Best bull for a suckler herd.

[icanshootwell]

At the moment I,m running a lim and although the heads on the calves are small we do get a lot stuck on the hips. Do people compromise on conformation do get easier calving s !!

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Do people compromise on conformation do get easier calving s !!

Of course they do

 

[icanshootwell]

Of course they do

My worries are the cattle I produce now are very nice but price is not, the price will only get worse if quality is compromised. Will there be any margin left.

 

[tinsheet]

This one of those popcorn moment's I see on here yes?

 

[Henarar]

At the moment I,m running a lim and although the heads on the calves are small we do get a lot stuck on the hips. Do people compromise on conformation do get easier calving s !!

Get a bull that gives both easy calving and good conformation

 

[Northeastfarmer]

My worries are the cattle I produce now are very nice but price is not, the price will only get worse if quality is compromised. Will there be any margin left.

Well you’ve answered your own question
You either produce top shaped calves and have to regularly intervene with calving or breed plainer shaped ones and they get on with it themselves
Or be lucky enough to find a bull that breeds shapely calves that calve easy

 

[sticky]

What cows are they?
How good a condition are they in?

 

[Stw88]

Remember a large number of top price shapey cattle dont make it to market so all of a sudden them extra few plain ones make up the difference! With alot less stress and cost. Dont get me wrong you still need a fair standard but often chasing the fancy stuff isnt worth the extra hassel.

 

[MJT]

What cows are they?
How good a condition are they in?

Exactly this ^^

A lot depends on what breed they are and how fit/fat they are at calving .

Getting stuck at hips would suggest calves with a serious arse end on them . Is the bull overly wide on the pins ?

 

[brigadoon]

My worries are the cattle I produce now are very nice but price is not, the price will only get worse if quality is compromised. Will there be any margin left.

What price do you put on a dead calf and / or wrecked cow?

Not meaning to be a dick but is the best guide not what's in the bank at the end of the year?

We certainly value easy calving - but we will not top any market with present calves

 

[John Chance]

The answer is; Yes, it's better to be on the safe side at calving. You need a lot of extra conformation to make up for a dead calf and a cow that doesn't get pregnant next time. There are breeds that tend to sire easily born calves and that have reasonable conformation.

 

[icanshootwell]

What cows are they?
How good a condition are they in?

Mix lot sim X limx cha X and BB X all in ok condition. Score 3

 

[sticky]

Mix lot sim X limx cha X and BB X all in ok condition. Score 3

Decent Charolais bull would do them fine.

 

[michael N123]

Half the time the only thing that matters is what week you decide to go to the auction

we’ve had some of our better pens have bad trade days and our plainer ones have good trade days

 

[som farmer]

surely ease of calving, is the top point. The loss of a cow, would decrease the value of all your crop, let alone, the damage done by bad calvings, dirty cows needing vet, cows slower getting back in calf etc. The solution is finding a bull that does both, easier said than done.

 

[Hampton]

Mix lot sim X limx cha X and BB X all in ok condition. Score 3

To be fair, I think it may be the season. I’ve had the same bulls for the last 3 years and have pulled more calves this year (4) than the previous 2 years put together. 3 were caught on hips, other was a stillborn

 

[bean]

Always said very fine line between show calf & dead calf

 

[t murrr]

I was talking to a vet bout 3 year ago and he said that 8 of the last ten sections were out of limo bulls and charolais going the other way limousine cattle have got a big boost for the genetic side of things .Silage quality in the winter makes for bigger calves .An old boy down the road said give the cows the older lays or even cut it when shot reduce the quality keep them ticking over the winter and once they calved put them onto young cut silage for milk yield

 

[icanshootwell]

To be fair, I think it may be the season. I’ve had the same bulls for the last 3 years and have pulled more calves this year (4) than the previous 2 years put together. 3 were caught on hips, other was a stillborn

I,ve had my lim bull about 7 years now, to be fair a lot of his calfs are easy born, if they do get stuck its on the hips, I do tend to find its the cow to blame more often than not, I have some sim cows that always hold on to there calfs to long, the one i lost the other day was massive, I had a job to pull it out the shed. Why do some cows do that, she was by no way to fat?
I was going to keep some off spring of some of the cows for bulling, hence the bull change, plus he,s getting on a bit now. Been a closed herd for 4 years due to TB reasons.

 

[Henarar]

Gestation length is important and part of the reason you get bulls that will leave good conformation calves but calve ok.