When selecting a bull for your cattle operation, keep the cows in mind.
That means “looking at the positive traits of the cow herd, and also looking at the traits that need to be improved in the cow herd,” agreed Dr. Tom Troxel, associate head of animal science for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, told Ozarks Farm & Neighbor. “You should look at the types of calves you want to produce and the type of market you’re trying to reach with those calves.”
Based on his own data collected over 10 years from Arkansas sale barns, Troxel said producers who plan to sell their calves at auction should seek out genetics that will result in medium-to-large framed calves with number one muscle scores. “Those two traits are really the most important in terms of getting the highest selling price,” Troxel said.
University of Missouri Extension southwest region livestock specialist Eldon Cole said the starting point is knowing the genetics in your herd. “Just because they’ve got a cow herd and they’ve been doing a certain practice or marketing in a certain way doesn’t mean that that’s what they want to stay with, or have to stay with,” Cole told OFN.
More and more producers select Angus. “Angus feeder calves are pretty well sought after at the markets,” Cole noted. “If they are black, the order buyers seem to sit up and take a little bit more notice of them when they come into the ring. Angus have proven to be a good, productive female in the beef cow herd, and their offspring have certainly marketed well.”
Another concern is the threat of trichomoniasis. The parasitic disease causes sterility and abortions, and Arkansas regulations require all non-virgin bulls sold in the state, unless they’re headed to slaughter or castration, to test negative within 30 days of the date of sale. Troxel cited Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission statistics showing 3.4 percent of the bulls tested this year were positive. “I think it’s very important to purchase a virgin bull,” he said, but recommended that whether or not the bull is virgin it be given at least 2-3 weeks of sexual rest upon arrival, and then tested for trich before coming into contact with the cows.
The downside of buying a virgin bull is the reduced accuracy of the Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs). “If we do purchase a bull that’s three or four years old and has more offspring, their EPDs will have more accuracy, but usually you can get a better buy with a younger bull,” Troxel said. He said it’s too soon to say whether the new science of DNA testing will prove to be more accurate than EPDs in assessing the potential of virgin bulls. “Research time and time again has shown that EPDs work,” Troxel said. “If you select bulls with high weaning weight EPDs and compare them with bulls of low weaning weight EPDs and breed them to a group of cows, there’s no doubt about it – the bulls with high EPDs will produce calves with higher weaning weights.” But he also said EPDs should not be the only criteria, and urged producers to make sure the bull is structurally correct and has the muscle pattern and other phenotypic characteristics that they want.
