Stunted bull

[Jtylerb82]

I had a 6 mo old bull calf that had all the potential of being a stud. His epd's were off the chart for ww and yw but his ce and bw were terrible. I figured he'd be fine on older big frame cows. A relative decided he wanted him and instead of holding him off till he was 16-18 mos old he put him out with the herd. He worked his ass off at 10 mos trying to service cows and I noticed the other day he's got him penned with his heifers. He's about 15 mos old now and should weigh at least 1200 by now but looks at best to be 8-900lbs. Question is will his epd's stay accurate or will his offspring be slacking because he's stunted so bad now? I'm just worried about him ruining heifers or having to pull calves.

 

[Buck Randall]

The genes he passes to his offspring don't change no matter how he's been treated or handled. Stunting his growth didn't make him a heifer bull.

 

[Son of Butch]

Nutrition can effect his fertility, but not his genetics.

 

[wbvs58]

I wouldn't get too hung up over his EPD's. If you are thinking of using him I would primarily be looking at his phenotype, is he the sort of bull that you want to use. Bring him home and feed him a bit, see if he starts to shape into the type of bull you were hoping for.

Ken

 

[MRRherefords]

I agree with Ken. I would bring him home and feed him a while and see if he turns into what you want. Make sure he is the type you'd want to sire calves for you. Structure and phenotype are most important when selecting a bull. I would make sure that this is the type of bull you would want calves out of before based on his structure before breeding your cows to him based on his epds.

 

[FungusProudKY31]

He'll never make his genetically potential mature size. If you overfeed him now to try you will make him a gob of fat. Just feed him normal and let him be what he becomes. CE: just do not put him with heifers. That was easy!