Running 2 bulls together

[Ky hills]

We are getting close to putting bulls in with heifers in a few weeks. There are 43 heifers to be with 2, 26 month old bulls. Most of the time, I have split them in different pastures each with a bull. One year I just had 15 heifers and ran 2 bulls with them because I didn't have any where to put the second bull, and we came up with several open. Didn't notice them fighting but thought that could have been the reason for the opens. I can divide them, but if I run them as one group I can rotate between pastures. I am wondering if that number would be enough to minimize fighting and still get them bred in a timely fashion, or should I play it safe and divide them.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I'll never run two bulls close to the same age together again.

 

[Brute 23]

Do you think you may run short on grass if you do not rotate?

My first thought is split them for at least the first maybe 45-60s days if the pastures can handle it. You can always put the heifers together after that in one group with just one bull to do clean up so you can go back to rotating.

I don't think any of the options are wrong or bad. In reality... it could go great or horrible with any of the options. :tiphat: Hope that helps.

 

[JW IN VA]

Can you put one bull then the other at 2-3 week intervals?Two that close in size are going to do a lot of fighting and possibly miss a chance.

 

[Brute 23]

Can you put one bull then the other at 2-3 week intervals?Two that close in size are going to do a lot of fighting and possibly miss a chance.

That's a good idea too. :nod: My :heart: button is broke.

 

[JW IN VA]

Can you put one bull then the other at 2-3 week intervals?Two that close in size are going to do a lot of fighting and possibly miss a chance.

That's a good idea too. :nod: My :heart: button is broke.

Mine's not working,either.Thought it was me so I was just getting ready to PM mod2 for advice.

 

[JW IN VA]

Brute,It showed up on my feed.Thanks.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Can you put one bull then the other at 2-3 week intervals?Two that close in size are going to do a lot of fighting and possibly miss a chance.

One bull is going to hurt the other, if the bulls are bred to breed. Nature is cruel and doesn't give many second chances. I'm putting a young bull in with the two older bulls. My bulls are best buddies until you turn them in with the girls, then the fight is on whenever a cow comes into heat. Please report back and let us know what you figure out, I have this problem myself.

 

[Ky hills]

True Grit, I came to that conclusion too after a week long nightmare with 3 two yr olds fighting that didn't end well but could have been a lot worse than it was. For several years I have played musical bulls trying to keep them apart and certain ones a couple fields apart so they couldn't fight through the fences or with neighbors bulls. So far ( emphasis on so far) the bulls we have now are fairly tolerable of each other, the 2 together and the 3 yr old in another field. I will most likely just separate the 2 for a while hoping to get as many heifers bred as possible then may try to consolidate them again after 2 or 3 months. I doubt I will ever be brave enough to put those 2 together with the older one.
Brute, I am always cutting it close with the grazing situation, I was thinking that if I could rotate them it might stretch out the grazing a few weeks as long as it didn't get too dry later on.
I need to figure out a place to put a bull lot i reckon, I have more bulls than I really need but have been using heifer bulls and then different ones on the cows.

 

[Silver]

Maybe it's a bad idea if your breeding pasture is quite small. We run multiple bulls as a matter of course. Every so often one might get whipped and go sulk for awhile (usually later in the season), and every few years one will get pushed off a cow and break his penis. I couldn't imagine breaking the herd down to groups that would work for one bull. And then the logistics of organizing things so as not to have them sharing a fence. Sounds like trouble to me.

 

[wbvs58]

I find with heifers a single bull needs to give them his full attention like to wine and dine them before putting the hard word on them. If in a group and only one is on heat and both bulls are constantly trying to mount her then she gets a bit peed off with it and won't stand for either bull and that is when you get them open.

I understand what Silver is saying and agree in a range situation each bull will have his own territory and girls and the problem is mitigated.

 

[farmerjan]

We never put 2 bulls of similiar age in a pasture with cows or heifers. There is too much competition and then the job doesn't get done. Don't run 2 bulls in any pastures as a rule; but did do it once when a formerly tried and true bull was shooting blanks and wanted to get the cows bred back ASAP. So put an older and a younger bull in together and the older bull got them all but 2 because the calves were red and the young bull was a reg Red Poll. Took 3 years to get the cows to back up the several months they were behind, to where they were back to the normal spring calving. I keep pretty detailed records and can't distinguish what bull bred who if there is more than one in there. I try to keep track of the ones we get the best, growthiest saleable calves out of. I'd try what JW said about switching the bulls to get them bred sooner and keeping the interest high.
We have a dedicated bull lot and the boys all get along pretty good. We are lucky to have the big Red Poll bull who is boss but in a very non-combative way. He just walks up near anyone that is trying to be pushy or argumentative, and they quit..... it's almost funny to watch him just saunter over near the ones doing a pushing match, because we have never seen him fight, but they all just quit when he comes around. He will have a home long past his time just as a peace officer....

 

[JW IN VA]

You can run an older bull and a small bull together since there's no doubt who the boss is.Sometimes it helps keep the older bull's mind on his cows instead of others.
Didn't work this year as the oldest bull left a two year old in charge,jumped the fence and whipped my 3 year old.He's about ready to find a new home.

 

[cowgirl8]

We run multiple bulls with all our herds. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Any time you have more than one bull, they will fight. Its a juggling act to get them with bulls they get along with. Year before last, we put the bulls back in their pasture for their off time. They kept beating up one bull where he wouldn't stay in their pasture. When we pulled them off last August, we put the beat up bull in first, then the others. So far so good. My daughter had a bull killed yesterday by his pasture friends. Spent all winter getting along, then no so much. When running with the cows, if we find one bull away from the herd, we'll switch him around or we'll sell and buy another.....or sometimes we have a spare bull.....Last year we ran 3 bulls with our heifers and second calf cows.. 2, 3 yr olds and one 5 yr old. I think the key is to have enough pasture so they can spread out if running more than one..

 

[Lucky]

I thought the rule was to always run an odd number of bulls. If you had very many cows running 1 bull to a herd would be difficult. Besides that they'd just fight through the fence.

 

[jerry27150]

some bulls are fighters & others aren't, last year I had two half brothers that were raised together, they ended up hurting each other & had to be separated one hobbled around but could still breed, other was down for two months & one hind foot was never right

 

[rockroadseminole]

I've always been a believer in an odd number of bulls. Two to fight and one to breed.

Having said that our red angus herd has had two bulls (bought from the same breeder, so have always been together) put in with them for two years with no problems. The older they get the more serious they seem to fight, once or twice early. Then they seem to divide and conquer.

Three is better than two, but I'd hate to have just one. He breaks his unit or gets sick and sperm count goes down, and you don't have any backup.

 

[Clod Hopper]

I learned the hard way one bull is never the right answer for me. I run two and it seems to work out. I have always heard odd numbers are better though.

 

[gcreekrch]

Maybe it's a bad idea if your breeding pasture is quite small. We run multiple bulls as a matter of course. Every so often one might get whipped and go sulk for awhile (usually later in the season), and every few years one will get pushed off a cow and break his penis. I couldn't imagine breaking the herd down to groups that would work for one bull. And then the logistics of organizing things so as not to have them sharing a fence. Sounds like trouble to me.

I concur Silver.We have run multiple bulls with each herd forever. 10 with 200 heifers last year resulted in a 90% conception rate in 42 days last summer and 88% in 2016 on 160 for 35 days.

Cows rarely go beyond 8% open but a lot of the opens in them we blame on harassment from predators.

 

[W.B.]

Run 5 to 6 bulls in some bigger pastures every year. The strong survive and breed and the weak go to the corner.