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yearling or two year old bull

I like 2's, they can bred a few more cows. sometimes yearling's act like they can take on the world and get themselves in trouble , just my thought's.
 
We sell yearlings and twos from our end this is our veiw. We would like to sell coming twos however we have so much cost keeping the bulls around and have to send them to summer pasture away from all cattle. Nearly every time buyer pick out those top end yearlings 14 months. If they know how to handle them they are ok but those best bulls do not grow out and a two year bull looks better but really was not the best performing bull.
This year however our very best bull we have a high price on him and everybody picked around him because of the price. He was two in Jan.
Most of the time a good yearling may go bad if not pulled out on time and used on two many cows. When rested and fed they can come out of that.
Buyers mixing bulls have alot of problems.
 
Circle M said:
I was Wondering what diffrent People perfer when buying Bulls ,Yearlings or two year olds ?
Click to expand...

I have had good luck with both,just dont give em too big of a job.
good luck
 
I prefer yearlings and not give them too much work. That way they can develop on the environment that they will be expected to live and work in. I don't breed early and the bulls would be 14-17 months before they get to work anyway.
 
I like yearlings and I will work them pretty hard if they don't keep up breeding 25 cows and fall all apart at least I know before they leave me a bunch of hard doing cow's.You can hide alot in a 2 year old bull in my book.We have about 8 yearlings that would make excellant 2 year old's but they just did'nt get with it growing out. I will cut them and they will do what they should make steaks.
 
I like yearlings since I can usually get an additional year out of them before their attitudes typically head south. It's hard gathering older bulls off of the forest allotment, and I don't like taking anything over 4 years old up there if I can help it :D .
 
I like to use all yearling bulls for just one season, then weigh them up in the fall and sell them as cutting bulls. A yearling bull brings more dollars per head selling by the pound than a two-year-old does. They don't weigh nearly as much but they bring a lot more price per pound. The luxury of this system is not having the buggers around all winter, eating, digging, and tearing up the furniture. Besides, it presents a challenge every spring getting re-stocked with bulls. :wink:
 
Soapweed, I should have followed your example. My 2 yr old bulls had a major fight yesterday (been together since birth) and now one has a major gash on his hind leg from getting shoved into a guardrail fence, and two others are walking on three legs. Monday they go to Pizza Hut by way of the auction. Now I'm on a bull hunt 6 weeks before breeding season.
Just wondering how you all handle your hold over bulls. Mine always get so cantankerous around the first of March. They will take out fence a lot faster than you and two hired men can.
Soapweed, just curious, I assume you run your bulls around 60-70 days. How is the condition on those yrlgs when they come out of the cows?
 
I like bulls in straws, but we buy walking bulls as yearlings (sometimes long yearlings). We will use a yearling bull on as many as 50 in smaller paddocks, and have had some red angus yearlings in the past that snuck out and bred nearly 100 cows over a 2 month span.
If your cows aren't too big a yearling can usually cover them pretty easy and you can get an extra year out of your heifer bull before they get too large. We breed late, so any yearling is pretty well 18 months before they get used around here anyway.
 
A lot of two-year old bulls or even 18-month old bulls are fed the same ration as some folks feed a growing yearling. They're fat as a tick at sale time and it's hard to pick them apart as far as phenotype. Sure nice getting an older bull to turn out, but I'm not sure it's really worth all that much more.

HP
 
We've used all ages; just adjust the management accordingly and try not to mix with older bulls. I actually prefer mature bulls as we work them hard on large numbers of cows......good temperment is a must! One thing I've really noticed over the years is that our Hereford bulls will far outlast and outbreed our black bulls.....fewer injuries, aren't as fight crazy and maintain a good disposition. I've had to ship most of our blacks as 3's or 4's.......either smashed up or too hard to handle. The Herf's usually go as aged bulls & usually the only reason is that we have too many daughters retained to use the bulls anymore.
 
Sundancer said:
Soapweed, I should have followed your example. My 2 yr old bulls had a major fight yesterday (been together since birth) and now one has a major gash on his hind leg from getting shoved into a guardrail fence, and two others are walking on three legs. Monday they go to Pizza Hut by way of the auction. Now I'm on a bull hunt 6 weeks before breeding season.
Just wondering how you all handle your hold over bulls. Mine always get so cantankerous around the first of March. They will take out fence a lot faster than you and two hired men can.
Soapweed, just curious, I assume you run your bulls around 60-70 days. How is the condition on those yrlgs when they come out of the cows?
Click to expand...

At the end of the summer, the bulls probably weigh just about what they weighed when they were turned out with the cows on May 20th--usually around 1050-1100 pounds. They are in prime breeding condition when they are turned out, and they don't seem to lose much of this condition while exercising and working.
 
We use all kinds. We've bought them as yearlings, two year olds, and we've bought three year olds too. Three times we've bought three year olds who were previously herd bulls in purebred herds, and they've all been really really good. Way above and beyond average.

Last year we turned out 8 bulls. Two yearlings, two 3 year olds, two 4 year olds, a 6 year old, and an 8 year old. They got the job done. We're not afraid of an 8 year old bull, especially if it's a Limo. They go on and on and on, like Energizer bunnies. 8) 8)

Disadvantage of a yearling..... Sometimes yearlings can fool you, and by the time they've finished growing they don't really look like you thought they would.

Advantage of a yearling ... You can raise him the way you like, and make sure he doesn't get 'burnt out' on high energy feed.

Disadvantage of a two year old .... Was he passed over as a yearling? Maybe he was a runty calf, and needed a bunch of extra feed to catch up.

Advantage of a two year old ... You know what they are going to look like, and they are just that extra bit more durable.

The important thing is to get a bull that works with your cows, and then deal with his age. It's the genes you're after anyway.
 
We raise our own bulls, haven't bought more than a handful for quite a number of years. Also sold off most of the older bulls this year, and will be using younger ones. Have a nice pen of Image Maker and Very Windy yrl. bulls coming on.
 
I've turned out a new yearling bull for a week by himself a bit early just so he can breed a crossection of cows and to see how good a breeder he is. A good athletic yearling can breed alot of cows-alot more than than an overfat two year old that's been sleeping with other men his entire life. Two year old bulls work fine if they are developed right but too many are just children of the corn!!!
 
For any of you that want or need a 2-year old bull, Larry Leonhardt
Shoshone Angus) at Cowley, Wyoming keeps ALL his bulls over and
sells them as 2 year olds. He doesn't sell yearling bulls. Doesn't feed his
yearling bulls up as he says their frame can't take it. We were there
in February and the bulls are in good shape but not overly fat.
You can have your pick out of 200 bulls for $1800.

I noticed in Cole Creek Angus catalog Greg Golden lists Shearbrook Shoshone 116N as a Herd Builder; along with Juanada 7 of PJM; Basin
Jumbo 1755, PJM Montana Power, Cole Creek Q Bar; Cole Creek Gold Bar 97V (a son of Basin Q Bar, AAR Windy Ridge, Cole Creek Full Rut and ZRP Intesififier
0021. So at least 3 of these bulls are Stevenson-Basin bulls. Intensifier is a doulbe bred 054. I really like 054 and have long thought this bull was interesting.

The catalog is worth getting just to read Gregs comments in the front.
Hilarous!!!
 
Back in the early '80's my dad bought a 3/4 Kickaneena and a 1/4 Angus yearling bull. Dad turned just that bull out with his 200 best Angus cows for two weeks, and then turned out eight Hereford bulls to breed the rest of that bunch of cows. The following spring the results were that the Chi-Angus yearling fathered 65 of the 200 calves.
 

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