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I purchased a yearling simangus bull in 2009 at a breeder's yearly bull sale. I remember that he was a good looking bull and that the AI stud that owned his sire included progeny photos of that yearling bull and two heifers in their 2010 sire directory on the page showing that sire. I recently came across that AI sire directory. Here is a picture of the handsome young yearling.
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I paid $4500 for him which was a lot of money for me in 2009. Just a yearling, we put one cow with him that fall. By breeding season the next year, he had developed a very long outside claw on a back foot. He was able to breed 3 cows with his long claw before he went to hamburger heaven. Moral of story is that it takes more than good looks to make a good bull and that good feet are very important. I don't trim feet, but trim the neck just behind the ears. I was disappointed in my poor selection.
You bring up the point of the sales and foot problems. I have seen the owners or the test stations feed the bulls heavily to get gain per day and to me it ruins the animal. Had you sent the 600U bull to Clemson test station he possibly would have brought better but i would not have even bid on him. I like home raised bulls that's raised on the grass they will work on in the future. Some feed to grow them is fine but not push them.
 
Last spring's bull sale I had a couple bulls that went lame in the feedlot that I had at home to heal up and just on hay. One buyer asked if they got sick. I told him the background and mentioned that they were probably going to be better bulls, but nobody wants to buy a bull that isn't well fed. He did wind up buying one of them along with several others and was interested in how he would compare. My prediction is that by the middle of the summer they would all look the same. Need to follow up on how they did.
 
You bring up the point of the sales and foot problems. I have seen the owners or the test stations feed the bulls heavily to get gain per day and to me it ruins the animal. Had you sent the 600U bull to Clemson test station he possibly would have brought better but i would not have even bid on him. I like home raised bulls that's raised on the grass they will work on in the future. Some feed to grow them is fine but not push them.
Clemson bull test started in the 1970's. At that time the main feed ingredient was corn. Them little bulls were about as wide as they were tall and could hardly walk. Seems like backfat was well over an inch if I remember correctly. Those bulls were pretty much ruined. In engineering and industry, there are different testing methods. Sometimes you test concrete samples or steel by increasing the load until failure. Then you have proven the max rating, but destroyed the product in the process. Bull tests that concentrate on max gain are sort of like that. You find the ultimate limit on the genetic gain, but destroy/ruin the bull in the process. But the Clemson test and many others have improved in recent years. There is much more roughage in the feed and the bulls are not nearly as fat as in earlier years. Still carry too much condition probably, but the buyers will bid more for condition/fat. Does not increase the genetic value and decreases the useful life of the bull - especially feet and joints.

South Carolina contribution to the beef business is less than many other states. But the Clemson Bull test is one of the better reputation public bull tests and has a better average selling price than most. Average on all the bulls in 2023 sale was $5988. Top selling bull sold to a breeder in North Dakota for $38,000.

Those 2 bulls calves this year were fed a 14% commodity feed. Biggest ingredient was soy hulls. At weaning, they were fed 8.5# each per day. When they left, they were getting 10# each per day. They weren't fat but had plenty condition to grow enough to breed cows.

I sent bulls to test a couple of years. Here is what I learned - my fall born bulls will wean with pretty good weaning weights, in the 7xx range with no creep. When they are weaned, they run on fescue pasture mid spring to mid summer. And it is hot here. I can't get them to eat enough feed to get fat running on summer fescue. When I delivered them to the bull test in August, my bulls would be much lighter than most of the bulls even though the weaning weights were similar or better. I think most of the bulls are probably weaned, run on dry lot with feed and hay. And a good bit more feed. My bulls would do ok on ADG on test, but never caught up on WDA. But I suspect they held up pretty well for the buyer.
 
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Haha. I agree. Thing is it hurts a lot more to experience first hand.
Yeah for sure. My bad choice only cost me $1750 (Capitalist 316 son) he wasn't interested in grass nor ass. Toughest animal I've ever taken the processor. Ground beef damn near required a steak knife. Corned hin for 75 days and you couldn't tell.
 
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You bring up the point of the sales and foot problems. I have seen the owners or the test stations feed the bulls heavily to get gain per day and to me it ruins the animal. Had you sent the 600U bull to Clemson test station he possibly would have brought better but i would not have even bid on him. I like home raised bulls that's raised on the grass they will work on in the future. Some feed to grow them is fine but not push them.
5 yr old reg Red Brangus.
Prop a rifle up on him and call him a Cape buffalo.
 

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