It’s like Christmas, you go to the post office box and all of the new AI catalogs are there to greet you with their promises of gorgeous calves next season. We can dream about what matchups will get the best results and which bulls we should jump on to fill our tanks. Yes, AI possibilities are endless, they offer us the versatility to breed each cow in our herd different and use genetics we might not be able to get any other way but it is not the only way.
A couple of years ago I wrote an article, “Beef Sire Selection: Put a Powerhouse in Your Pasture” for Silver Barn Cattle and while reading through it again it makes a lot of sense to me still. I am a firm believer in AI and all that it has to offer but I also believe that the bulls in our pastures should be held to the same standards that we expect in the straw. Why should we only expect greatness out of the AI calves? Let’s stop referring to the bulls that cover the cows we missed as “clean up bulls” and start referring to them as “herd sires.” They after all have the most genetic influence in our herds.
The bull after all has the most genetic influence in our herds.
As I said in the article back in 2019, a bull contributes 50% of the genetic makeup of each calf he sires. If this sire breeds 20-30 cows he is half of each of those calves. Your cows on the flip side are only 50% of one calf each year. The bull plays the largest genetic role by far. This is a very important concept when you go out on the search for a new bull because only buying a bull because he will throw a live calf just doesn’t work anymore. My rule of thumb is to look at what my cows are worth and I multiply that value by three, that is the minimum of where my bull budget starts.
So how do we bring this to the forefront of our selection process? I have found that setting hard parameters around what we will tolerate in our buying process is key. First answer the question of what your herd goals are and what areas do you need to improve? Be honest with yourself, get outside criticism and do some research – you can change a lot with quality genetics in the average residency of a bull on your ranch. Once you answer these questions and set your marks on what you expect do not waiver in picking your new herd addition. DO NOT LOWER YOUR STANDARDS! It may take a lot of miles and phone calls to find the animal that fits within your budget but in the end when you start seeing improvement in your calf crop it was all worth the wait.
Power in our pasture matching the power in our tank makes the entire calf crop more profitable.
As I said before, the power in our pasture matching the power in our tank makes the entire calf crop more profitable. Remember that the next time you go shopping!
I’d love to hear what you think, what are your standards and do you AI or only live cover? What do you think is the most important thing we should focus on with our bulls?
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Pacific Coast Cattle 