OT, 16 cows to much for a yearling bull??

Dave from MN · Jun 4, 2013

Have a simmi/ shorthorn yearling bull going to pasture witht eh cow herd this weekend. I am wondering if I should also send a Shorthorn /Normande bull I have. Both are good bulls, both yearlings. Simmi has better frame. Should he be able to take care of business on his own?

RayP(MI) · Jun 4, 2013

One happy bull!

LAA · Jun 4, 2013

If he is a yearling I would not be trusting him to get 16 cows bred, at least not in a reasonable window, even two yearling bulls you are taking a chance on missing calves.

IaGary · Jun 4, 2013

I have had good luck with 3 yearlings on 70 cows and I have had poor luck with 3 yearling bulls on 70 cows.

More good luck than bad.

Depends on the bull.

Gary

john in la · Jun 4, 2013

The problem I have had with yearlings is they will follow a cow waiting for her to come in missing others.
He seems to follow her thinking someone else is going to move in his spot if he leaves her where as a older bull knows she will be right there tomarrow so he moves on.
If the cows are spread out 1 every 2 days he will do great. But if 2 or 3 need service today he is going to miss some of them.
JMO.

Dell (WA) · Jun 4, 2013

Dave.......do NOT send 2-BULLS to breed yer cows as they will be FIGHTING each other 'sedda' do the cows. Putt'chur 16 cows in SMALL paddock or they will runn all over trying to NOT do what nature wants them to do. Bottom line, yearling bull is HORNEY enuff to do 16-cows ........ex-cowboy Dell

Tony S. · Jun 4, 2013

We got an angus calf out of a holstein heifer years ago. Nearest angus herd was across three fences and a river. Seems like bulls are pretty determined.

JD Seller · Jun 4, 2013

Most yearly bulls would not be big enough to breed my cows. I usually do not use a bull under 18 months to 2 years old. I usually buy my bulls as yearlings. Then raise them until they are big enough.

I have 120 cows this year. I have 70 spring calving cows and 50 fall calving cows. One bull usually gets the job done for me. My spring cows started calving May 15 and I have 69 calves on the ground. The other had a nice calf but it got stepped on and did not make it. The cow would not take a bottle calf. She is a young cow and will let the other calves nurse her but not a bottle calf.

Determined · Jun 5, 2013

I've seen an eight month old simmental get the job done.
Not planned that way[dang fence crawler don't ask]
Your yearling should be up to the task but as said they might be spread out come calving time.
If you have the extra bulll power why not use it?
Opens and late's cost you money.
We winter our bulls together and once they are with the cows the fighting is minimal.

Heyseed · Jun 5, 2013

Old Bull and Young Bull standing on a hill looking at the cows,
Young Bull says "let's run down there and Get one"
Old Bull says
"Let's walk down and get them all"

Dave_Id · Jun 5, 2013

This post reminded me of that story too.

old harv · Jun 5, 2013

I had a yearling angus bull breed 26 of 28 cows in six weeks one year. The two he didn't breed were really tall and too dumb to stand in a ditch for him. He lost about 100 pounds in those 6 weeks but his smile was a mile wide. I bred the other two to a yearling bull that had been born here that I had kept back for that purpose. Both the tall cows ended up not coming in calf in the next two years anyway and got culled.

David G · Jun 5, 2013

I bet he will give it a shot.

sotxbill · Jun 5, 2013

My buddy said he is gonna open a whor e house when he retires.

He said that he has no money so he will have to operate it by hand till he can afford to hire some girls.

LA in WI · Jun 5, 2013

There is a pill you can get from your vet and that will really guarantee you the bull will get the job done.

It is pink colored....and tastes like peppermint.

LA in WI

TomgaI · Jun 5, 2013

Neighbor had a new high dollar bull once that didn't even notice the cows. The vet gave him 3 pills to give the bull over a 3 day period. The fourth day he was on the job. Cows couldn't even slow down ahead of the bull. I asked him what kind of pills they were. He said he didn't know the name of them, but they tasted like peppermint.

Michael Soldan · Jun 5, 2013

My thoughts exactly,a friend of mine told me about his neighbour running two bulls,one was performing on a cow and the other bull rammed him and broke his pen1s..and a pen1s can break,it ruptures and that bull was done! This is a reality,you can verify it with a vet but it does happen,never mind the two bulls head butting each other until one is injured...the young bull will do just fine all by himself..don't ask for trouble by putting two bulls out together...and remeber when you were 18...could you have handled several girls in one night? YEAH!!!!

MN Scott · Jun 5, 2013

I always put a yearling Angus bull with my 20 yearling heifers. They are almost always all bred in the first heat cycle. Now if your putting him with older cows, make sure the cows are not to tall for him.

formenwhogrow · Jun 5, 2013

He'll get them all covered, it just may or may not be on every cow's first heat. I was told by the angus breeder I have bought bulls from that a good yearling bull will cover the same amount of cows per month as he is old, meaning 12 mo. bul old will breed 12 cows/month. I have found this to be accurate to a certain extent.

caterpillar guy · Jun 5, 2013

I was thinking of the bulls already there talking about the new bull. The truck comes that morning and the new bull is the biggest they had ever seen. So the old bull says he could maybe give up a few of his cows. The younger bull says he guesses he could give up a few of his . And the little young bull is over pawing the dirt. So the other bulls lok over at him saying what are you crazy? The little bull says no I'm just letting him know I'm a bull too.

Bill in Colo · Jun 5, 2013

I'm reasonably sure if the yearling bull weight at least 1250 lbs will get the job done. As a purebred Simmental breeder for many years I have hand mated hi dollar yearlings to as many as 50 cow in a season. My ASA # is 205 dated Jan. 1968.

LonM · Jun 5, 2013

One should be fine. We routinely run groups of 30 cows with one yearling bull, with very few open. Most cows that don't get bred in one year won't in the next year either, so I don't blame the bull unless there is a big drop in conception rates. I encourage you to look at what it costs to sire a calf if you had to run more than one bull with less than 20 cows.

JerryS · Jun 5, 2013

How does the bull feel about it?

OT, 16 cows to much for a yearling bull??

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