Brangus Technical Field advisor
The importance of a bull’s contribution to the genetics of the herd cannot be overstated since the bull is the most important factor that will influence the success of your beef enterprise.
Selecting the right bull for your herd is a critical decision that can have a long-term impact on the overall performance of your herd. The next 3 bulls that you will use in your herd will make out up to 70% of the herd.
DEFINE YOUR BREEDING OBJECTS
Before ever considering buying a bull, if it’s commercial or stud, you first need to know what your cow herd strong points are and what the weaknesses are. In Brangus SA 2023 Journal an article was published on the selection methods and timelines on selecting the correct replacement heifers.
The first step in cattle breeding it so set your breeding goals. What are the certain aspects you are after as n cattle breeder? Is it to be a weaner producer or is it maybe to have a decent cow herd and act as a guest seller on production auctions. After your goals have been set and you know where you are heading to, now you can start thinking about buying a bull for your herd.
For more accurate evaluation of your cow herd, it will be wise to contact a free-lance consultant or one of the Brangus Senior Inspectors to help you evaluate the herd. By using a consultant or Senior Brangus Inspector, you will get a professional external unbiased advise of your herd and will be able to make a more accurate decisions for your cow herd. It is also wise to attend a Brangus Inspectors course to stay up to date with all the new information and Breed Standards that we thrive for.
Spend some decent time between your cow herds and write down what the weaknesses and strong point are, see if these attributes are in line with what your breeding goals are. The three steps that need to be taken is to look at the animals, see what you are looking at and then interpret what you see in front of you. For some people this will not make sense at all, but there is different type of productions systems within cattle breeding, and for each of the systems there are a certain bull that need to be used.
PEDIGREE AND EBV TRAITS
Brangus SA are currently using the Breedplan system, where this give you the EBV’s (Estimated Breeding Values) of an animal. This EBV includes all the genetic material of all the pedigrees of this specific animal. This EBV’s will indicate what the genetic potential is in this animal and how the progeny of this animals will perform. Keep in mind that the more data our stud breeders will send in the more accurate the EBV’s will become, this is also available on your sale catalogue as ACC.
With the understanding of what EBV are now the buyer can use this as a tool to make his decision easier to pick the bull he needs. There are a lot of traits that can be used, but the certain EBV’s you are looking at must fit it to your breeding aims.
Let’s say you keep 50% of your females as replacement heifers you will need to look at the 200(Weaning Weight) and then at the MCW (Mature Cow Weight). You will be selecting for WW above the breed average and MCW underneath breed average.
Last tip when looking at the EBV’s of the bulls, look at the accuracy of the EBV’s. Get in touch with the seller and find out how serious he is regarding performance testing. If the breeder is not doing performance testing, then more focus must be given on the physical appearance of the animal and not on the EBV’s. If the breeder is doing performance testing and the accuracy is quite high (65%+ and higher), then you can decide how much emphasis you will give on EBV’s and how much on the physical appearance of the bull.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Never buy the extremes, extremes will very few times breed you well balanced females. Rather buy well balanced structural correct bulls, sound bulls that will add the necessary traits that is a lack in your cow herd. Bulls must look like bulls. They must have masculinity with a strong head and well-developed hump placed just in front of the shoulder. Bulls must have good length of body; the length of the rump must fit 1.5 times in the mid-section of the animal. The depth in the mid-piece and depth in the chest floor is a big part of the endocrine system. The endocrine system basically controls the conformation, performance and production of cattle. This is also the part of the bull that needs to be the widest looking him from behind, this is the factory of the whole animal. Scrotum size and shape is also very important. Scrotum sacks are not allowed to be too long, under the hocks are a cull bull and must not be bred with. Scrotum size is an indication of fertility on his replacement heifers.
Also remember that if you buy a bull from someone, you are not only buying a bull. You are investing in the breeder breeding principles, integrity towards his society. That is why it is important to rather buy a bull from a registered breeder and not from any commercial breeder out there.
SOURCE THE BULLS
Try to buy bulls that was raised in the same conditions and in the same environment as where your animals are grown out. With South Africa’s different regions there are a lot to differ from grazing, ticks and different types of diseases. This will ensure that the bull will have better condition throughout the year, and it will be easier for the bull to get 93% of your females pregnant.
You can always move animals from to East (Sour veld with a lot of illnesses, with high rainfall) to the West (Sweeter, warmer not many diseases). When moving animals from the West to the East there will be complications with adaptability because of the sour veld and the hard winters. If new genetics needs to be added to the herd, I will suggest that younger bulls must be moved to the new environment or contact your local vet for a proper vaccination program. Big challenge will be something like heartwater, Gal sickness, Redwater and feed differences.
COW LINES
I believe one of the most important aspects of cattle breeding is in the cow lines of your herd. By knowing your cow lines, the breeder will quickly realise that there are a very few cow lines in a herd that have been proving themselves for a few generations. You will be able to see the mothering ability, weaning weights, milk and the fertility traits of the cows as well on their daughters that are kept back in the herd. If the breeder uses the bulls that comes from these cow lines, the predictability of the progeny born from the bull will be immense.
When buying a stud bull do some decent research on the pedigree of the bull. go visit the breeder and see how many of the bull’s female pedigree you can look at. The more you can see the more valuable the bull will be. These animals need to have a lot of capacity good depth in the mid-section with well balanced udders and teats. If possible, also have a look at the retention rate of all these females. This will eliminate a lot of unwanted traits and will increase your retention rate of the bull.
WHAT IS A BULL WORTH?
Bull prices seem to be going up every year and the breeder needs to make a capital investment every year. Bull prices need to calculate back to how many offspring he will produce within this breeding period.
40 calves per year x 5 year= 200 calves born from 1 bull.
100 females x 50% culled = 50 females added to your herd.
Farmers come to a sale with an amount of X in their minds on what they are willing to pay on the day. Usually it is not very much, let’s say around R50 000. What breeders doesn’t realise is that for R50 000 you buy one of the bottom end bulls of the sale. People need to realize that a bull can breed up to 60 females in two breeding seasons per year. The direct cost of the bull isn’t ever R1000 per calf born. Also, the genetics that you will add to your cow herd that will last for the next 6-10 years down the road, it is worth it to add additional R20 000 – R 40 000 to buy a bull with as much proven cows in the pedigree. This bull will be breeding your females up to 5 years. Is it worth it to add a bull to your breeding program that have no proven lines and you will keep replacement heifers out of the certain bull for up to 5 years? I think that stud breeders need to do a lot of more research on bull buying that they are currently doing.
Another key to increase your commercial herd is to buy registered bulls. Registered bulls go through a strict inspection to assure the buyer that this animal is structurally correct Bulls that failed inspection have genetic faults that will create some serious problems within in your commercial herd. There seems to be a trend these days that commercial cattle farmers are buying culled bulls for a decent price. I want to encourage breeders to please buy registered bulls. If you are not sure what the registration status of the specific bull are, you are free to contact me, and I will do some homework on these bulls. Keep the passion you have for your cattle and the rest will follow.
“A bull breeds back to the average of the cow herd he comes from.”
