General Management
Unless you are breeding all your cows by AI you need a good
bull, or several, relevant to number of cows, and even if you
breed AI it pays to have a good clean-up bull since conception
rate with AI is never 100 percent. It’s actually closer to 70-80
percent. Unless you calve year-round (an impractical way to
manage cows—except in some dairies—and impossible to market
calves at uniform size), bulls should be kept separate from
other cattle when not being used for breeding. You don’t want
cows bred out of season or heifers bred too young. A young bull
will also do much better if kept separate from cows, especially
after breeding season is over. He’s still growing and needs time
off from chasing after cows so he can regain lost weight and
grow better—and be in better condition for next year.
Thus you need a separate pen or
pasture for bulls, with good fences. It’s always healthier for
bulls to have room to exercise (and to be out of the mud in wet
seasons) so a pasture is better than a small corral, if you have
the room. Electric wire (if it’s always working) can augment a
pasture fence to make sure bulls don’t try to go through the
fence. It also helps if you can have a buffer field or pen
between the bull pasture and any females. If bulls can’t get
nose to nose with females they are not as tempted to crash the
fence.
Bulls need good feed but this
doesn’t mean grain. If a bull needs grain to stay in good body
condition, he’s not going to sire feed-efficient offspring and
is not the kind of animal you want—especially if you’re running
a grass based operation or using range pastures. Many seedstock
producers overfeed young beef bulls to get them big enough fast
enough (since most bulls are now sold as yearlings rather than 2
year olds) and to have them look good by sale time. Fat young
bulls often “fall apart” when turned out with cows; they are not
in strong athletic condition and tire more readily, as well as
losing weight rapidly due to the sudden drop in nutrition levels
coupled with the drastic increase in exertion. Overfeeding leads
to fertility problems (too much insulating fat in the scrotum,
keeping it too warm for optimum sperm production and viability),
founder and other feet and leg problems.
A yearling bull needs adequate
nutrition for growth but this can be provided with good pasture
or good quality hay with high protein level. Mature bulls should
do fine on pasture or good grass hay or a grass-alfalfa mix.
Watch body condition closely and adjust the feed accordingly. If
older bulls get too fat this not only hinders fertility but can
also impair athletic ability, stamina and sex drive. If bulls
start losing weight, increase the quantity or quality of feed. A
good mineral supplement is also important for optimum fertility,
if your feeds are deficient.
Bulls Are Bulls
Handle bulls with firmness and respect and never forget they
are bulls; their instinct is to dominate other animals. Don’t
make a pet of any bull. If he looks upon you as an equal and has
no fear/respect, he will eventually become dangerous as he gets
older and more aggressive. In his mind you must always be the
dominant member of the team, never to be challenged. Carry a
weapon (stick, whip) when handling bulls on foot, such as
working or sorting them in a corral, but also keep a very
confident attitude. If a bull respects you, you generally don’t
need to use your weapon; it’s enough to just have it with you
and to dominate the bull with your confidence. If a bull knows
you are afraid, you should not be handling him.
Some bulls become very aggressive
at a young age (especially dairy bulls) and others become more
aggressive as they get older. Most bulls will start questioning
your authority by the time they are 4 or 5 years old, though a
few remain mellow and manageable longer. If a bull starts
challenging you, get rid of him.
Selecting A Bull
A bull provides half the genetics for any calves you sell or
keep as future cows, so you want a good bull that suits your
goals. If he’s a purebred, check his performance records and
those of his sire and dam, to know what to expect from his
calves regarding birth weight, weaning weight, etc. If he’ll be
breeding heifers, make sure he isn’t too large and heavy (or he
may injure them during breeding) and check his projected birth
weights to make sure he’ll sire small calves that are easy born
but grow fast. Birth weight is partly a result of gestation
length, which is a heritable trait.
Evaluate him visually to make
sure he has good conformation and will stay sound, and likely to
sire daughters with good conformation. He should have strong
feet and legs (good bone and strong hoofs), not crooked or weak,
and should travel well—with legs moving straight forward instead
of crookedly. If he has too much angle in his hind legs (sickle
hocks) or not enough angle in hocks and stifles (post-legged) he
may suffer strain and injury when trying to breed cows. He
should have a strong back (not sway-backed nor humped up) and be
long in body and not pot-bellied.
If you’ll be keeping daughters as
future cows, always look at the bull’s mother—especially her
udder shape, milking ability, etc. His daughters will be a lot
like his mother and if she has serious faults (big teats at
calving time, fertility problems, bad disposition), they likely
will, too.
Make sure he has a good
disposition and is easy to handle. Temperament is partly
inherited. You want a bull that not only sires easy-born,
fast-growing calves and good-milking daughters, but also passes
on calm, intelligent behavior. How you handle and train your
cattle can make a big difference in tractability, but it helps
if they have good intelligence and an easy-going nature to begin
with. An aggressive/mean or wild/flighty bull will sire calves
with the same bad attitude. They will be difficult to handle,
more easily stressed, and won’t gain weight as readily as calmer
individuals. Never use a bull that has traits you wouldn’t want
to see in your calves or in his daughters you might keep as
cows.
Before you buy or borrow a bull,
always have a breeding soundness exam to check his semen and any
other factors that might affect his fertility or breeding
ability. Unless he’s a virgin bull, he should also be tested for
trichomoniasis and any other sexually transmitted diseases that
might be prevalent in your region.
Before The Breeding Season
Vaccinate bulls annually (or semi-annually, for some
diseases) and make sure vaccinations are current ahead of
breeding season (at least 3 weeks ahead). Have your vet do a
breeding soundness exam and semen check, even if the bull was
fine last year. The bull may have suffered injury or infection
between then and now; you want to make sure he’ll be fertile and
able to breed cows.
Reproductive Behavior
When a cow comes into heat she will seek a bull and start
mounting him and other cows, but it may still be a few hours
before she will stand for the bull to mount and breed her. She
will generally stand for cows to mount before she will be in a
strong standing heat for the bull to breed her.
Bulls are continually traveling
through the herd, checking cows to detect the ones that are in
heat or coming into heat. A bull smells the vulva of a cow and
also smells her urine. During heat a cow urinates frequently and
the bull samples the odor and taste of her urine. The in-heat
cow releases pheromones in body fluids (especially urine and
sweat glands in the flank area) and he can detect those. He may
be able to smell an in-heat cow some distance away if a breeze
brings odors his direction. Bulls can often identify a cow in
pre-heat up to 2 days before she comes into heat. A bull may
keep close track of her (staying near and guarding her from
other bulls) until she does.
He makes tentative attempts to
mount the cow but if it’s still early in her heat period she may
not stand. He keeps checking her by resting his chin on her back
or rump, and only mounts and breeds her when she is ready and
holds her back rigid. When the bull mounts a cow to breed, he
finds his proper position to enter the vulva (which may take a
few seconds or may be immediate) then gives a strong thrust as
he ejaculates. This is usually a leap, with hind legs leaving
the ground. If he actually breeds her, the cow will then stand
humped up, with her tail raised, after he dismounts. If the bull
did not thrust (merely mounting and dismounting without giving
his leap) and the cow does not hold her tail out afterward, he
did not ejaculate; she was not bred. If a bull is tired, he may
mount a cow repeatedly but not actually breed her. A close
observation of the herd, or even a good look at the cows several
times a day can give a clue as to which ones were bred, enabling
you to have projected calving dates on those cows for next
calving season.
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