Before heading to the bull sales this season, it’s a good idea to have a look at your herd and production goals so that you can walk in with a plan for the auction, with confident in exactly what you are trying to purchase!
The first thing you need to look at is what is going on in your herd.
- Are the cows an appropriate size for your farming environment? Cow size has been genetically increasing by 3kg a year for the last 50 years in the Angus breed, and the environment they live in and potential environmental risks are now more challenging.
- Is the fertility of the heifer and cow herds acceptable? Is genetics the limiting factor or vitamin G (grass) and animal health such as disease and minerals compromising the best outcome? These are questions you can ask your Vet to rule in or out potential risks.
- Are my weaning weights acceptable? Good commercial herds should be achieving calf growth rates of 1kgLWG/day while on the cow. If not then consider feeding levels, milking ability of herd, genetic growth.
Now have a look at the bull team and get them in the yards for a health check.
- Were there any anomalies at pregnancy testing that could be due to a bull failure? Last year we were inundated with bull tests after pregnancy testing because of this.
- Are they fit and healthy? We always get a few calls about bulls scrapping and injuring each other when you pull them out of the girls. Best to know that now than in the spring.
- Have you given the young bulls a drench coming out of mating?
- They are also likely to need copper supplementation and a lice treatment heading into winter.
With information on your herd and a number of replacement bulls needed, you can identify where the opportunities are to improve performance.
Visiting your bull breeder prior to their sale actually makes a lot of sense. It will give you the opportunity to engage more closely and picking the most appropriate bull(s) for your business. It might also take the emotion out of the decision and you might not blow your budget!
Vet Services Hawkes Bay and Dannevirke work closely with individual breeders across the East Coast offering a comprehensive fertility testing package called Breed-A-Bull. Each bull that is passed is provided with a certificate documenting their vaccination history, BVD status and the fertility assessments completed. It’s not a guarantee of future fertility but it provides assurances that these bulls have been assessed to the highest standard. Please contact your local Vet Services clinic to book your bulls in for their annual Breed-A-Bull pre-sale assessment.
