Your experiences with yearling bulls

[wbvs58]

I would like know of your experiences with yearling bulls, good or bad. I am going to use yearling bulls this year on my two blocks , both will be 14 mths old and 500kg (1100lbs) when they go in with the cows, one will have 33 cows/heifers with him and he will have to clean up after one round of inseminations on most of the cows, though my insemination technique is not good and I can only usually get about half settled. The other bloke will run with 9 cows. Last year I used a yearling on a handfull of cows, he was only 367kg (807lbs) when he went in, he hit the ground running, settled a cow the first day in, though I thought the spread of calving could have been a bit tighter, I was pretty happy with him. He ran with the cows from late September to early March when he then weighed 650kg (1430lbs). I guess they can grow into the job.
The stud where I buy my cattle from routinely use yearling bulls for cleanup. I guess I just want to hear a bit more, hopefully to build my confidence.
Thanks, Ken

 

[KNERSIE]

I use yearling bulls every year and at that weight they should get the job done. 33 is more than the ideal for the one bull, its not so much how many they physically breed as its a case of how many they attend to.

 

[Gale Seddon]

I recall reading somewhere (maybe on this site some years ago) that a young bull can adequately service as many cows as his age in months, i.e., 12 month bull with 12 cows.

Knersie, what do you mean by "attend to?"

 

[KNERSIE]

go and sniff all day long instead of grazing

 

[jcarkie]

i like starting with yearlings. i use them on a small group and then they move to a bigger group if they do good, i have a 14 month old with 9 1st calf pairs, he had a tenth one that was 15 months well she had a calf at 18 months.
the oldest one i buy is 18 months old, i have bought some at 10 - 12 months, i don't turn them out till 12 months. we have gotten bigger so i need older bulls that can handle more cows.

 

[hillsdown]

I use yearling bulls every year and at that weight they should get the job done. 33 is more than the ideal for the one bull, its not so much how many they physically breed as its a case of how many they attend to.

Agree !!
Also they cover more cows with less acreage ;so if you have a herd spread throughout many acres it will be a little more of a challenge for a young bull if they are sniffing and hanging around any ole thing that moves like Knersie stated.

My yearlings are 15 months and get 20-25 head each at best ,if at all possible. This year my heifer yearling bull only has 10 head in with him and 3 were AI'd so he pretty much was all done the first 2 weeks with his brothel . :lol:

 

[gizmom]

We use a coupld of fourteen month old bulls on heifers every year. In fact my son and I were out today looking at the weaned bull calves picking out which ones we would be using in December. We have had great success with the program, We usually AI a group of the heifers then turn them out with the bulls.

Gizmom
http://www.gizmoangus.com

 

[angus9259]

My only concern with yearling bulls is when they tend to fall in love with one cow and ignore others - especially if there's a difference in heat intensity. They calving can get a little more spread out than with older bulls. For me, that's why it could get tricky with that many cows - especially if you synch when you do your AI. If you sync, they'll all tend to come (back) in heat at the same time which could get rough on a young chap to hit all at once.

 

[gizmom]

It is a valid concern for sure, when using a young bull you have to pay attention and make sure he is following more than his one true love lol! When we AI heifers we only select a few to AI to avoid all of them coming back into heat at one time that would drive a young bull nuts I think he would be so busy chasing all of them he might fail to get any of them bred. So far we have had great luck, this past year we had a young bull in and I swear I was concerned we only saw him following heifers a couple of times. He was in with fourteen or so but when we palpated they were all bred and they are going to calve in a tight time frame, so he was working he was just really private about it.

Gizmom

 

[wbvs58]

Thanks for all the replies, it sounds like I will have to cut the work load for that one bull. I have another yearling that I have not got any plans for at the moment, I might send him up the back paddock a few of the cows. I will try to get a couple of photos of them tomorrow and post them tomorrow night.
Ken

 

[Stocker Steve]

Any suggestions on successfully running two 16 month old bulls together in a battery?

 

[KNERSIE]

Any suggestions on successfully running two 16 month old bulls together in a battery?

Add an older bull or split the two into seperate herds.

 

[1wlimo]

I ran 6 14 month old bulls with 120 heifers last year in 480 acres of bush pasture and they did fine.

The bulls grew up together so not too much argy, bargy. The top three bulls ran a group of 80 heifers, one bull sorted himself out 20 head, and the rest sort of foated.

Not to be recomended, but I could not rotated the pasture as there was only the one water source.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Any suggestions on successfully running two 16 month old bulls together in a battery?

Add an older bull or split the two into seperate herds.

These are half brothers who have always run together.
I already split the herd for the heifer bull.

 

[hoss_ross]

I recall reading somewhere (maybe on this site some years ago) that a young bull can adequately service as many cows as his age in months, i.e., 12 month bull with 12 cows.

Knersie, what do you mean by "attend to?"

That's the general rule of thumb for most recommendations. One cow per age of month up to 24 months, and try to keep 25 cows to one mature bull.

This is not saying that good mature bulls will not cover more than 25 cows - but for some of the folks I work with, they are using stockyard bulls and so the quality isn't there and I'm trying to minimize their self-induced pain.

 

[wbvs58]

Here are some photos of the bulls I am going to use this year. This first bloke is the one I want to put to the bulk of the cows. He is currently 11months old, weighs 500kg(1100lb), he is by US sire Nichols Extra K205. He has been the stand out as far as growth goes.

This second bloke is 12mths old, current weight 441kg(970lbs), he is by NZ sire Te Mania Infinity, he is very heavey muscled.

This 3rd bloke is a heifers first calf by Australian sire Lawsons Invincible, he is 121/2 mths old, weighs 444kg(977lb), he is a bit rangier than the others. He is the one I was not going to use initially.

I hope you can get a bit of an idea what they look like, I find it very difficult to get a photo of these all black fellows and you can't always get a shot with the sun on them.
Ken

 

[3waycross]

Nice bulls Ken.......However I am not sure I would breed anything to the 3rd one. He might make a better testicle donor!

 

[KNERSIE]

Funny how things are different in different areas/countries. The second bull would be just average muscled here, the first one light and the third very light.

 

[wbvs58]

Yeh 3way, I wasn't planning to but he will help me out with a few cull cows I'll put in a back paddock and it will ease the load on the other bull.
Ken