AI bulls

[Chap]

Really interesting topic on the care of bulls at stud.  The bull in my profile was collected at Nichols in Ankeny, IA.  We left him there for about 6 weeks as a yearling. He was in decent rig at the time of delivery and was in good shape when we picked him up, although quite a bit leaner.  If you talk to the managers at these studs they will tell you that they are not there to make your bull fat and that a fat bull produces less qhality and quantity than a bull that is a bit leaner.  FAt bulls are fun to look at, but as a rule don't produce the kind of semen that we as breeders want to spend $20/unit on.  Nichols does a great job of rotating bulls out of smaller pens on a weekly basis to get them some time in the grass paddocks.  Older bulls have the larger pens all the time.  I have not been to Hawkeye in recent history, but I think they handle a lot more bulls in a similar sized "space".  I chose the stud to collect my bull based on cleanliness, space, recommendations by others and the quality of the semen product that they allow out.  I think it is very important that the facility is scrutinized before you take a bull in for collection, and for that matter when you buy semen. 

 

[red]

Chap- you raised Exclusive? Always like him. I have a cow that has him on her maternal side.
I think that is an excellant point on researching the facitity before you take a bull or animal to a place where they are going to be there a long time. Certainly would save heartache down the line.

Red

 

[chambero]

I was more surprised by the conditions of those pens than the condition on the bulls - although they didn't look like I expected them too.  It has been many years since I've been to a bull stud - there just aren't any in our area.  How long is a bull typically kept at a collection faciltity - are they there a couple of months a year, etc?  How ofen are they collected?  What is an average number of straws frozen per collection (I know this can vary a lot - but was just wondering what a "good" bull produces.)  

I'm very much of an advocate of letting any kinds of "show" animal - steer, heifer, bull, etc. be a normal animal to the greatest extent possible.  I recognize they don't need to be kept spotless all of the time and a little mud never hurt anything.  But those photos were not what I expected for a pre-eminent facility that obviously handles some of the highest selling bulls there are.  Obviously the owners of those bulls know what they are doing and wouldn't give them their business if they weren't good, but it still surprises me.  I would have expected really valuable animals like those to be cared for in conditions similar to what high dollar horses receive that are standing at stud.  

It makes me fairly proud of our facilities - which might be a good topic for a future post.

 

[Chap]

Chambero - I can only answer vs my experience at Nichols, but they collect yearling bulls 1 time per week and mature bulls 2x/week.  a good yearling bull will produce 150-200 freezable units per collection and a mature bull commonly will produce between 300 and 400 units per collection.  Time at stud depends on the quantity of semen that you hope to aquire.  in my case, Exclusive averaged about 200 units per week on 1x collection.  We planned on getting around 1000 units and when we did, we picked him up and took him home to clean up cows.  some of the older bulls there, spend much more time.  Dr Who, for instance,  was there for the duration of that time producing 6-800 units per week, I believe they had about a 10k unit bank on him when we picked up our bull last spring.  Sales would be the driving factor on the duration of their stay.  I believe most of the bulls are taken in around Feb after the major display events and stay until it is time to let them see some cows.  We took Exclusive back this spring to get one more jump and a couple hundred more units in inventory.  We made it a day trip on collection day, trailered him up on a Monday morning, unloaded , let him get fired up a bit, jumped him 3 times, (1st was a little stale for freezing) and got 200 units of really good quality semen.  If his first jump had been fresh we could have have 400 units.  Hope this helps

 

[genes]

Wow this is an interesting post.  Thanks for taking the pictures Iowa.

I think the picture angle is accentuating it, but is Hired Man's shoulder huge or something?

I agree on the welfare issues too.  I don't think the bulls being clean matters a whole lot (though given it's open to the public, you would think they might try a little harder just for PR) but being able to move around is.  Especially with the ones that have soundness issues. 


And the pictures also made me realize that my eye has become accustomed to angus bulls, so these maines look like stretch limousines in the middle to me 

 

[cowz]

Do any of you Angus folks remember Ankony's Collection Facility near Denver?  It is now Rocky Mountain Sire Service.  The bulls there have really great conditions compared to what these pictures tell.

Have any of you been to an ABS facility where the holsteins are kept? (cow)  The last time I was there, they were chained to large concrete blocks.  Those holsteins get so incredibly mean in their old age, that I think it would definately take "nerves of steel" to take them to the collection chute!

 

[sjcattleco]

Unless the massiveness of a bull is all bone,  massive shoulders are a plus... bulls are supposed to be wider on the front end than they are on the back end.... bulls that are built like steers are the ones that produce poor daughters and end up with a reputation for having  calving trouble!!

 

[genes]

But there's massive, and then there is MASSIVE.  And his looks like the latter in that picture, but again, funny angle so it's hard to say.  Or maybe he is actually tight in the rib cage, because there is a his shoulder is really sticking "out" from it.  Like even when the shoulders are big and masculine, I still want to see some flow into the body.

 

[red]

The last time I was at Select Sires in Plain City, Ohio it was very clean. Can't remember how much room the bulls had though. Trouble w/ bulls is that if they have too much room you run the chance of fights & worse.

Red

For the Ohio people- who do you use to collect your bulls? We have used Freman Frye (sp?) for years. In my opinion on of the best.

 

[knabe]

video of hired man here

http://www.cattle.com/Semen/bull_viewer.aspx?id=1471

 

[iowa]

genes and cb3, you are right about Hired Man. I did take a picture on purpose at that angle so you could see just how massive his shoulders are. I thought he was really big shouldered at the IA Beef Expo, but he had all the hair and was clipped just right to down play his shoulders. He was the only bull that had been slick sheared, front to back. The size of his shoulders and tightness of his rib area were certainly made more evident.  He looked like the incredible hulk through the shoulders. None of the older mature bulls were even close to have shoulders like him.  As far as the conditions at Hawkeye Breeders, the barns are clean and all the bulls looked in pretty decent shape. With as much rain as we had prior to me going out to the barns ( approximately 5 1/2 inches in a week), the runs looked pretty good. I am not sure how Hawkeye handles the rotation, but they do have a large fenced grass lot for the mature bulls to rotate in and out of. I am not sure who was out there the day I was there. He was too far out in the lot to get a look at. Ali's mature photo shows him in that very lot.  Hawkeyes has a very nice place. Nichols is smaller, but there bull runs are larger. Both places are pretty nice. 

I am going to check out some bulls at Elbee's on Friday and stopping by Voglers Semen Centre to pickup some OCC Missing Link and Jake's Proud Leader semen as I pass by on my way.  I am not sure who they are collecting, but I will check things out and let you know what their facility is like.

 

[red]

DL- give Iowa the roving reporter award!!!!

Red

 

[chambero]

5 1/2 inches of rain would do it.  That's hard to correct quickly.  I guess maybe a case of me commenting on something without knowing the whole story. 

 

[red]

Really, when we got all that rain, I sure won't want anyone to see my cows! My hubby & have commented many a time how people that don't know cattle or livestock could really misrepresent things when you have a lot of rain or snow. Even the best kept place can look a disaster when you get an over flow of water.
Thanks for clearing that up Iowa!

Red

 

[knabe]

at voglers webpage,

it looks like emblazon standing next to someone else in the rotating picture

http://www.voglersemenbovine.com/

 

[OH Breeder]

The last time I was at Select Sires in Plain City, Ohio it was very clean. Can't remember how much room the bulls had though. Trouble w/ bulls is that if they have too much room you run the chance of fights & worse.

Red

For the Ohio people- who do you use to collect your bulls? We have used Freman Frye (sp?) for years. In my opinion on of the best.

Freeman at Galaxy Collected my bull

 

[OH Breeder]

Iowa
Is friction as thick as he appears in his pictures? He really looks stout.

 

[iowa]

OH Breeder, the picture obviously doesn't do Friction justice.  He is very thick and much more moderate framed than Sunseeker.

 

[OH Breeder]

That explains the friction calves. When I look at his calf picture he is not really outstanding with muslce. But that picture really flatters his top and his muscle pattern. Would like to have seen him in person.
Sunseeker looks alot finer made than I expected. THank you for taking time to take pictures and post them.

 

[CAB]

  Here's the AI bulls thread from this spring.