Registering of Bulls

[Saffy]

This has been talked about before a while back but worth another thread.

It is difficult to know when to make the decision. Not just whether to register as its an expensive business but whether to castrate or keep an animal entire.

I have quite a nice bull calf myself here he is from my only cow that isn't Woodmagioc blood so he is a fair bit bigger than most of mine at 6 months. Lovely conformation, good beefy back end for a Dexter calf. His sister was exported for breeding last year, his mother is a 3rd calver classified Excellent.

How many unregistered Dexter herds are there? Is there a market for good quality unregisterd bulls? Are they simply worth more on the hook?

[Boofarm]

Register him or steer him, difficult enough to move a registered bull in my view - rather than use an unregistered bull I would use an Angus or other native.

[Saffy]

Here is a recent pic of him, he is about 5 and a half months in the pic, maybe castrate...maybe register?

Like you say there are SO many out there!!!

[SteveM]

Our registered bull has been out on hire locally in the past, two of the three herds he has visited are not members of the society.

Have you thought of showing him on his notification number, will get you other peoples opinion on him, see if anyone is interested.

We have sold registered young bulls in the past and achieved good return, but also bought a registered bull for a very low price, good for us but not for the person who went to the expense of having him registered.

[Saffy]

On balance and for simplicity more than anything I am probably going to castrate him and sell him for someone else to finish with a couple of others. He is a very nice little bull with some excellent bloodlines but there are SO many nice young bulls out there!

[Boofarm]

1. Do you have a previous bull calf with the same genetics ? Yes - go to 2 / no = Steer

2. Is the previous calf really good and maybe should have been kept entire? yes = go to 3 / no = Steer

3. Is it a bloodline you want to keep? yes = go to 4 / no = Steer

4. Is there any local or regional demand for Dexter bulls? yes - go to 5 / no = Steer

5. Can you keep him away from related females while you sell him or use him? yes - go to 6 / no = Steer

6. Quietly confident you can move him on? Yes - register him - no = Steer