Management
Protect Your Investment by Managing Bull Social Order
By Bruce Derksen
The herd bull is arguably the single
most important investment on cow/
calf operations. This is nothing new
or earth shattering, but if the bull is
defective or becomes damaged goods
over something that is in the producer’s
power to avoid, there can be large
financial consequences. A virile working
bull makes the cow/calf enterprise
profitable through the sale of a live
healthy calf that is of maximum age and
weighs to its full potential. Any slip up,
mis-fire or delay in his actions will cost
the producer money. As an example, if
the bull is the cause of one cow in fertile
heat going un-bred through her first
cycle and becoming pregnant during
her next estrus cycle, on an average year,
it can cost the producer approximately
$100 on lost weaning weight of that calf
alone. Factored over numerous cows,
the losses become exponentially large.
Let’s accept that the EPD numbers have
been crunched for the purchase of new
bulls, the breeding soundness exam
with all its semen tests plus exterior
and interior checks have been either
completed or arranged, the acceptable
body conditioning score has been
planned and reached, vaccinations
and trichomoniasis tests are on the
docket, hooves have been trimmed if
necessary, and the number of cows per
bull have been pencilled out. These are
all essential tasks but bull social order
and the handling of a group of bulls is
something that may get missed, ignored
or down-played as inconsequential.
Karl Hoppe, Extension Livestock Systems
Specialist at NDSU’s Carrington Research
Extension Center says, “Bulls are truly
athletes. To do the breeding work they
do requires them to be sound, with
healthy feet and legs, and in good
condition, which means not too fat or
too thin.” Consider what the average
bull is faced with over the course of the
breeding season. He could be asked
to walk miles every day searching
out the females entering heat, then
patiently following for more distance,
and eventually propelling his 2000 to
2500-pound frame onto them. All this
while keeping tabs on the next female
reaching estrus to repeat the cycle.
Bulls WILL establish and re-establish
social order, but the producer can
manipulate the process to avoid the
aforementioned “damaged goods”
situation. For pre-owned bulls, keeping
existing groups together will limit
fighting, but even though they may have
been abiding by an uneasy truce, warm
spring weather and the smell of females
can destroy the tentative peace and
confrontations may begin. The readiness
to rearrange existing bulls by ages, size
or personalities, along with the facilities
to accommodate this are essential.
For new bull purchases that arrive
through the sale and transportation
process, it is highly recommended
that an adaptation period be put in
place to allow bulls to get acclimated
to their surroundings and assist in the
avoidance of excessive weight loss
and illness that can result from these
stresses. If bulls are to be combined
in multi-sire breeding pastures, it is
prudent they be penned together
for several weeks before the season
begins to allow the pecking order to
be established. The setting of this order
is inevitable, so working ahead gives
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