Make,sure your bulls are thick but smooth, a cow can have a fairly big calf if it is built right. If you are selling calves then you want a bull with a big weaning weight.
Keep in mind that there is only $1500 to $2000 between a very good bull and a mediocre one in price. That difference doesn’t take long to pay for if the progeny is 50 to 100 lbs heavier than the poorer sire’s offspring.
I can give you a great example of this........ Many years back an old batchelor here died and left his little ranch to the young fellow who had been helping him the last 20 years he was alive.
The old fella was a good cowman and bought good quality bulls. There were really nothing but Horned Herefords or Shorthorns in this area then. Anyway, the old fella’s last bull needed replacing and the young guy went to the local bull sale and sat on his hands through 175 bulls. Still needing a bull, he purchased a Polled Hereford that the sale sifting committee had culled and disallowed to be sold. He paid the princely sum of $1000 for a bull that was mostly head and looked as though he had run into a parked car for length. Good bulls at this sale ran to $2200 with the very best bringing $3000
The first calf crop from the money saver was 150 lbs lighter than the calves the ranch had been producing for ten years previous. Calves in the mid 80s were bringing 80 to 85 cents. The young guy kept this prize sire for four years and finally shipped him. He was quite proud of the fact that he got the same $1000 for cull price and completely ignored the fact that the bull had sired roughly 100 calves in his lifetime that were worth $120 less than their mothers were capable of producing with a better bull.
Penny wise can definitely be dollar foolish!
