Bull Calf Quandary

[bjreroberts]

I have a 9 month old bull calf which I failed to castrate at birth and is still currently running with his mother and grandmother.

My original plan was to get the vet in to castrate him and estrumate his mother (but not his grandmother). However, he is exceptionally good natured and I think he is looking like a good bull although he is horned.

In addition I have not had a bull this year so none of my cows are in calf (the other two are not with him at present and are not related to him).

So with the need to get a bull in I am debating whether to leave him intact and register him even though it means he will inbreed with his mother?

Fully registering him (DNA test for him and his mother £90), is a cheaper option than getting the vet in, getting a bull on hire (if I can find one) or buying a bull.

I should stress that I would only consider this route if I get a positive second opinion on his suitability as a bull and that cost is not really an issue.

Any thoughts?

[Broomcroft]

I've done it quite a lot Ben, although never taken it too far. We've not had any problems as long as all the animals involved are good not just the bull. But I haven't been able to keep much. One lot that I bred close because they were nice and in particular had such good feet, produced nothing but calves with flat feet!!! But my little beef bull put back to his mom, came up with my best beef calf to date. But with him, although his mom and dad are both calm, especially dad, the calf was extremely difficult, so I steered him. I was hoping to keep him entire.

PS (edited) There are two document titled inbreeding at http://www.broomcroft.info/, in Downloads.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

In theory inbreeding should increase homozygosity - the calves will have more pairs of identical genes from the parents, since the parents will have many similar genes. This can fix good points, but can equally fix faults. Any characteristics which are due to recessive genes are more likely to show up, and sometimes that can be a good thing - it can show hidden faults in the stock which can then be avoided in future breeding. Beryl Rutherford often used to mate a bull to his mother deliberately to see if any unexpected nasties turned up before using him more extensively in the herd.

Inbreeding will not in itself create faults - but it may show them up. So if you are working with basically sound stock then to inbreed once is unlikely to cause a disaster.

Duncan

[bjreroberts]

Clive / Duncan,

Thank you both for your responses.

I will get a second opinion and if positive I will keep him intact then.