Using a bull to monitor heat

Manx Fella

New Member
Hi, has anybody out there used a bull to monitor when a cow is in heat, and then gone in with the AI straws 10hours later? Just wondering what the result was? Did the straw get there before the Bulls semen or is it mixed results?
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Know a chap who kept a vasectomised bull to monitor his cows.
But I wouldn't fancy your chances of beating a fertile bull, though I have no experience of this.
 

GTB

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Might be stating the obvious here but if you have a bull why do you need AI? Are you thinking about one of those moocall heat systems? Bit pointless IMHO if you need a bull or teaser for it to work. May as well let the bull do the job.
 
Location
West Wales
Might be stating the obvious here but if you have a bull why do you need AI? Are you thinking about one of those moocall heat systems? Bit pointless IMHO if you need a bull or teaser for it to work. May as well let the bull do the job.

Use a cheaper poorer bull and ai with a far better bull. But in the ops case you’d have to snip him
 

Kingofgrass

Member
We do a 6month block of BB but run an Angus bull with them aswel (cows) probably 50/50 BB/Angus bb straws are pretty cheap and plus had a lot of twins one bb/one Angus so yes I think it’s worth it,had a cow once calve Angus calf/ 4weeks later see had bb very rare even the vet said he’d heard of it but never seen it
 

Manx Fella

New Member
Might be stating the obvious here but if you have a bull why do you need AI? Are you thinking about one of those moocall heat systems? Bit pointless IMHO if you need a bull or teaser for it to work. May as well let the bull do the job.
It is just to breed some replacements of a different Breed
 

Manx Fella

New Member
We do a 6month block of BB but run an Angus bull with them aswel (cows) probably 50/50 BB/Angus bb straws are pretty cheap and plus had a lot of twins one bb/one Angus so yes I think it’s worth it,had a cow once calve Angus calf/ 4weeks later see had bb very rare even the vet said he’d heard of it but never seen it
Just out of interest, do your Angus cows calve easy to the blue?
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
We used vasectomised bulls for a couple of years in a dairy herd. Just beef x dairy bull calves that were kept back for the job, then sold fat after a couple of years. They did a good job initially but seemed to get bored of the job (one teaser running with 250 cows on AYR calving). Too much of a good thing perhaps? Running two seemed to pep up their interest, but then they'd get tussling if there weren't many bulling. Best bet was to keep replacing with a younger one when the others got lazy (and fat on dairy grass).
Gave up on it after about 5 years though, and went to collars.
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
We used vasectomised bulls for a couple of years in a dairy herd. Just beef x dairy bull calves that were kept back for the job, then sold fat after a couple of years. They did a good job initially but seemed to get bored of the job (one teaser running with 250 cows on AYR calving). Too much of a good thing perhaps? Running two seemed to pep up their interest, but then they'd get tussling if there weren't many bulling. Best bet was to keep replacing with a younger one when the others got lazy (and fat on dairy grass).
Gave up on it after about 5 years though, and went to collars.
You say they seemed to get bored of the job but it's often said you don't see a good bull working so maybe with age and experience they realised they didn't need to be chasing round so much and did the deed on the quiet?
 

Manx Fella

New Member
You say they seemed to get bored of the job but it's often said you don't see a good bull working so maybe with age and experience they realised they didn't need to be chasing round so much and did the deed on the quiet?
Yes, I can’t be bothered with all the chasing anymore and I still get it
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,284
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top