Martyn
Member
- Location
- South west
We don't give a munkey about PWAB welfare first and foremost. Just sell them on at later date.
Finding an Easy calving beef bull!
- Thread starter Martyn
- Start date
- Location
- West Somerset
Been in this situation my self, even put a thread on here about it!
Except with a Hereford bull.
Long story short, bought a Hereford bull from a breeder whose gone on to get as high as you can in the hereford society, shows lots etc.
18 heifers to him,
Jacked of 16, (huge calves 70 kg estimates)
6 dead bull calves, alive when they came out just wouldn't get going.
2 unassisted, all good.
Did a bit of research on the breeder, seems im not alone.
Another member on here also knows of problems with his bulls.
One show winning bull of his took 3 weeks to stand after being born, cause he was so big!!.
Culled my bull immediately.
I was very angry upset towards the whole buisness, so much so that I wont bother looking at show cattle at shows anymore, having shown a few commercial cattle myself years back.
Now I thoroughly research my breeding bulls,
Use breeders who breed to breed not breed to show.
No show ponys here.
Cows should be good at calving not you good at calving cows, my new motto.
Chin up put it down to experience, all you can do.
Except with a Hereford bull.
Long story short, bought a Hereford bull from a breeder whose gone on to get as high as you can in the hereford society, shows lots etc.
18 heifers to him,
Jacked of 16, (huge calves 70 kg estimates)
6 dead bull calves, alive when they came out just wouldn't get going.
2 unassisted, all good.
Did a bit of research on the breeder, seems im not alone.
Another member on here also knows of problems with his bulls.
One show winning bull of his took 3 weeks to stand after being born, cause he was so big!!.
Culled my bull immediately.
I was very angry upset towards the whole buisness, so much so that I wont bother looking at show cattle at shows anymore, having shown a few commercial cattle myself years back.
Now I thoroughly research my breeding bulls,
Use breeders who breed to breed not breed to show.
No show ponys here.
Cows should be good at calving not you good at calving cows, my new motto.
Chin up put it down to experience, all you can do.
Roy_H
Member
Canadian blood!!!!! our vet said watch the bloodlines very carefully, farmers in The North American continent seem intent on converting them into black Charolais, thus ruining the Angus's reputation for being easy calving. I visited the chap that took our old place over recently, they'd calved an AA bull calf that morning and they were just helping it to suckle for the first time. It was bloody huge ( I asked him if it was a Lim, but no it was an AA
) but the dam (another AA ) was a third calver and fortunately she didn't have much trouble, but honestly you 'd have never got it out of the average heifer without surgery. I asked him if the bull had Canadian genetics and he just smiled and said "Need you ask?"
Last edited:
- Location
- Newcastle upon Tyne
Bought one of Andrew's back in March so first calves due any time
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
We can't vouch for them as not seen the outcome yet, but we bought an Angus bull from Pilsbury herd (Richard Jackson) this year, specialises in smaller traditional easy calving AA for dairy herds.
Roy_H
Member
By far the worst bull we ever had for calving difficulties was a Polled Hereford, even on cows.
Difficult to believe I know but there we are. That was in the late 1970's.
Roy_H
Member
Good for you! we used to use easy calving Genus AA bulls many moons ago on our beef heifers ( Jewvil Eric of The Moss and Ladson of Tangier ) who were from traditional herds. Their calves were tiny but as lively as crickets . They grew well though . Neighbours used to say things like "Eew why are you using Angus in this day and age!" ( Of course to them the only breed worth having was limo, limo and then even more limo ) Sod that, much better a little live calf than a great big dead one and a knackered heifer too.
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
He won't have too much work to do, as a sweeper in 20-25 heifers and then about 80 cows, after initial dairy sexed semen and then conventional British Blue (cows only). Hopefully he will only need to sire 10-15 calves a year anyway, our last Angus was in work over 10 years, including in cubicles with the cows.
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
We gave up on a much closer herd that bred for the show ring, hot housed them and had a lot of Canadian bloodlines. We had 2 good bulls - including the last one - from Peter Nash (Barndale herd) who is retired now. Pilsbury foundation herd had a Barndale bull as their stock bull, they do have a bit of Canadian as well but not extreme.
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
That's just mental, breeding with a bull that had taken three weeks to stand. No wonder the Hereford's reputation for easy calving is beginning to tarnish.Been in this situation my self, even put a thread on here about it!
Except with a Hereford bull.
Long story short, bought a Hereford bull from a breeder whose gone on to get as high as you can in the hereford society, shows lots etc.
18 heifers to him,
Jacked of 16, (huge calves 70 kg estimates)
6 dead bull calves, alive when they came out just wouldn't get going.
2 unassisted, all good.
Did a bit of research on the breeder, seems im not alone.
Another member on here also knows of problems with his bulls.
One show winning bull of his took 3 weeks to stand after being born, cause he was so big!!.
Culled my bull immediately.
I was very angry upset towards the whole buisness, so much so that I wont bother looking at show cattle at shows anymore, having shown a few commercial cattle myself years back.
Now I thoroughly research my breeding bulls,
Use breeders who breed to breed not breed to show.
No show ponys here.
Cows should be good at calving not you good at calving cows, my new motto.
Chin up put it down to experience, all you can do.
I fully agree with you. If you're a commercial farmer, then it's imperative that you buy stock sires bred with the commercial job in mind. Leave the 'magic circle' to bugger up their own flocks/herds.