Grassfarmer
Well-known member
Further to the comments in Nicky's post re bull development, particularly the comments about Aarons bull on CT I thought I'd post some figures and pictures of one of my bulls.
My philosophy is simple - the genetics are predetermined before a bull is born so the way you raise him can either make him fertile, healthy and long lived or unhealthy and short lived. I think the way we raise ours gives them a better chance of being in the latter category.
Bull calf born May 18th - 92lbs, weaned October 5th (only 137 days) weaning weight 455lb. (2.64lb actual gain)
Overwintered on straight silage he weighed 680lb on March 22 (1.33lb gain) at 308 days.
Grazed all summer he weighed 1150lbs on October 5th (2.38lb gain) at 505 days.
We took him through the next winter at probably 1.25lb gain because he would be under 1400lbs when he went to 60 head the following summer. He grew and gained weight.
This past summer he ran with 40 head and again grew a little more and gained quite a bit of weight - this was taken the week he was pulled from the cows. Just under 3.5 years old weighing 2020lbs.
I will admit we are not mainstream in our thinking but I still find it hard to understand why most bull buyers who buy heavier fed cattle that often never look so good again as they did they day they purchased them keep going back for more. I can understand it from the bull sellers perspective - the quicker the bulls burn out and need to be replaced the more sales they get. Now that we are selling a few bulls reared on our program it's interesting to see the prospective buyers reaction to our growing bulls. Some like our story and method but still want the bulls to be 1800lbs at under 2 years old, some want to buy our herd bulls because they look good but not the younger ones (although the herd bulls were reared the same way). Some get the program and buy our young bulls and let them grow out with them. I'm happy to say we seem to be seeing more of the latter type of customer recently
PS Well done Aaron - your animals looked fine and I'm sure your customers will be happy with them.
My philosophy is simple - the genetics are predetermined before a bull is born so the way you raise him can either make him fertile, healthy and long lived or unhealthy and short lived. I think the way we raise ours gives them a better chance of being in the latter category.
Bull calf born May 18th - 92lbs, weaned October 5th (only 137 days) weaning weight 455lb. (2.64lb actual gain)
Overwintered on straight silage he weighed 680lb on March 22 (1.33lb gain) at 308 days.
Grazed all summer he weighed 1150lbs on October 5th (2.38lb gain) at 505 days.
We took him through the next winter at probably 1.25lb gain because he would be under 1400lbs when he went to 60 head the following summer. He grew and gained weight.
This past summer he ran with 40 head and again grew a little more and gained quite a bit of weight - this was taken the week he was pulled from the cows. Just under 3.5 years old weighing 2020lbs.
I will admit we are not mainstream in our thinking but I still find it hard to understand why most bull buyers who buy heavier fed cattle that often never look so good again as they did they day they purchased them keep going back for more. I can understand it from the bull sellers perspective - the quicker the bulls burn out and need to be replaced the more sales they get. Now that we are selling a few bulls reared on our program it's interesting to see the prospective buyers reaction to our growing bulls. Some like our story and method but still want the bulls to be 1800lbs at under 2 years old, some want to buy our herd bulls because they look good but not the younger ones (although the herd bulls were reared the same way). Some get the program and buy our young bulls and let them grow out with them. I'm happy to say we seem to be seeing more of the latter type of customer recently
PS Well done Aaron - your animals looked fine and I'm sure your customers will be happy with them.
