Bulls

sid · Post by **sid** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:03 pm

Simple question, what is the yougest adviseable age to but a bull to a cow, we are talking about the bulls age?
Many thanks simon

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 11:16 pm

About a year is generally thought to be reasonable for a first service, but at this age not safe to rely on him to serve a number of cows in a short space of time and get them all in calf. Some may manage it a bit younger but may not have a high conception rate.

Duncan

sid · Post by **sid** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:20 am

Thank you for your reply, the bull in question is about 18 mths old and will run with the cows all year round. The reason we are buying a bull is that it's proved a bit difficult to find a hire bull and the cost of running our cows with another hurd is not much off the cost of the bull. Hopefully we will re-coup the cost with hiring him out.

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:59 am

Hi Sid,
My bull was 15 months when he first started work with just a couple of cows and he woked out fine so you should have no problems. Please speak with your vet before you hire your bull out as I was persuaded to forget the idea as it could compromise the health status of your herd.
You will also find that you cannot run your bull with his cows all the time as at four months old some of the heifers will be sexually mature enough to get into calf and he will certainly not be bothered about their age!
It takes a greater degree of management to run your own bull, and you must always plan well ahead. My bull is at this time running with a couple of steers and a barren cow, well out of earshot of the remainder of the herd. He will, when the time comes be housed in the same shed as his cows where he will stay until I put him with the cows at the begining of June, but I must always ensure he has some company as he gets a little annoyed when he is on his own.
You will learn as you go on and I have found that keeping my own bull does have certain advantages, one being the fact that you get to know him and can have more confidence around him than a bull that is hired in. One dissadvantage is that you will have heifers that you would love to keep as replacements but can't as you have dad as the stock bull.
Martin.

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:29 pm

I second the above comments. Planning is everything, not only taking into consideration your own cows but any heifers/cows in neighbouring fields which will test almost any fence to destruction. However I'm not so certain about newcomers rearing a bull from a baby. Great care needs to be taken with the rearing of bulls (and rams) to ensure a troublefree relationship. Perhaps I've just been lucky with the 2 grown ups I have bought in. My current old chap is as reliable as I could wish for from any animal which needs to be treated with significant respect at all times.

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 5:06 pm

Can I pick up on Sylvia's comment on the difficulties of rearing a bull from a baby? Keeping a suckled calf as a bull is not nearly so tricky, but hand rearing even as traditional dairy calves are reared makes it very difficult to keep the bull from growing up too familiar with humans and he begins to expect to treat the humans as equals, then to dominate them when he matures. I have been there, done that, and my son, 12 at the time, got the teeshirt when he ended up upside down in a deep ditch. Fortunately the ditch was deep enough that the bull could not have a second go at him lying in the bottom. He (the bull) went to slaughter the next day. I wonder if part of the reason dairy breed bulls are so bad tempered allegedly is simply due to rearing differences? Not wholly, just a bit.
Martin is right of course about the health considerations, well worth some thought and discussions with your vet.

Duncan

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:25 pm

Duncan makes the point about the difference in suckling v hand rearing which sounds very feasible but I also believe (as I mentioned in a letter to the Smallholder) that all small breeds, be they Dexters, Pygmy goats, Shetland ponies or the small breeds of sheep attract newcomers to livestock because of their size and the tendency to make 'pets' of them could be the reason why, although we all know perfectly well- behaved examples of these animals, it is always possible to find someone claiming they are more difficult and more badly behaved.

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:39 am

I know one of the breeders here in NZ, who shows his animals, takes great pains to keep his bulls obedient. His bull calves are raised on their mothers. When you have to have such close contact with them, you can't afford any bad behaviour.