New Bull

[goatgurl]

ok, its official, your baby boy is a cutie patootie. I love those big intelligent eyes. he's going to give you a run for your money one of these days. my daughter had one of those jolly jumpers when she was a baby and loved it, jumping and giggling.
nice looking bull too. hope the breeding season goes smoothly.

 

[cjc]

Thanks Everyone!

@greybeard I had never even heard of this before!

@farmerjan well, I do love the Angus I have but my history with them is not so good. Out of all the breeds I have raised, Short Horn, Angus, Hereford and Jersey's the Angus have given me the most trouble temperament wise. But! They have also given me zero problems health wise. They all seem to raise their calves well and they sell easy. I have 16 in my herd now and all but 3 are Angus or an Angus X. I have one Angus X Shorthorn steer who is a beautiful creature. He is the one head butting the bull in my post. But he's a pet, because I am a fool

My jersey calf is doing GREAT! She is adorable. We are keeping her as a pet for my son. She is one lucky little girl. She is currently being raised with an angus calf I bought a few days after her. I will get some pictures of him later and post them, he is the best calf we have raised. My mother really wanted to keep his balls on but we tied them. As you can see I know nothing about bulls and I didn't even know where you start with selecting and raising one as a calf.

I have the jersey I bought to be a nurse cow last year if you remember her. She had a bull calf last year which is about to go to slaughter (devastated about that). I am really uncertain what to do with my jersey though. She is a great cow. But she is 100% a pet. She is a horrible mother and an even worse nurse cow. And I don't have the patience right now to teach her to be otherwise. I am going to breed her to my Angus bull and just get the word out there that I have a bred jersey for sale, if the right offer comes ill take it. But only to the right home. She is a pet and I need her to stay that way or I will feel very guilty. I bought her as a 4H cow from a little girl next door.

This is what I am breeding this year. They are all being bred to my Red Angus Bull.

1. Little Red - Red Angus X Jersey (3 years old, second calfer, only dam to raise a calf successfully last year, and he's a HUGE calf surprisingly)
2. Stella - Black Angus X Holstein (14 month old bottle calf)
3. Blue - Black Angus X Holstein (14 month old bottle calf)
4. Dolly - Black Angus X Holstein (16 month old bottle calf)
5. Ruby - Black Angus X Holstein (12 month old bottle calf - I was worried she was too young but the vet told me the other day she was good to go, she's cycling and quiet large)
6. Lucy (my jersey, second calfer)

This will be the first year I will pregnancy check them with ultrasound. Its not much more expensive and I need to be better prepared this year. If you remember my cow last year was pregnant we believe 12 months. I should of done better for her.

 

[cjc]

@greybeard one other thing. When the bull was dropped my friend said to me "you have to feed this bull he cant live on grass". None of my cows ever live on just grass alone. I feed grain all year round and hay through the cold seasons. How do you feed bulls? He's in the field with all of the herd. I tried to give him extra grain on his own and I am sure you can imagine how that went . I do that again and someone is gonna ram someone through the fence.

 

[greybeard]

When the bull was dropped my friend said to me "you have to feed this bull he cant live on grass". None of my cows ever lived on grass alone. I feed grain all year round and hay through the cold seasons.

How old is this bull?
I imagine he was just trying to emphasize that a young bull in development needs more than just grass to get to his full potential and once you turn him in to breed your herd, will need more energy than just grass alone provides.
Maybe he didn't understand or know your level of experience or expertise in getting a bull ready for the breeding season.
I've never had any problem with any of my yearling or mature bulls not getting their share of groceries..they always push the females off feed and not the other way around.

 

[farmerjan]

Agree with greybeard, I think it was just to let you know that as a young bull, growing, that he needs a little grain to keep his weight on while he is paying more attention to girls and expending all those extra calories. A young bull can easily drop weight because he is more interested in chasing around the girls. I wouldn't worry about trying to feed him separately, just watch and make sure he pushes his way in there to get a share. Since most all the girls are young, he should do fine. If they were big old cows, sometimes they will exert their dominance and push a young bull around, but your heifers should do fine.

Since Lucy did not turn out to be a very good momma or a nurse cow, then a family that needs a milk cow would be good. Some are good nurse cows, some aren't. I have a jersey that is not wanting to be a nurse cow, but she is going to raise these 2 and then go. She was a 3 teat cow the first time which I knew, since one quarter had been infected and blew out the side, I bought her for pound price and she was bred AI and had a nice heifer calf. This year she only has 2 good teats. So the udder is shot and she is of no real good use. She will accept her calf and the 2nd one when she comes in the barn, mostly without too much fighting me, but she will probably never take them in the field. She also doesn't have much milk but to look at her udder it is beautiful. Real shame but that's part of it. If I hadn't already gotten the second calf to put on her, I might have just shipped her but will get through the next couple of months with her. I milked her last year, with her having just her calf on her, but she never set any records then either. Just one of those things. She will go when her time is up.

Ultrasound pregnancy checking is pretty popular here, but it would not have prevented what happened to your shorthorn cow last year. Most all ultrasound is done anywhere from 30 to 90 days. They can tell the sex usually at about 50-75 days. Many of my registered breeders will do that so they have an idea of the sex of the calves to expect but it is still not 100%. After a cow gets so far along, it is next to impossible to tell more than she is pregnant or not. They might have tried ultrasound to see the problems she was having but I really am not sure it would have helped her. That was just one of those terrible tragedies.

I know that you like your cows to be friendly and easy to work with, but making them too much of a pet is not always in your best interest. You get too attached and then when the time comes that they have to go, and for the reasons that they really are being raised for, it is too hard to do. You can have a pet or two but overall, they are there to produce a calf that will either be sold or will be a replacement for another cow that has to be sold. I have buried a few over the years that have more than paid for their retirement....but for the most part they are there to help provide a livelihood for me.

It is not in your best interest to raise up a bull calf to be a herd sire. For the most part, you would be too close to him emotionally, and make him too familiar, and they often make for a more aggressive bull. Buy what you need to get the cows bred, or even find someone you can rent/lease a bull from for a breeding season, and keep him 90 days or so then send him off.

Hope all goes well with getting the girls bred.

 

[Rammy]

Thanks for all this great info @greybeard @farmerjan. I know about zero when it comes to bulls! I will ask my friend about all this stuff. He’s a big Cattle raiser in our area (500 head). I just trust him with what he gives me but this bull is from auction. And he owns the auction so...the circle goes around . He did give me the bull last year that through me that 200lb deformed calf. He wanted me to raise short horns still but im taking a break and trying Angus! I don’t like the Angus temperament but they sell easiest in our parts. People just want a solid black or red calf it seems.

@farmerjan @babsbag baby is doing well thank you! He will be 5 months on the 26th. It’s definitely slowed down my cow activities but he’s been great. He’s a big boy! 18lbs already so lugging him around the farm is hurting my back! He has an obsession with animals though...it was bound to happen.

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Just found this post. What a cutie pie!! Can everyone say awwww.........? Nice looking bull. I thought about keeping one of the heifers Im raising and maybe getting her bred when she's ready. Start raising my own beef. Then again, maybe not.

Rammy