justintime
Well-known member
I received an Angus bull sale catalog yesterday, and I happened to see that this outfit had 56 calves born from one sire in a one week period. They were all pasture bred with no AI breedings in this group. This was a new herd sire they had purchased at Schaff Angus Valley a couple years ago. I find that there is a big difference between what certain herd bulls can settle.
Last spring after spring break up, we had some serious mud in the pens where we sort our cattle to go to our various pastures. I finally turned all the cows out in a pasture at home, and thought I would bring them back in after it had dried up some and sort them then. I turned one of our herd bulls, Wolf Willow Major Leroy, out with the entire group for two weeks. It appears like he must have settled close to 50 cows in that two weeks as I have no idea which cow is going to calve next. I knew he was a good semen producer, as when we sold the world semen rights to Semex, part of our agreement was that we would get paid when he had collected 1000 doses of semen. He produced 1023 straws of semen in his first collection, so I phoned Semex and told them they could write the cheque. They were somewhat surprised, as they said they had only seen a couple of dairy bulls ever do that.
Some bulls seem to be able to produce high quality and high volumes of semen, but can't maintain this for very long time periods. There seems to be major differences, and it doesn't seem to be associated with just testicle size. Our first Irish import, Highfield Irish Mist was also a sire that could settle large numbers of cows. He was owned by three breeders, and we all tried to use him each breeding season. He saw 12 breeding seasons and in many of these years there were over 100 natural calves born from him. In that time, one of his owners moved 1000 miles away, to Northern British Columbia, and we would meet in Edmonton which was about half way, and when he arrived at the next owners place, he would go directly from the trailer to the pasture. Many bulls quite producing semen after being trucked even minor distances. That was never the case with Irish Mist. He was also a bull that would come home from pasture in better shape than when he went out. He always did better out eating grass, than he did receiving hay and grain.
I am always amused by some people who are running 30-35 cows that think they will need to buy two herd bulls. I have mixed emotions about telling them that we always run at least 35 cows with our herd bulls ( sometimes more) depending on the herd bull. When you are selling bulls, and you have a person wanting to buy two herd bulls for their 30 cows, it is hard to tell them they could probably get by with just one. If these 30 cows are going to be split into two pastures, that is a different deal, and they will need two bulls.
Last spring after spring break up, we had some serious mud in the pens where we sort our cattle to go to our various pastures. I finally turned all the cows out in a pasture at home, and thought I would bring them back in after it had dried up some and sort them then. I turned one of our herd bulls, Wolf Willow Major Leroy, out with the entire group for two weeks. It appears like he must have settled close to 50 cows in that two weeks as I have no idea which cow is going to calve next. I knew he was a good semen producer, as when we sold the world semen rights to Semex, part of our agreement was that we would get paid when he had collected 1000 doses of semen. He produced 1023 straws of semen in his first collection, so I phoned Semex and told them they could write the cheque. They were somewhat surprised, as they said they had only seen a couple of dairy bulls ever do that.
Some bulls seem to be able to produce high quality and high volumes of semen, but can't maintain this for very long time periods. There seems to be major differences, and it doesn't seem to be associated with just testicle size. Our first Irish import, Highfield Irish Mist was also a sire that could settle large numbers of cows. He was owned by three breeders, and we all tried to use him each breeding season. He saw 12 breeding seasons and in many of these years there were over 100 natural calves born from him. In that time, one of his owners moved 1000 miles away, to Northern British Columbia, and we would meet in Edmonton which was about half way, and when he arrived at the next owners place, he would go directly from the trailer to the pasture. Many bulls quite producing semen after being trucked even minor distances. That was never the case with Irish Mist. He was also a bull that would come home from pasture in better shape than when he went out. He always did better out eating grass, than he did receiving hay and grain.
I am always amused by some people who are running 30-35 cows that think they will need to buy two herd bulls. I have mixed emotions about telling them that we always run at least 35 cows with our herd bulls ( sometimes more) depending on the herd bull. When you are selling bulls, and you have a person wanting to buy two herd bulls for their 30 cows, it is hard to tell them they could probably get by with just one. If these 30 cows are going to be split into two pastures, that is a different deal, and they will need two bulls.
