One bull or two?

[Pharmer]

I keep around 40 cows that I need bred. I will make my story brief. Last year I bought an 18 month old bull who was only able to breed 12 cows before I took him to the vet after 4 months and was told he was sterile. I fed him 7 lbs. feed, along with the pasture he and the cows were on each day. He looked to be in satisfactory conditon. I am anxious to get all my cows bred this year. Now my question...Do I buy two yearling bulls, or one two year old to cover these 40 cows. I will be buying an angus bull or bulls to cover commercial cows. The cows are all together in one pasture. I appreciate your opinions as to what to do.

 

[Nowland Farms]

Pharmer,

Tell us more about your breeding.

Do you only leave the bull in for 2 or 3 months or do you leave the bull in year round?

Also I believe that a strong feed will cause the bulls sprem to be affected. I've heard of guys having bull sperm problems while on feed only to have the bulls sprem return to normal after they were removed from the feed.

 

[Pharmer]

Ideally, I would like to only leave the bull in for 2-3 months and remove and have all calves born at the same time. I will problably have to have two calf crops because of my problems this year.

 

[certherfbeef]

Ideally, I would like to only leave the bull in for 2-3 months and remove and have all calves born at the same time.

Then you need 2, 2yr olds to be sure the job is done and to get you back on track.

 

[stocky]

I agree with Certs, if you want them all to calve together, get 2 of the 2 year olds. You can wear out 2 bulls as quick as 1 with year and a half bulls. I used the best charlois bull I have ever owned to breed over 75 cows per year, but I calve year round and he kept up with the cows until he was 9 years old and was still breeding when I sold him, but he was starting to cripple up and the slaughter bull market was sky high so I sold him at the auction for 78 cents per pound at 1880 lbs. Wish I could do that more often.

 

[Rod]

I tried to lease a guy 2 bulls for his 40 heifers that he needed bred in 2 1/2 months but he only leased one, all I can say is he wished he would have leased the other one as well when it was all over.

 

[aplusmnt]

I keep around 40 cows that I need bred. I will make my story brief. Last year I bought an 18 month old bull who was only able to breed 12 cows before I took him to the vet after 4 months and was told he was sterile. I fed him 7 lbs. feed, along with the pasture he and the cows were on each day. He looked to be in satisfactory conditon. I am anxious to get all my cows bred this year. Now my question...Do I buy two yearling bulls, or one two year old to cover these 40 cows. I will be buying an angus bull or bulls to cover commercial cows. The cows are all together in one pasture. I appreciate your opinions as to what to do.

An option you might consider would be to A.I. a few of the herd, even with timed breeding you could get a big portion of them bred and then let the one bull clean up the rest. Might be more cost affective and less trouble than buying two bulls. Just a thought.