ready for breeding

[jal]

When is a bull old enough to start breeding? he's a registered charlois thanks

 

[msscamp]

When is a bull old enough to start breeding? he's a registered charlois thanks

It depends on the bull and the number of cows. Some bulls can breed a heifer at 5 months of age, but I wouldn't recommend turning him out with your cows. :lol: :lol: We've used bulls to cover 15 or so head of heifers at a year old. Our current herd bull is just over 2 years old and covers right about 50 head. A little more information as to what you're trying to achieve and with how many head of heifers/cows would probably give you a clearer answer to your question.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

msscamp is correct.
But, the size/weight of the bull will have a large effect of his ability to breed. "Some" bulls develop sexually real early - like the 5 month old bull breeding siblings, but generally sexual maturity comes with age and WEIGHT.
Charolais are a later maturing breed (this is a very blanket statement - many differences WITHIN breeds).
So how old is yours & what does he weigh?

 

[jal]

sorry i didnt say the age he's 15 months

 

[msscamp]

Thanks Jeanne. jal, that's still not enough information to give you an answer. How long is your breeding season, how many cows is this bull expected to cover, how big is your pasture? One 15 month old bull can cover probably 25 cows (I might be stretching that a bit), but if the pasture is large it's going to require a lot of traveling on his part (especially if you're expecting him to breed them in 30-60 days) and will wear him down faster so you might want to go with less cows or put in another bull in to help him. You don't want him to get so pulled down that it takes the rest of the year to recover. On the other hand, if you leave your bull with your cows year round then he could probably handle more than 25 head and not be any worse for the wear. I would also suggest having a breeding soundness exam done on this bull (if you haven't already done that) to make sure he's shooting live ammunition and is ok to breed.

 

[IL Rancher]

Assuming he is not too fat and the pasture is a pasture and not a section he could cover 25 head... Could.. The biggest problem is when you are asking one young bull or old bull for that matter, to cover a pasture on his own is if something goes wrong. It does happen.

Instead of turning another bull in with him I would run him for a couple cycles (If you are going with a 60 day breeding season) and than pull him and put a different bull in there. I am always hesitant on having 2 bulls in a pasture because I have seen two of mine just fight instead of seeing to their ladies. Generally like 3-5 bulls out at a time.

 

[msscamp]

Instead of turning another bull in with him I would run him for a couple cycles (If you are going with a 60 day breeding season) and than pull him and put a different bull in there.

If he does this he will messing up his calving season.

I am always hesitant on having 2 bulls in a pasture because I have seen two of mine just fight instead of seeing to their ladies. Generally like 3-5 bulls out at a time.

You bring up a good point depending on the age of the bulls, I should have added an older bull that can whip this one's butt in a day and get back to business. We've often run two bulls on one bunch of cows over the years and had absolutely no problems come calving time. If we had a young bull that was full of himself we put him in a bunch with an older bull so he would learn a few manners. Never had a problem with it.

 

[jal]

he's in excellent shape he's not overweight.our pastures our 10 acre rotations. we have 15 cows and a few heifers. the breeding soundness exam is interesting i assuming a good vet can do this test?thanks jerry

 

[msscamp]

he's in excellent shape he's not overweight.our pastures our 10 acre rotations. we have 15 cows and a few heifers. the breeding soundness exam is interesting i assuming a good vet can do this test?thanks jerry

Yes, a vet can do that - I'm not getting into the good vet vs bad vet thing, though. :lol: :lol: :lol: Assuming he comes out ok on his BSE, you shouldn't have a problem in the world with your cows and, barring problems with the cows and calving issues, should have 15 + a few more calves running around following calving season! Good luck and enjoy your girls! ;-)

 

[IL Rancher]

I don't think with the numbers he has that it would mess his season up. I have run a young bull with 25 cows and 90% of the girls calved in the first 45 days. I would say if you are messing with a big pasture and you do this you might get yourself in trouble but not with small ones.

The big risk with running a young bull by himself is that he screws up and falls in love with one cow in particular or that he doesn't have the drive or whatever... Or he gets hurt... Getting hurt is a possibility... Have seen virgin bulls get the snot beat out of them by big old ornery brood cows.

I think one of the questions you have to ask yourself in this situaton is who do you want to be the sire of the calves? In a 2 bull situation a young yearling bull might not get much done and if he is the one you want calves from than you are basicaly SOL. This is where the running one bull first in a small group like this comes into play.

I think in your situation if the bull passes his BSE everything should be fine, assuming something unforseen doesn't happen.

 

[msscamp]

I don't think with the numbers he has that it would mess his season up. I have run a young bull with 25 cows and 90% of the girls calved in the first 45 days. I would say if you are messing with a big pasture and you do this you might get yourself in trouble but not with small ones.

You're right, with the numbers he has and the acreage. However, I didn't know the numbers he had, or the acreage when I posted that reply. :roll:

 

[fishermanswoman]

I was wondering when is a young cow ready to be bread ? We were worried about puting a bull we just got with this young cow we have seperate from the herd. She is almost a year old so we don't want to cause any problems for her with this bull. We are seperating him from the herd because we are going to try to sell him. He's an awesome bull but we just bought a registered black angus so we were going to sell him. anyways could anyone tell me when its safe and another question I was wondering about was.... after our mommas have their babies is it about 7 wks before they are ready to become pregnant again ?

 

[randiliana]

I was wondering when is a young cow ready to be bread ? We were worried about puting a bull we just got with this young cow we have seperate from the herd. She is almost a year old so we don't want to cause any problems for her with this bull. We are seperating him from the herd because we are going to try to sell him. He's an awesome bull but we just bought a registered black angus so we were going to sell him. anyways could anyone tell me when its safe and another question I was wondering about was.... after our mommas have their babies is it about 7 wks before they are ready to become pregnant again ?

We usually breed our heifers at 12-14 months or so. We like them to weigh 850# or better, and to calve at about 22-24 months. However, weight is more important than age. If she weighs up I wouldn't worry about age, and if she doesn't weigh up she probably won't come into heat anyway (depends on the animal though, but in british breeds 600# or so is when they start to hit puberty).

As for your older cows, 40 days is supposed to be the magic number (for them to get cleaned up and to start cycling), but it all depends on when you want to calve. If you want to keep your current calving time, you will be breeding the cows about 90 days after they start calving.