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Ron Skinner, DVM (seedstock producer near Hall, Montana) says that the important things to consider in winter bull care include balanced nutrition, a good health program (that includes proper vaccination), exercise, and protection from harsh weather. Skinner says the biggest mistake some people make is not bringing yearling bulls in for better care and management, after their first breeding season.

KEEP THE BULLS SEPARATE
Bulls should be taken out of the cow herd right after the breeding season, if possible. This gives them a chance to regain body condition if they lost weight, and also ensures that no cows are bred outside the time frame of your desired calving season. Then before winter, it pays to sort the young bulls from the older ones so they can be fed separately; they need a higher plane of nutrition since they are still growing.

Larry Melhoff, 5L Red Angus (Sheridan, Montana) says bull management will vary with each operation, partly depending on facilities available for keeping bulls separate from the cows.Many ranches try to utilize a pen or pasture that’s located away from the cows. “We encourage people to take the yearling bulls out of the cows and make sure they regain any lost weight. They do need to catch up if they’ve worked hard,” he says.

“Sometimes people leave all their bulls together, but this can be hard on the yearlings and sometimes even the 2 year olds if they are still losing their teeth. Many people never feed their bulls extra, so the older bulls do very well and the young ones may take a beating,” says Melhoff. The yearlings and 2 year olds do better through winter if they can be in a group by themselves.

“We have our older bulls in a 250 acre hillside pasture and they do fine—and the exercise is good for them. They are a lot like dry cows, once they are mature. It’s the young bulls that need a little help; they should be fed like the young cows,” says Melhoff.

PROTECTION FROM BAD WEATHER
Ken Dunn, an Angus breeder near Tetonia, Idaho, says one of the most important considerations for bulls, if you live in a region with cold winters, is to recognize the potential for frostbitten testicles if temperatures drop, especially if there’s wind. In his bull pens, he creates mounds of piled straw. If you keep adding more straw to the pile, the straw and manure tends to ferment and generate heat.

“When we are feeding our bulls through winter, they always climb up onto those piles to sleep. It’s surprisingly warm on top of those piles. This can help the bulls stay warmer in cold weather and reduces the risk for scrotal frostbite,” says Dunn. If bulls lie on bare ground (especially frozen ground) with no bedding, this robs body heat and increases the risk for frostbite. Having a raised mound to bed on is healthier in wet weather also; the bulls don’t have to lie in cold mud.

“We have windbreaks for most of our bull pens,” says Dunn. Being a seedstock producer, his operation has a large number of bulls to winter, including 175 weaned bull calves. The weaned bulls are out in big pastures (30 to 40 acres) with about 75 animals in each group. They are fed on the ground and spread out. “We have a couple of big straw piles in a corner of each of those fields, for those calves to lie in,” he says.

His herd bulls are in single, individual pens about 14 feet wide and 100 feet long or longer. “Use of these individual pens for the bulls we’ve invested a lot of money in keeps them away from each other so they can’t fight and get injured. We have 2 other groups of bulls with 4 or 5 bulls to a group. One group is in a 10 acre pen and the other in a large corral,” says Dunn. Bedding is provided for all of these bulls, since he feels it’s always worth the time and effort to give them a warm/dry place to sleep.

Skinner says it is extremely important to have windbreaks and bedding. Also pay attention to the fact that certain feeds can compound a cold weather problem due to compromised blood circulation (caused by ergot or endophyte fungi). “I’ve seen this become a problem in normal bull management. There can be ergot in brome grasses and quack grasses, for instance. It’s not just a grain problem. This can be devastating to bull testicles during cold weather, because it decreases circulation to the extremities,” says Skinner. A high level of ergot toxicity may result in loss of ears, tails or even feet. A low level may just result in testicular damage. Bulls may freeze their testicles in weather that is not severely cold, just because of this circulatory problem.

IMPORTANCE OF EXERCISE
If bulls are purchased as yearlings, the development phase is very important. Seedstock producers must condition them in a manner that young bulls can be physically fit with hard muscle, not fat. “They should be developed in big pens with adequate exercise, so they don’t have to go directly from very soft condition to breeding cows in big pastures,” says Melhoff.

The transition should be as smooth as possible. “In the 1970’s and 80’s producers were performance oriented, trying to get as much daily gain as possible on young bulls and it became a race. We went past what was optimal for these bulls,” says Melhoff. It’s better to allow a minimal transition in nutrient levels when these bulls have to go out and work. This makes it much easier for the bull, and he won’t fall apart by the time he is picked up out of the cows. It becomes much harder for him to bounce back if he’s thin.

“About 10 years ago we didn’t have very large pens for our bull development. We were out of room, so I made a quarter-mile lot at the edge of a field, and put 50 young bulls in there. It was a sacrifice to take a chunk out of a hay meadow for a bull run but we needed the room. It had water at one end and a feed bunk at the other end, with ¼ mile walking distance in between. It worked very well so we added another run. Now we’re up to where we can handle about 400 bulls in these quarter-mile runs, with feed and water at opposite ends. It has made a big difference,” says Melhoff. Bulls are like young athletes; if they are physically fit, they have fewer injuries.

“We found that in the larger pens, we had some bull injuries as they were growing and developing; the extra room and exercise sorted out the ones that have some structure issues or foot problems. We are now finding those at home (and can take them out of the program) before they go to our customers, and that’s the way it ought to be,” he says.

“We hear back from our customers that the bulls developed to be athletic and fit go out and do their job and bounce right back. These bulls are a lot more accustomed to traveling. The worst thing you can do is put them on good feed with no exercise.” What makes the commercial cattleman’s job easier in bull management is how well the seedstock producer develops the bulls. This is the crucial starting point.

“We would prefer to be able to give these young bulls more challenges than just the quarter mile pen, in more varied terrain, but even just demanding the extra walking has made a very big difference,” says Melhoff.

Skinner says bulls need exercise during their off season, so they will be fit and athletic before they go out with the cows next spring, decreasing the incidence of injuries. Also, an athletic bull can cover more territory and spend more time chasing and breeding cows without tiring, than a soft out-of-shape bull that was in a small pen all winter.

NUTRITION
Just as important as exercise is proper nutrition and mineral management. Every geographic region has its challenges, either in deficiencies of certain trace minerals or overabundance of something that interferes with utilization of other minerals. Iron or molybdenum, for instance, can hinder copper absorption. Melhoff says it pays to check forage samples and see what kind of mineral program would be best for your ranch. “A lot of producers have their cows on a good mineral program but sometimes neglect the bulls, and they need just as much attention. It’s especially crucial for the young bulls. We try to use a Multimin injection for our bulls, at least 30 days prior to turnout. This seems to boost the immune system and we feel it’s made a difference,” he says.

If bulls are kept on a good program they stay healthier and last a lot longer—with better fertility. Mineral nutrition has a lot to do with how they semen test, and hold together joint-wise, feet and leg soundness, etc.

Ken Dunn says it always pays to separate the young bulls from the older ones for winter feeding, even if you only have 2 pens or pastures. “Mature bulls don’t need much pampering and we don’t feed ours anything other than hay through the winter. Some ranchers grain their bulls a little, and I guess this would depend on the condition of the bulls; we usually just feed them good hay,” says Dunn. A mature bull will generally regain adequate body condition on good pasture or hay after the breeding season, before cold weather begins.

Young bulls need more pampering, especially if they lost weight during breeding season. “The important thing is to have them separate, so you have an opportunity to feed them a different ration that the older bulls may not need,” says Dunn. Even just a higher quality hay may be all that’s needed for young bulls, along with the fact they don’t have to compete with the older bulls for the feed.

His bulls are on a good mineral program year round, just like the cows. “We don’t change it for winter. We’ve found it really pays to stay on a good program. We’ve tested our hay and pasture and a nutritionist helped us come up with a plan that works well for our area, since we are short on copper and selenium,” says Dunn.

Skinner says it is important to monitor the condition of all your bulls, just like you would your cows. “Semen production of an underfed bull, up to 45 months of age, is only 77 percent of the production of an adequately fed bull. The interesting thing about this is the fact that if a young bull is allowed to get too thin, he will still lag behind in his semen production for the rest of his life, even if his nutrition is brought back up to speed. People often don’t realize this, but it was shown in a study done many years ago at Oklahoma State University,” says Skinner.

VACCINATION/HEALTH PROGRAM
Bulls should be on a good health care program, just like your cows. Skinner says there are 4 things that can play a role in cattle health and the fertility of a bull—nutrition, genetics, disease, and stress that recrudesces disease (enables a latent disease to resurface in the animal).

Vaccination and parasite control programs are important. Sometimes the bulls are neglected and their vaccinations are not as timely as that of the cow herd. Herd health measures are just as important for the bulls as for the cows, with appropriately scheduled vaccinations and deworming. “Everything on our ranch gets 8-way twice a year and we worm all cattle in the fall. We treat the cows for flukes when we give them their scours shot, and treat the bulls in early spring when they get their spring shots,” says Dunn.

“Our cattle are all on a program using a modified live 4-way shot, before the breeding season. We treat for lice and grubs in the fall, using a pour-on, to get internal and external parasites. This usually works for lice through the whole winter, but on occasion we have to treat the bulls for lice again before spring. If we do, we just use the squirt guns and apply a topical product as we are feeding. After we put the hay out, while the bulls are standing there eating, we just walk up behind them and squirt each one. This is a really easy method, since our bulls are gentle,” says Dunn.

Skinner stresses the fact that bulls should be vaccinated well ahead of breeding season. All too often they are forgotten or left behind in all the cattle processing. It’s not wise to vaccinate bulls the day you turn them out with the cows. Depending on age of the bull and what you vaccinate for, the amount of time it takes for immunity to develop will vary. A booster shot does not take as long as a first time shot, to build immunity.

TOTAL PROGRAM
It’s just good business to take care of the bulls. “It’s like having a proper maintenance program on your vehicles,” says Melhoff. “They last longer. If a person doesn’t take care of a young bull, it’s like running a vehicle 100,000 miles without an oil change. On some ranches the bulls are just assumed to work under any conditions; people don’t intentionally neglect them, but it happens. It’s natural to try harder to take care of the larger group—the cows—especially when a person is really busy and just trying to deal with the bigger issues. But it pays large dividends to pay attention to the bulls and their needs,” says Melhoff.

Some of the challenges are due to the constraints of each operation. Not everyone has a good spot to put those bulls or make divisions so the young bulls can be managed separately. Each operation has to make their own adjustments.

The investment in young bulls is usually large, however, so it pays to try to protect that investment with proper off-season care. “Ranchers have become good at making assessments about what they need in a bull, to fit their cow herd and environment. They’ve studied their EPDs and know how to feed cattle right, but it’s amazing—after they’ve done the homework and paid substantial capital for the bulls—how many don’t follow through and take good care of that investment,” says Melhoff.

Some of those young bulls get injured or don’t get a chance to regain condition after breeding season, and even if the bulls don’t end up washing out of the program it hurts them for the rest of their productive life. “In most other things, people protect a capital investment with a lot of pride and care, such as maintaining a tractor or a vehicle, and this is no different. Some people forget about the value of these young bulls; they are the essence of the breeding program. Sometimes it’s just a matter of putting it in proper perspective,” says Melhoff.

Skinner points out that if a rancher is trying to achieve good genetics, buying good quality bulls, it’s worth the time to pay attention to them and understand their nutritional needs. “We all need to be careful on budget, but there’s a point where you can get yourself into trouble if you go too far on trying to save money. You can get help from your county agent, regarding nutrition. Sometimes a dollar saved is not necessarily a dollar earned,” says Skinner.

Most of the emphasis is usually placed on proper care of the cow herd, since that’s where the bulk of your feed resources will be going, but the operations that do not manage their bulls properly are usually the ones with more open cows. It always pays to fine-tune bull management as much as possible, to give them optimum conditions for health and fertility.

CARE OF YEARLING BULLS
Yearling bulls should always be taken out of the cows after breeding season, to give them a chance to regain body condition. They need some extra care until they are 2 years old. “They have lost weight and need to regain it,” says Skinner. “In one trial, yearling bulls on average lost 170 pounds during their first breeding season. Actual individual losses ranged from 50 to 200 pounds, depending on the weight they were carrying before they went out,” he says.

Yearling bulls are still growing, needing more protein and energy than a mature bull. Some of them may be shedding baby teeth and gaining their permanent teeth. A bull’s first season can be hard on him, just as a first calf heifer has a lot of stresses when nursing her first calf, growing, and trying to rebreed on schedule.

“With our own bulls, in our experience, it doesn’t take the yearlings very long to bounce back. Within 60 to 90 days (or by the time they are 2 years old, whichever comes first) they are back to a body condition score 6 or 7. After that, they seem to be able to hold their condition quite well for the rest of their lives. Once a bull develops his mature body mass, he’s good to go. But if you leave a young bull out or just put him out on mountain pasture when you pull him out of the cows, without giving him an opportunity to regain the weight, it’s tough on him,” says Skinner.

By contrast, mature bulls tend to handle the breeding season without as much weight loss. “If older bulls come out of the cows in good condition, they can get along fine on very average fall pasture, like a dry cow. But a thin yearling bull won’t put enough weight back on, in that situation, before he gets into the colder part of winter.”