Oh yeah, they passed!

[farmerjan]

We are very fortunate. There were some tails deformed and some thickening in mid tail part.. a few misformed heads. But nothing the vet said should affect the breeding. But the leg on the old bull is getting stiff... and the 2nd oldest had a few more bad shaped swimmers... time to be going after this season; while the prices are up.
We had one once that was good, went to pasture with about 20-25... and all seemed fine... All of a sudden started seeing heats... Took him out, put 2 young bulls in, and shipped him. When we preg checked later, there were 3 that were 6 months, and the rest were 45-60 days... so something happened to him. Never bothered to check him before we shipped him... and would not have used him again even if it was determined what the problem was. Lost 6 months on the cows, but it was not their fault.
So, now we will pull a bull after 6-7 weeks, and rotate in a different one... just in case. And at one place we just put a 2nd bull in there since it is a long way to the catch pen and it is too rough to try to drive way up in there to entice him into the trailer... so we add a 2nd one for insurance. Learned the hard way... BSE tests are a good indication, but in the case of the one, who knows what ever happened to him....
.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Vet once told me the BSE just proves that their parts work and on paper can breed cows, but it doesn't mean he will. Also told me the BSE is only valid until he walks out of the chute then anything can happen.

 

[MurraysMutts]

@farmerjan
Good point about the prices right now. You can actually sell a big old heavy bull now, and buy back a good young breeding bull for less money.
That may change come fall.
Food for thought.

I hope he gives u the heifers you desire tho!

 

[GoWyo]

We are very fortunate. There were some tails deformed and some thickening in mid tail part.. a few misformed heads. But nothing the vet said should affect the breeding. But the leg on the old bull is getting stiff... and the 2nd oldest had a few more bad shaped swimmers... time to be going after this season; while the prices are up.
We had one once that was good, went to pasture with about 20-25... and all seemed fine... All of a sudden started seeing heats... Took him out, put 2 young bulls in, and shipped him. When we preg checked later, there were 3 that were 6 months, and the rest were 45-60 days... so something happened to him. Never bothered to check him before we shipped him... and would not have used him again even if it was determined what the problem was. Lost 6 months on the cows, but it was not their fault.
So, now we will pull a bull after 6-7 weeks, and rotate in a different one... just in case. And at one place we just put a 2nd bull in there since it is a long way to the catch pen and it is too rough to try to drive way up in there to entice him into the trailer... so we add a 2nd one for insurance. Learned the hard way... BSE tests are a good indication, but in the case of the one, who knows what ever happened to him....
.

I had a two-year old bull passed his BSE just fine. Put him out in the special projects pasture to try and catch up some good cows and had some culls with their last calf. He didn't settle a single one. Saw cows coming back into heat in mid-July and pulled him and sold him and put in a yearling that had been in another pasture. The yearling cleaned them all up. The bad bull was a Square B True North son. Out of 5 progeny, only 2 are left. The other 3 had fertility problems and are gone. Wish I had never used that bull. His HP EPD appears to be very accurate.