# Bulls



## Swv.farmer (Jan 2, 2016)

I just went and got a yearling bull to raise for breeding stock and he is awesome.
I was wondering if many others buy young bulls to raise for replacement bulls.
By the way he is a Hereford I like them on black cows.


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

Keeping bulls is a hasal,need to really get a discount compared to a 2 year old and then the feed to keep him that extra year. Maybe because of years of drought and always scrambling to have grazing for cattle has me in a negative place in my head. The topografi makes a difference about getting a few calves out of a young bull. I have gotten away with a 16 to 18 month old bull with a dozen heifers,but it shows on the bull in my range conditions.

Hereford Angus cross makes really good cross. Just reading the butcher shop is having trouble with large carcusses and the large steak they make. The total cost of a steak tends to scare consumers off,so they cut them thin and then they get overcooked and poor eating experience chases consumers off.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

What color calves do you end up with. I was always under the impression that when you breed a hereford cow to a black bull you get a black baldy, but I have two hereford cows that gave birth to a hereford calf out of my Black Angus bull. I guess the red gene must be dominant.

Around here if you have anything that is not black you take a discount.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

CowboyRam said:


> What color calves do you end up with. I was always under the impression that when you breed a hereford cow to a black bull you get a black baldy, but I have two hereford cows that gave birth to a hereford calf out of my Black Angus bull. I guess the red gene must be dominant.
> 
> Around here if you have anything that is not black you take a discount.


Is that Angus bull a registered purebred? Whenever we run one of my black bulls with Dads red cows the calves are guaranteed to be black. I do have one black bull that is a red carrier and if I run him with my black baldy cows I'll usually end up with one or two red calves but the rest will be black.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

CowboyRam said:


> What color calves do you end up with. I was always under the impression that when you breed a hereford cow to a black bull you get a black baldy, but I have two hereford cows that gave birth to a hereford calf out of my Black Angus bull. I guess the red gene must be dominant.
> 
> Around here if you have anything that is not black you take a discount.


The red is recessive. Your black bull is hiding a red gene. Or you have a red bull lurking that you don't know about.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

IHCman said:


> Is that Angus bull a registered purebred? Whenever we run one of my black bulls with Dads red cows the calves are guaranteed to be black. I do have one black bull that is a red carrier and if I run him with my black baldy cows I'll usually end up with one or two red calves but the rest will be black.


No his is not registered, but they guy I bought him from I think did have some that could be registered. I am not sure about the one I bought. At the time I was not really concerned about it. It could be that his bulls are not pure breed Angus.



8350HiTech said:


> The red is recessive. Your black bull is hiding a red gene. Or you have a red bull lurking that you don't know about.


No I don't think there is any red bulls lurking around my area. My bull may have a red gene in him.


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

I am a Hereford guy at heart,but a lot easier to buy nice black bulls than Herefords. I have one Hereford,one Angus,and a opus black baldy that was pure on both sides. The next bull will most likely be Angus. There could be 5 to 10% of a lot of things in my cows.There was one Charolais bull here 40 years ago and one Hereford/Charolais cross 30 years ago and we have several gray cows from that. Some of those cows have black calves but always get a gray or 2. Have had several registered Black Angus bulls that a 1/3 of there calves were red.

We have had a little of the the discount for not all black,but not as bad as 10 years ago. Been going to a different auction the last 3 years. Until 4 years ago we had a local sale less than 20 miles,it got crowded out by houses. The operator had bought another yard 120+ miles away and still operates a receiving yard,for us less than a pot full operators as that is most of this area.

A auction yard that has been primarily dairy cows has gotten new blood operating it and they are very close to Harris Feeding with 100,000 head capacity. They have been working hard to sell more beef calves. And they are a 1/2 hour closer than the competition. So I have sold at there specially promoted sales of for calves or yearlyings.

How they have done it I don't know but were selling bull calves mix with steers and buyers didn't ask for them to be sold separately if they fit with the rest of the lot.


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## cjsr8595 (Jul 7, 2014)

I do what you were asking regarding bulls. I buy or trade for one that is a yearling ish, around 700-800lbs. I do this after my cows are bred. I feed him and he gets them after they calve. I just sold my 1800lb angus bull, he was 3.5 years old. It was time for some new stock. I like to get a younger bull and grow them myself.


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## StxPecans (Mar 3, 2018)

I also buy young bulls but i keep them a while. Normally take them to the vet and get checked about once a year to make sure they are still good. 
But I keep my bulls in the pasture year round. Guess the idea is calve when you will have the most grass. Well down here that could easily be any time of the year. Sell calves when i need money which is year round.
I have a few hereford cows and like polled hereford on black cows. Have kept heifers from my hereford cows and my black baldie heifers. Been thinking about keeping back nice bull calves instead of paying for them. Also have 5 different herds with 3 bulls in each herd.

Like i have a hereford bull that is getting up in age about 8. He has been a good bull even had him solo on 40 cows for about 2 years with great reaults. Now he is my heifer bull as he always throws a small calf but they go 550 average at 6 months. So would keeping a bull calf of his that has low birth weight that grows fast be another good heifer bull?

I try to have 1 bull to 20-25 cows. 
I have thought about pulling bulls but its more work and even as I pit each herd together the cows were calving at differnt times and i didnt want to take the initial hit of getting them calving all at the same time. But then agian working and selling calves twice a year would be nice. It is also good to pin cattle often and get then use to it.

Its not just me in my area, have 3 auctions within 20 mile radius and they all run 1000-1500 calves a week year round.


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## cjsr8595 (Jul 7, 2014)

StxPecans said:


> I also buy young bulls but i keep them a while. Normally take them to the vet and get checked about once a year to make sure they are still good.
> But I keep my bulls in the pasture year round. Guess the idea is calve when you will have the most grass. Well down here that could easily be any time of the year. Sell calves when i need money which is year round.
> I have a few hereford cows and like polled hereford on black cows. Have kept heifers from my hereford cows and my black baldie heifers. Been thinking about keeping back nice bull calves instead of paying for them. Also have 5 different herds with 3 bulls in each herd.
> 
> ...


 I leave my bull in year round as well. I don't have a big heard, usually keep around 30 total, momma cows and calves. I'm like you, i sell a few here and there and they calve when they calve. Probably not the most efficient but it works for us. I've kept my own younger bull calf before, as long as he isn't breeding his mom or his direct sister he should be ok. He should kick out roughly the same type of calf as his daddy.

I'm currently working on getting some bigger angus cows, for years we had smaller angus cows. We've introduced new bulls ect and i'm starting to get some good replacement heifers of my own that are weaning calves much bigger. Its taken me about 5 years to do. I like to keep a closed heard so I wanted to work with what i had rather than buying at the sale barn.


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