Tric testing is required for any non-virgin bulls turned out into community pastures in Wyoming and I believe in a number of other states and for sales of non-virgin bulls for breeding purposes.
I think it would be a good idea to go ahead and have even a virgin bull tested for tric unless they know 100 % beyond the shadow of a doubt the bull is a virgin bull.
Read that you should tric test your bull 45 days after breeding season. Couldn't think of why you should do that after breeding season is over ?
But last summer I had 3 heifers that got into my pasture because a utility company replacing some phone lines left the gate open and they couldn't run them back out. They were in the pasture with my herd for rest of that day and night before i found out about it and got them out.
I pulled my bull 5 or 6 weeks later. Had 7 out of 28 cow's that has had 3 calf crops open but had 7 open last year too. I know now i should have culled thoes 7 last year but didn't. Am now. Because of lost and replaced ear tags I don't even know if they were the same 7 that were open last time. Some of them weren't because a couple still had ther ear tags.
My 6 year old registered Hereford bull test bad with a low sperm count of % 20 when i had him tested a few weeks ago before i was going to turn him out.
I culled him along with the 7 open cows. Took him and 4 of the cows to sale last week. Taken the other 3 open cows this week.
Looking back i wish i had of had the bull tric tested even though he was bad to see if maybe he had tric ?
Something else. I bought that bull from a reputable Hereford breeder when it was 18 months old. The breeder told me he had bred a few of his good heifers to retain the genetics.
Well I didn't think there was anything wrong with that at the time . The bull had placed 2nd out of 10 other bulls in his division at the Dixie Nationals Hereford convention or something like that in Mississippi. The breeder was proud of the bull so didn't see anything wrong. Didn't know nothing about tricnosis.
So that bull wasn't a virgin bull. Was looking through ten 14 to 19 month old bulls at a reputable hereford breeders location. All the bulls were pacing the property fence line because there were 30 or so Angus cows on the other side.
The breeder showing the bull's told me they had warned the neighbors about putting cows across the fence like that.
Now what would happen if one of thoes cows some how had tric and some of thoes virgin bulls bred that cow and someone like myself bought that bull that breed the infected cow.
Had a BSE done that didn't include tric testing. And passed. Then put the bull on my cow's ?