Prices on Holstein Reg. Bulls

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

Two questions.

1. What does a baby Holstein registered bull cost? Say 1 week old and the sires I am interested in are Winchester and Blackstar.

2. What does this same Registered Bull cost to buy when they are breeding age? Also what age are they ready to breed?

I would appreciate all responses and advice as I am trying to weigh buying a baby and raising it up or just buying a virgin breeding age bull.

Thanks!

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[Anonymous]

Any breed of registered bull is priced on conformation, pedigree, show record, quality of calves he sired and their show success if they were shown. Per local sale barn prices (bottom end of prices), bulls generally go for about 35 to 50 cents per pound. Registered stock usually via private treaty or specialty breed auctions.

Any calf is much better off nursing its dam until weaning to promote more vigor and health. Weaning can occur between about 4 and 6 months of age. To take any calf off its dam at an early age is potentially asking for health problems; only abandoned calves should be bottle fed (my opinion). Usually bulls are ready for service by around 12 to 14 months of age. With a yearling bull, you have much better idea of what he will look like and his temperament. Serious breeders cull about 90% of their bulls, retaining up to 10% for service sires and/or sale as service sires.

Bottomline: Calves are much better off nursing their dam and learning to eat solid food until natural weaning. Only as a last resort should a calf be taken away from dam and bottle or similar hand feeding.

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[Anonymous]

You would probly be better off buying a breeding age bull rather than raising one, Holstien bulls can become very moody, partly because they have no fear of humans, From the time they were taken off thier moma, probly withing the first 24 hours of thier life, they have been raised and cared for by humans. And they will eventually hurt someone if raised the wrong way. You will probly pay 200 to 500 hundred for the baby calf, I know that sounds high but you were wanting a registered animal. And then you have the expence of raising it until breeding age. A breeding age bull might cost you around anywere from 800 to 2000 dollars. Can i ask what in the world you want with a holstien bull. I might be off my mark on the prices, but i don't think so, most of you dairies have grade cows, Use A.I. in other words they have good cows and you might be able to find a calf out of one of the two bulls, and an un-registered cow, it would be considerably cheaper, maybe 50 to 200 dollars. I have bred some winchester for some dairyies around here,Blackstar might be hard to come by, but there are some good Blackstar sons available. If A.I. is not an obtion, then be very careful with dairy bulls.

> Hi Everyone,

> Two questions.

> 1. What does a baby Holstein
> registered bull cost? Say 1 week
> old and the sires I am interested
> in are Winchester and Blackstar.

> 2. What does this same Registered
> Bull cost to buy when they are
> breeding age? Also what age are
> they ready to breed?

> I would appreciate all responses
> and advice as I am trying to weigh
> buying a baby and raising it up or
> just buying a virgin breeding age
> bull.

> Thanks!



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[Anonymous]

> You would probly be better off
> buying a breeding age bull rather
> than raising one, Holstien bulls
> can become very moody, partly
> because they have no fear of
> humans, From the time they were
> taken off thier moma, probly
> withing the first 24 hours of
> thier life, they have been raised
> and cared for by humans. And they
> will eventually hurt someone if
> raised the wrong way. You will
> probly pay 200 to 500 hundred for
> the baby calf, I know that sounds
> high but you were wanting a
> registered animal. And then you
> have the expence of raising it
> until breeding age. A breeding age
> bull might cost you around anywere
> from 800 to 2000 dollars. Can i
> ask what in the world you want
> with a holstien bull. I might be
> off my mark on the prices, but i
> don't think so, most of you
> dairies have grade cows, Use A.I.
> in other words they have good cows
> and you might be able to find a
> calf out of one of the two bulls,
> and an un-registered cow, it would
> be considerably cheaper, maybe 50
> to 200 dollars. I have bred some
> winchester for some dairyies
> around here,Blackstar might be
> hard to come by, but there are
> some good Blackstar sons
> available. If A.I. is not an
> obtion, then be very careful with
> dairy bulls.

Hi, Thanks for the advice and suggestions, I will give you some background on us. We raise Holstein Replacement Heifers. We raise our own and some on contract with dairies. I have one customer that wanted me to take a herd of his cows on our land and put them with a good Holstein Bull. I am thinking I will just buy one, but the reason why I asked about the baby is that we raise heifers from 4 days old to springing and it is something that we enjoy doing and have a certain level of professionalism in this area. I do know that the bulls can turn very mean. Usually, if you get a young one, they are not too rank, he would only be here for a short while, we would def. not keep him. We do A.I. our own cows, but sometimes the famers don't have time to do it that way so they just use a herd Bull. We do encourage them to use the best bulls they can afford though. We believe with every breeding you should breed your cows "up"( better quality) to get the best genetic herd possible.

Thank you so much for your reply...I appreciate the information.



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[Anonymous]

I got to thinking...the dairies I have seen from the road while traveling are mostly Holstein. And, at every lot there seems to be many little "huts" for calves. Since I'm not a dairy person (and don't drink milk either), it occurred to me that if a new calf is nursing its Dam, then she wouldn't be producing milk to sell...right? And, since dairy cows need a decent temperament for human handling in the milking process, I suppose a bottle, etc., fed VERY young calf would condition it for future milking activities. If this is true, just seems like a LOT of work to get a new heifer calf "grown up" to self-feeding age and for future milking. Thanks for listening!

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