Bull or Not - didn't want to hijack Doc's thread

[kanshow]

Just wondered how many breeders on here don't even have a bull ..  If you don't, how many cows do you run now & how many would you need before you invested in a bull?   

 

[OH Breeder]

This is the way I look at bulls.
We usually keep a dozen or more females on the farm. You figure one cost about 1200-1800 bucks for one year of keep and up keep. If I miss one cow that is 1200 down the drain right out of the gate. If clean up one cow, I have already made my money back on what I could have potentially missed. We always keep a clean up bull.  I have also leased bulls in the past for clean up. Either way it is worth the money in lost calves.

 

[dutch pride]

No bull, only 5 or 6 cows. Just do not have the room for a bull. Have leased a bull for insurance in the past as I was looking to move up my cows but have had  all of them catch AI on the first try last two years.

DLZ

 

[linnettejane]

we have done both, bought and leased...i prefer leasing...but its pretty hard to find bulls to lease in my area....leased the ai bull outcast a few years back.....also leased year before last, bought a bull to clean up last year, kept him 6 weeks to make sure everything was covered...leasing a bull this year for clean up purposes....only have 7 cows...cant really justify keeping one all year long...and dont really have the space to keep him up 46 weeks out of the year as we keep a pretty tight calving season

 

[JbarL]

we have done both, bought and leased...i prefer leasing...but its pretty hard to find bulls to lease in my area....leased the ai bull outcast a few years back.....also leased year before last, bought a bull to clean up last year, kept him 6 weeks to make sure everything was covered...leasing a bull this year for clean up purposes....only have 7 cows...cant really justify keeping one all year long...and dont really have the space to keep him up 46 weeks out of the year as we keep a pretty tight calving season

i have 7 as well...and a 2 yr old pb angus bull....i used him last year on my 3 registered cows and all calved dec/jan...he has been " on lease" to my neighbor since last may...hes a commercial guy and has 3 calves so far with aobut 8 more to follow...no sync program, and hes glad to have him ...and its definetly a win win for us both...now ive got a pb maine of my friends at my place to bred 3, and taking him out a the end of the month .....then i have 4 more id like to breed to pb simmi....but i too, am limited as to finding a lease for just 4 cows in june....looking for f1s  next year and muchly prefer natural vs ai....so i may be in a bull  sale/buy/trade mode soon myself.....lookin forward to going home first of april.....maybe work on it a bit then....jbarl

 

[ridge runner]

We only run between 20 to 30 cows, but always keep a bull for clean-up.  I agree with OH_breeder, I cannot justify the loss of one missed breeding.  Also keep a tight breeding season and when I miss AI I need the bull to cover it on the next cycle.  I have never had any trouble finding a neighbor to lease our herdbull to when he's not needed on our place.  That helps a bunch in terms of space and upkeep of the bull.  It is a big risk loaning out your bulls, but I have had mostly positive experiences letting our neighbors use ours on their commercial cows.  I only let them go to folks that I know will do their best to care for them.

 

[kanshow]

OH Breeder nailed it.  One missed calf justifies the keeping of a bull, IMO.   

Another thing..  We don't keep our bulls on the same farm as the cows all winter.  Then closer to breeding season we bring them back & notice that the cows have a lot stronger heats & maybe some start cycling that wouldn't have otherwise?  Pheremones?  I dunno but there have been years where we didn't bring the bulls back & didn't notice as much activity in the cows.   

 

[aj]

I have heard that running bulls fenceline to females will bring them into heats earlier. I'd think you should have one bull on place anyway. Even if you would keep back a calf you raised to keep on hand for a cleanup bull. The one year we kept back a bull as kind of an experiment. He was not impressive to look at,out of a great cow family, 70 # bwt. Ended up using him and his calves blew me out of the water. Its not always a phenotype bulls that become a great breeding bulls. I've had 83 calves so far and 12 of them were half brothers and half sisters matings. Try raising your own herd bulls and give them a chance. Wasn't Trump sold to a commercial guy and then bought back after the first set of calves hit the ground.jmo

 

[racekannon]

There is no doubt in my mind about the bull bringing them in and have the data to prove it.  I made a Gomer bull to help my wife with heats in the spring herd while I am baling hay two years ago and use him more and more for example I used him this fall in 20 heifers and bred 1 day one, 2 day 2, 2 day 4, 2 day 5, gave estrumate and bred 2 day 6, and day 7 bred 6.  The rest responded shortly there after and only re bred 3 even using alot of sexed semen having 20 heifers their should be one a day in heat but i constantly breed more the first days after putting in Gomez this time almost half in the first third of cycle.

 

[farmboy]

not currently. but we did buy one at the expo. he wasn't at the expo but we found a feller with one forsale for the right price so we went and looked at him. Red Hard Core son