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Bull to Heifer Ratio

Sundancer

Well-known member
Will two head of 2 yr old bulls adequately get the job done on 50 head of hiefers? (60 days) We rotational graze and the largest pasture would be no larger than 25 acres which is wide open. Bulls are around 1500 pounds and heifers will be 800 + pounds by May 1. Thanks for your advice and sharing your experience. I have usually used yearling bulls on heifers and use more bull power in that case.
 

RSL

Well-known member
We run one shot AI on a group of 55 young cows in a tight rotational system. We follow up with 1 sire on the group and have never seen less than 95% conception with the combination. Our largest paddock is 12.5 acres, but part of the breeding season (60 days) is on 230+ acres of rugged native. Two bulls should breed all those cows and then get bored and bug the neighbours cows.
 

per

Well-known member
I like odd numbers, one to breed while the other two fight. If I had a proven bull I wouldn't hesitate to let him have all 50. You need however to see that he is working. With two bulls I would consider two paddocks with one bull in each. Not suggesting any try this but I think most have less faith in their bull power than they could.
 

Kato

Well-known member
Two bulls with that many heifers should work, as long as you haven't synchronized the heifers and brought too many into heat at once.

That being said, there's no such thing as too many bulls. :D

We put eight big bulls with 180 cows for six weeks, all in one group. It's quite the party! Then they get split into pastures. Four bulls with a hundred cows at the custom grazer. The rest split into two pastures with two bulls in each one. We never leave a bunch of cows with just one bull.

Conception rate last year was about 97%. If a cow came home open, it was pretty much safe to say it was her fault, not the bull.
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
You know fighting is as hard on a bull as the other 'f' word that ends in 'ing. A yearling better be able to breed 25 heifers or I'd start buying bulls somewhere else. I've turned out a young bulls a bit early by himself to see just how many cows he can breed- a good one can breeed alot. As for no such thing as two many bulls-I had a neighbor turned out six mature Angus bulls with 200 cows on a half section in the morning he had one left that could breed-the rest had broken penis's and were crippled from fighting. My self I run one per 100 to cleanup after A'I'.
 

John SD

Well-known member
Two yearling bulls should be able to handle 50 heifers easily if they tend to business. One two year old if he is in good shape and pays attention to his gals.

I had a single two year old on 30 heifers last summer. He kept getting bored and crawling out with the cows to help the other guys out. Just being neighborly I guess. This season I'm going to try to keep a empty pasture in between them. :roll:

NR is right. Sometimes bulls and especially yearling bulls would rather fight than get the job done. Nothing more worthless than a broken down bull because of bad technique or total bull stupidity. On a hot summer day bulls can wear each other out until neither one of them is in the mood for love. :roll:

Too many bulls causes more breeding problems than not enough bulls IMO.
 
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