did not wanting him to fall off too badly and I was checking cows anyway....it did not add ten minutes to my chores....and I did not necessarily feed them every day...

 

[dun]

s anyway

Through the years our method has been to just let the bull eat the same as the cows, i.e. pasture and maybe hay if there is snow. Of the 4 yearling bulls we've used, only one lost much condition. I think this is where you get to genetics. The yearling bull we used this year continued to grow and settled all but 1 cow out of 27 cows/heifers. Based on palpation for pregnancy, there is 30 days from the expected due date of the first and last calf.
My simple opinion is it depends on genetics and forage management. A lot of that goes back to the selection process of the cow herd at producing animals, bulls and cows that work in your environment under your management

well I have done that as well....

but a bull that has been on test can fall off pretty badly when turned out to forage for himself and breed cows. Also very often I was looking to sell that same bull come spring time so I did not wanting him to fall off too badly and I was checking cows anyway....it did not add ten minutes to my chores....and I did not necessarily feed them every day...

Bulls that have been fed up would tend to decline a bit more. I wuldn;t take a bull like that and turn him in without first running him through a 45-60 program to get him onto forage vs feed