South
Florida
Beef -
Forage
Program
"Article of the Month"
October 2000
Minimizing Errors in Herd Bull Selection
Lockie Gary
Hardee County Extension Director/Livestock Agent
Anyone who has bred cattle for any length of time will confess
to having made some serious errors in selecting bulls to sire the
next calf crop. Even experienced breeders of reputation cattle
have wished they could go back and reverse some selection decisions.
This article is being written to alert cattle producers to some of the
wrong turns which can be taken by any of us.
Bull Selection Is Serious Business
It has often been said that a bull is half the herd.
A bull is much more than that because he may sire 25-50 or more calves
per year. He contributes half of the genetic material of each calf sired.
If his daughters are retained for herd replacements, the bull will influence
the production of the herd for ten years or more. The U.S. Meat Animal Research
Center estimates that 80-90% of genetic improvement comes from bull selection.
I have personally visited herds and seen bulls from four different
breeds and types in the same pasture. We should not be surprised to
see so much variation in type and performance of the calf crop when so
little effort is made in sire selection.
Begin At Home
Selecting a bull begins at home by realistically evaluating your own
cow herd. Where are the cows deficient Are they fine boned and light muscled?
Are they poor milkers who wean light calves? Are the cows too large framed to
fit your environment and feed resources? Closely observe the calves produced out
of these calves and be honest with yourself regarding their shortcomings. With an
honest appraisal of your own herd, you can move forward by attempting to select
bulls which can improve the weaknesses in your cows. Even though it may seem unrelated,
ask yourself one further question. Am I overstocked? Many producers could do more to
help themselves by reducing their inventory than any other single factor. We are all
guilty of this at one time or another and the cattle simply cannot do their best if they
are short on nutrition.
First Things First
We hear so much today about selecting bulls for tenderness and
loineye area and backfat thickness, etc. In south Florida where many producers
are weaning a 65-70% calf crop , we need to be focusing on getting all of our
cows pregnant and placing a live calf in the weaning pen. This isn't to say that
carcass traits are not important but they should not be the focus of selection
pressure for most commercial ranchers. Reproductive efficiency, maternal traits,
growth and feed efficiency and carcass quality should be the order of our selection
process. Always keep in mind that the more traits we select for, the less progress
we will make in any one trait.
Selecting A Seedstock Producer
Serious bull buyers know from whom they are purchasing. They have developed
a respectful relationship with the registered producer and the two parties
trust each other. I know from years of personal experience that even the best
bred and highest performing bulls can develop problems and become a disappointment.
The bull business is a retail business and the seedstock producer exists only to serve
the commercial cattleman. If the registered breeder will not go out of his way to
accommodate a reasonable request for refund or replacement of a bull gone bad,
he will not only lose the customer but the word will spread. Reputation means
everything when selling bulls. On the other hand, if your bull supplier always
stands behind his product and immediately delivers to you a satisfactory
replacement, then you become his best advertisement. You will start bragging
about him and folks will beat a path to his door.
The commercial cattlemen who consistently produces top feeder cattle has
taken the time to travel and visit the purebred breeders and see first-hand
the way the cattle are managed. If bulls are being raised in a small pasture
close to a selffeeder and don't have to compete and forage for a living, then
how well do you think they will hold up during the winter breeding season when
they are following the cows among the palmettos? Seek out breeders who raise
cattle under conditions similar to your ranch. The closer to home you purchase
bulls the less acclimation the bulls will have to go through. If you can't find
suitable bulls in Florida, then find breeders who share your philosophy of
management and who know their cattle. Nothing is more frustrating than to look
at bulls which are not grouped by age or price or to discover that the owner
or his manager don't know the cattle or have the records you need. What is
worse is to see a bull within a group only to be told that he is not for sale.
Begin to look for bulls well in advance of the breeding season. If you begin
in the summer you will be able to select from the entire calf crop before
they have been picked over. Don't be hesitant about asking for references from
a breeder with whom you are not familiar. It is not uncommon for commercial
cattlemen to order bulls sight unseen from seedstock producers they know and trust.
Study the Expected Progeny Differences
EPD's are five to seven times more effective than performance records as a
selection tool. But EPD's are always accompanied by accuracies which reflect
how much variation you might expect. Most young bulls have very low accuracies.
You should give preference to a sire with accuracies of 80% or higher.
Demand Complete Performance Information
Your seedstock producer should provide you with accurate and meaningful
performance records to reinforce EPD's. As a minimum these should
include birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, weight per
day of age, average daily gain and scrotal circumference. This data
will be most accurate when the cattle have been tested in large contemporary groups.
Insist On A Breeding Soundness Exam
Never purchase any bull without a complete BSE to include a semen evaluation
within 30 days of sale. Even with this thorough evaluation of the bull's
reproductive system he may still be a non-breeder because of low libido. The
vast majority of the approximately 10,000 new bulls used in Florida each year
have never been subjected to a libido test to measure their sex drive. This is
a simple test which should be performed by the registered breeder. Who needs
a bull that doesn't care to breed cows? Watch him very closely both in the day
and at night after first turning him in with the cows to insure that he is
covering the cows satisfactorily. If he won't breed your cows you will have
wasted valuable time in securing a replacement.
By carefully following the above guidelines you will minimize your disappointments.
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Minimizing Errors in Herd Bull Selection
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