Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The bull

 I've amassed a herd of 20 cows at this point; 4 dairy breed heifers, whos story I'll tell in anther entry (that's one of them in the picture above) and 7 beef or beef-cross heifers.  I'm going to expose them all to a bull and see what I get in terms of calves.  I've chosen an angus bull, a beef breed, and here he is in his blog debut. 
 He's been keeping company with this little heifer, who's about the right weight to be bred, and they seem to be hitting it off, although since she has horns and he doesn't, she seems to have the advantage in their tussels. 
But I'm glad to see them enjoying themselves and getting along.  I kept the bull in the corral until I was sure that he wasn't mean and we understood one another, and then turned him out on grass today. 
Posted by at

1 comment:

Cathy said...

Do you own the bull? We rented an Angus bull this year. He was actually quite gentle and a pleasant bull to have around. I was concerned when they told me his name was Houdini but there were no problems. I want to AI my cows next year to get some pure Galloway heifers, but renting the bull was surprisingly simple.

The owner hasn't sent me a bill yet. He was a little slow coming to pick him up. He waited until the bull was wanted somewhere else. He may be waiting to see results. The bull belongs to my neighbor's father who has a purebred angus operation.

I have a young black Angus x Galloway heifer. How do you see the pros and cons of various times to sell a heifer? I think she is a particularly nice one. I'm considering selling her soon after weaning. My space is limited and we are feeding hay with the drought but it is not terribly expensive to buy hay here. My cows came from a grass fed/grass finish operation.

August 23, 2012 at 9:32 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)