Bull Behavior

I got 9 bulls in a paddock and there are 6 of mine and 2 Powell bulls and a Keeney Bull. The Keeney bull and one Powell bull and one of mine are walking the fence to get too two old cows across the fence. I have 2 questions 1) are we choosing bulls for all the wrong reasons? 2) Are these active bulls exhibiting such a strong libido. That they would be low intramuscular fat bulls. All three of these bulls have them same body condition of around 5 and i don't think you could get them fat with the energy level that they maintain. When you attended a bull sale fat is a awful pretty color. But at what cost to fertility do we pay?

fertility of the fat bull is irrelevant if they have neither the desire, the ability or the soundness to breed a cow. If IMF is worth measuring at all in bulls it should be done prior to weaning, before sexual maturity is in high gear, the result of IMF on bulls at a year is, unsurprisingly, a bunch of fat, lazy, nutless wannabe steers being propagated as breeding stock because they 'scanned high'. The greatest danger to the Angus cow is the amateur mathematician........

sorry Robert, I kinda snuffed this away from front and center where it deserves to be...

The greatest danger to the Angus cow is the amateur mathematician

I would think that if more fat was needed then cut the bull and lose the testostrone. Jest kidding my father always looked for the most active bull in a pen that the most important thing is to get a live calf. I wonder if the bull is more active would his female offspring be more likely to walk over a hill to find a mate?

Bob H from the land of one more frosty morning

along the line of bull behavior. I brought home 2-six year old bulls and 2 yearling bulls from Kents and 1 yearling from MK. as we have been getting our fair share of rain and lack of paddocks had to put them in dry lot. whats up when they dont know how to eat haylage and ground hay and farther more would not stick their head in a feedbunk?? had to let them out to clean up the weeds in the feedline out side the pens.

another thing I noticed is no need for 6 foot 7 bar fence. just think what time and money I will save on repairing fences. now the goats thats another story.

Briann,

You will probably have to teach them with a bunk in the pen, and find a few big pellets to get their attention.

Fenceline bunks and balanced rations are used exclusively for goats, sheep, Llamas, burros, Shetlands, and pigs around here.





Kent, In the vicinity of "We don't rent pigs...".

Quote :

from advantage
Heck, you might as well randomly mate them if you aren't going to measure...........

wonder if he measures the feed? ..if not, mating randomly will measure of their own accord the bulls that have libido...

MKeeney wrote:

Quote :

from advantage
Heck, you might as well randomly mate them if you aren't going to measure...........

wonder if he measures the feed? ..if not, mating randomly will measure of their own accord the bulls that have libido...

I mate "randomly"; all bulls that are good enough for me are let out with the herd. i find it much easier to sort out the ones with obvious faults than to pick out the best ones. Then they fight it out amongst themselves. Then again I do not breed for marbling...

Bob H wrote:

I would think that if more fat was needed then cut the bull and lose the testostrone. Jest kidding my father always looked for the most active bull in a pen that the most important thing is to get a live calf. I wonder if the bull is more active would his female offspring be more likely to walk over a hill to find a mate?

Bob H from the land of one more frosty morning

I wonder the same thing bob will that cow find the mate? I think she will.

Brian how you doing with the bulls are they sticking there heads in the bunk yet, Is it your management hell in other places they got them bunk broke before they are weaned? How are you doing with the goats? Do they eat leafy spurge? Does your wife like them? Tried the goat deal once. They won? Hope you have a good experience? Kent can you send him some more? It rained and he has more weeds. Agree on the bull deal got what i need and full steam ahead.

W.T wrote:

Brian how you doing with the bulls are they sticking there heads in the bunk yet, Is it your management hell in other places they got them bunk broke before they are weaned? How are you doing with the goats? Do they eat leafy spurge? Does your wife like them? Tried the goat deal once. They won? Hope you have a good experience? Kent can you send him some more? It rained and he has more weeds. Agree on the bull deal got what i need and full steam ahead.

yep they stand outside the bunk and eat weeds. named them Dixson, Snapper, Torro, and Cub Cadet, the MK bull's street name is Weedwhacker just so he can fit in.
showed Marvin the neighbor the 2 young ones, he asked me what the hell was the matter with you? later that morning when he saw the 2 older bulls and asked where can I find bulls like that? and you paid WHAT??? brings to mind something about eagle and egg.

as for the goats. my 19 - 21 year old girls think they would make better pets and lawnmowers. have them staked out in front of the house. once they named them Marco and Polo I lost my claim to them. found they like ground corn but hate kick ball. along with the free jackass getting to be a zoo.


still looking for a hobby, with all this free time.

larkota wrote:

W.T wrote:

Brian how you doing with the bulls are they sticking there heads in the bunk yet, Is it your management hell in other places they got them bunk broke before they are weaned? How are you doing with the goats? Do they eat leafy spurge? Does your wife like them? Tried the goat deal once. They won? Hope you have a good experience? Kent can you send him some more? It rained and he has more weeds. Agree on the bull deal got what i need and full steam ahead.

yep they stand outside the bunk and eat weeds. named them Dixson, Snapper, Torro, and Cub Cadet, the MK bull's street name is Weedwhacker just so he can fit in.
showed Marvin the neighbor the 2 young ones, he asked me what the hell was the matter with you? later that morning when he saw the 2 older bulls and asked where can I find bulls like that? and you paid WHAT??? brings to mind something about eagle and egg.

as for the goats. my 19 - 21 year old girls think they would make better pets and lawnmowers. have them staked out in front of the house. once they named them Marco and Polo I lost my claim to them. found they like ground corn but hate kick ball. along with the free jackass getting to be a zoo.


still looking for a hobby, with all this free time.

Yes the eagle and the chicken start the same and end up on different sides of the coin.

We can send you racing pigeons. The way you travel, no one could beat you.



http://info.scmdpr.com/index/home.php

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/4293114.stm

Brian - speaking of goats, I did get my yearlings to eat buckbrush in the pasture. The book I read about training cattle to eat weeds said it was easier to train cattle to eat weeds than it was to train ranchers to run goats.

W.T wrote:

I got 9 bulls in a paddock and there are 6 of mine and 2 Powell bulls and a Keeney Bull. The Keeney bull and one Powell bull and one of mine are walking the fence to get too two old cows across the fence. I have 2 questions 1) are we choosing bulls for all the wrong reasons? 2) Are these active bulls exhibiting such a strong libido. That they would be low intramuscular fat bulls. All three of these bulls have them same body condition of around 5 and i don't think you could get them fat with the energy level that they maintain. When you attended a bull sale fat is a awful pretty color. But at what cost to fertility do we pay?

I have asked myself question #1 many times. Brian's "egg and the eagle" idea is extremely frustrating for me because it takes a lot of my perceived ability to select better genetics away. I'm finding that I don't really have abilities anyhow...as evidenced by the variation in my current bull battery. Good thing I didn't have to get a mail-order bride, I would have probably picked one that turned out with ugly feet and a propensity to be affected quite negatively by gravity in certain areas.

I've wondered if libido will ever be something that could be tested for in DNA. Maybe a better question is, how heritable is libido?

LCP wrote:

W.T wrote:

I got 9 bulls in a paddock and there are 6 of mine and 2 Powell bulls and a Keeney Bull. The Keeney bull and one Powell bull and one of mine are walking the fence to get too two old cows across the fence. I have 2 questions 1) are we choosing bulls for all the wrong reasons? 2) Are these active bulls exhibiting such a strong libido. That they would be low intramuscular fat bulls. All three of these bulls have them same body condition of around 5 and i don't think you could get them fat with the energy level that they maintain. When you attended a bull sale fat is a awful pretty color. But at what cost to fertility do we pay?

I have asked myself question #1 many times. Brian's "egg and the eagle" idea is extremely frustrating for me because it takes a lot of my perceived ability to select better genetics away. I'm finding that I don't really have abilities anyhow...as evidenced by the variation in my current bull battery. Good thing I didn't have to get a mail-order bride, I would have probably picked one that turned out with ugly feet and a propensity to be affected quite negatively by gravity in certain areas.

I've wondered if libido will ever be something that could be tested for in DNA. Maybe a better question is, how heritable is libido?

well Luke, looking at libido heritability in reverse, even when BobH puts the boys with the girls, if there ain`t no libido, there won`t be any babies

LCP wrote:

W.T wrote:

I got 9 bulls in a paddock and there are 6 of mine and 2 Powell bulls and a Keeney Bull. The Keeney bull and one Powell bull and one of mine are walking the fence to get too two old cows across the fence. I have 2 questions 1) are we choosing bulls for all the wrong reasons? 2) Are these active bulls exhibiting such a strong libido. That they would be low intramuscular fat bulls. All three of these bulls have them same body condition of around 5 and i don't think you could get them fat with the energy level that they maintain. When you attended a bull sale fat is a awful pretty color. But at what cost to fertility do we pay?

I have asked myself question #1 many times. Brian's "egg and the eagle" idea is extremely frustrating for me because it takes a lot of my perceived ability to select better genetics away. I'm finding that I don't really have abilities anyhow...as evidenced by the variation in my current bull battery. Good thing I didn't have to get a mail-order bride, I would have probably picked one that turned out with ugly feet and a propensity to be affected quite negatively by gravity in certain areas.

I've wondered if libido will ever be something that could be tested for in DNA. Maybe a better question is, how heritable is libido?

just look at the people on welfare, mutiply like rabbits. I wonder how much diet plays a part? my dad use to say instead of giving food send condoms.

larkota wrote:

just look at the people on welfare, mutiply like rabbits. I wonder how much diet plays a part? my dad use to say instead of giving food send condoms.

I don't the people on welfare analogy works when applied to cattle. Not many vegetarians on welfare, plenty of them on a high proportion corn based diet though. That would imply a high energy, high starch regime with limited exercise would lead to the most fertile cattle and I don't believe that to be true.

what I meant was some of the poorest fed people in the world do not have a fertility issue. if hunger or poor diet caused infertility why the need for organizations like Save the Children or Feed the Children.

fertility and libido decress as fat increases I believe.

doesn`t seem to be a lot of excess fat here in your new Powell herdbull Brian...quite impressive to see the veins prominently...is that trait related to a long tail switch?

MKeeney wrote:

doesn`t seem to be a lot of excess fat here in your new Powell herdbull Brian...quite impressive to see the veins prominently...is that trait related to a long tail switch?

I would rather buy a good product then a good warranty.
rather have something that lasts then something guaranteed for a year.

most registurd breeders run around like chickens with their heads cut off looking for the NEXT YOUNG, GREATEST EVER, DOES IT ALL, CURVE BENDING, SEMEN PIMPING BULL.
as for myself happy to rent Kent's 6 year old bull for a couple of years then lb him out and get most of my money back. better then a guarantee.