Northern Rancher
Well-known member
Halleluiah Barley Hit Five Bucks
This spring hundreds of cattlemen will travel thousands of miles and spend millions of dollars in search of their new herd bulls. In these days with DNA markers to tell you how efficient they will feed, how juicy their steaks will be and how tender the cuts plus E.P.D's for everything from calving ease to growth to how long the daughters will last it should be easy to spend your money wisely. I mean it's all there- you can use your ranchers eye to appraise his soundness-your vets microscope to check his fertility and the computer to crunch the numbers. Picking the perfect bull for your operation should be easy-set a price range and have at it. In these days of total information it's simple to pick the bulls that will sell highest-the FATTEST. With all the tools at our disposal invariably ranchers will pick out the fattest bovine stud muffin to waddle their pastures. It doesn't matter that the extra grain has cooked his feet-crisped his liver and fried his man swimmers into almost total inactivity. Overfeeding is the proverbial sugar in the genetic gas tank of a future beef bull.
Why does it happen-because darn it all they look so good-there is nothing prettier than a pumped up-fluffed out-fresh from the sale beef bull hopping off the trailer back at home. It's hard to imagine the bedraggled little bag of bones that will come back in the fall. Breeders will defend the practice by proclaiming that bulls lose weight running with cows so they have to go out to pasture fat. Does an NHL coach tell his players to get fat over summer because there's a long season coming. He doesn't and most beef bulls have almost as many mating opportunities as pro hockey players.
When barley was cheap it generated good economic sense to fill your bulls up with it and watch the dollars roll in. Maybe now that the skies the limit on grain prices this practice will go by the wayside. In the long run it's probably in everyone's best interests including the bulls.
Well fire at will!!!
This spring hundreds of cattlemen will travel thousands of miles and spend millions of dollars in search of their new herd bulls. In these days with DNA markers to tell you how efficient they will feed, how juicy their steaks will be and how tender the cuts plus E.P.D's for everything from calving ease to growth to how long the daughters will last it should be easy to spend your money wisely. I mean it's all there- you can use your ranchers eye to appraise his soundness-your vets microscope to check his fertility and the computer to crunch the numbers. Picking the perfect bull for your operation should be easy-set a price range and have at it. In these days of total information it's simple to pick the bulls that will sell highest-the FATTEST. With all the tools at our disposal invariably ranchers will pick out the fattest bovine stud muffin to waddle their pastures. It doesn't matter that the extra grain has cooked his feet-crisped his liver and fried his man swimmers into almost total inactivity. Overfeeding is the proverbial sugar in the genetic gas tank of a future beef bull.
Why does it happen-because darn it all they look so good-there is nothing prettier than a pumped up-fluffed out-fresh from the sale beef bull hopping off the trailer back at home. It's hard to imagine the bedraggled little bag of bones that will come back in the fall. Breeders will defend the practice by proclaiming that bulls lose weight running with cows so they have to go out to pasture fat. Does an NHL coach tell his players to get fat over summer because there's a long season coming. He doesn't and most beef bulls have almost as many mating opportunities as pro hockey players.
When barley was cheap it generated good economic sense to fill your bulls up with it and watch the dollars roll in. Maybe now that the skies the limit on grain prices this practice will go by the wayside. In the long run it's probably in everyone's best interests including the bulls.
Well fire at will!!!
