Our very first calf. A red Angus bull calf born on April 24, 2014.
On our farm right now we have four calves on the ground. That is four out of an expected 10. It has been a whirlwind of a week, with lessons learned at every turn.
We have spent a lot of time talking about selecting your bull and the option of using a calving ease bull on this site. With 50% of our births thus far needing assistance (2 out of 4), we are learning that you really do take your chances when selecting a bull, good genetics or not. Life, or in this case, calving, doesn’t always go exactly as planned.
Let us explain……
Last summer we leased a yearling, black Angus bull to breed our 10 red Angus heifers. This bull had good calving ease genetics, and we were hoping that he would prove to be a good calving ease bull himself. Calving ease was especially important for us as we were dealing with first-calf heifers and this was our first time calving.
Our fourth calf. A 110-pound black Angus bull calf born on April 30, 2014. This picture was taken just minutes after we pulled him out.
Of the four calves we have on the ground, we had to assist in pulling two of those.
One of those two calves was a whopping 110 pounds! That is a big calf for a mature cow, let alone a first-calf heifer.
He is a brute.
Despite our bull’s good calving ease genetics, he is not proving himself as a calving ease bull.
A 110-pound calf is simply not calving ease.
Pulling our first calf during a snow/rain/sleet-storm. This is the same calf in the first picture in this post.
Our other three calves were 80, 86 and 87 pounds. We had to pull the 86 pound calf.
Not what we consider calving ease.
Our 3rd calf being born. A black Angus heifer born on April 28, 2014 at 87 pounds.Our 2nd calf being born. A red Angus bull calf. Born on April 28, 2014 at 80 pounds.
The 80 and 87 pound calves came out like a dream, though. Exactly how you want your labor and delivery to go.
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Even though they came out easy they are still on the larger side.
Our desired birth weight for calves from a first-calf heifer and a calving ease bull is 60-75 pounds.
Before we know it, in about 2 1/2 months, another breeding season will be upon us. We will be leasing another bull and you better believe that we will be making that selection very, very carefully and keeping all of the advice that we give in our selecting a bull post in mind.
We do have our eye on a proven calving ease bull that we would like to lease this summer. Even so, you take your chances with whatever bull you pick.
We got into the beef cattle business knowing that, as with any business, there are risks and there are rewards, there are ups and there are downs.
Our 110-pound calf, B7, nursing his mom.
As I am typing this, I can see our newest calf nursing his mom. He is a big boy, and we had to pull him but that calf is strong and healthy.
We had written this post BEFORE our calving season started. With four calves on the ground, we feel that we need to add a few caveats. In fact, we have written another post, partner to this one, adding information and “words of wisdom” in selecting a bull. Please click here to read that post.
Bull selection is one of the most important elements to having a successful cow-calf operation. Having the right genetics that match well with your environment is critical to your herd’s performance. Because calves will get half of their genetic material from the bull and a single bull can breed many cows, choosing the right bull has the greatest single influence in improving the genetics of a herd. You need to carefully consider the goals of your breeding program and your operation as a whole and what traits and genetics you are looking to add to your herd.
Some questions you should consider in selecting a bull are:
Will you be using a bull from within your own herd or will you be leasing a bull?
Using your own bull is ideal as you are familiar with his genetic and heath history. In addition, your bull should be comfortable and familiar with your property and with you. Furthermore, you do not have to contend with a lease contract, a breeding fee and the dynamics of transporting the bull. However, bulls typically must be purchased from a seedstock operation or another farm to avoid genetic problems due to inbreeding.
Leasing a bull is a great option for those without the financial means, facilities and/or the desire to have their own bull. Here are some things to consider:
When leasing a bull, you need to consider the health of the bull and of the herd that he is coming from. You do not want your leased bull to introduce a disease to your herd. You want him to be in the best physical shape possible, with current vaccinations. Ask to see his pedigree and his health records. Ask to see any and all records on him. Ask about his breeding success and the condition and performance of his offspring. Conformation is important to consider in selecting your bull. Your bull should be well-muscled (too much can be a negative, though) with a deep chest and short, muscular neck. He should have a good coat (indication of good diet) and alert eyes. He should be docile and quiet and allow you to get close to him and walk around him.
Pay close attention to the condition of the other animals on the farm and of the cleanliness of the farm as a whole. If the farm has sickly animals and has unsanitary and/or unsafe facilities and pasture conditions, you need to think twice about leasing a bull from them – even if the price is a good deal. This is not the time to ‘save’ money. You know the saying “You get what you pay for”? Remember that when deciding on a bull to lease.
Have a written lease contract with all conditions and restrictions clearly outlined, including all fees.
What type of calves work best in your operation?
Are you looking for a bull that throws large calves?
With a larger calf, you have the opportunity for more gain, a higher weaning weight and a larger paycheck in the Fall when you sell the calves as feeders.
A larger calf may be able to handle weather-related and other stress better than a smaller calf.
A larger calf, though, can make labor and delivery more difficult on the cow, especially if you have a small-framed cow and/or a first-calf heifer. You may have to provide a lot of assistance to the mother cow during delivery.
Do you have the facilities, equipment and the know-how to assist in pulling calves?
Do you work on the farm full-time or do you have a job that takes you away from the farm during the calving season?
Are you looking for more compact, smaller-framed calves?
Labor and delivery, especially for a first-calf heifer, may be easier with a smaller calf. Nothing is guaranteed, though.
Possibly less or no assistance needed at delivery with pulling calves.
Advantageous if you have a full-time job away from the farm and/or do not have good facilities for calving (e.g., barn with a stall to restrain mother cow while you pull the calf).
Smaller calves will obviously have lower birth weights and you need to consider such impacts on weaning weight and average daily gains if you sell these calves as feeders and also, yearling weights if you are using these calves as replacement heifers or adding to your herd.
Are you breeding heifers?
When breeding heifers you especially need to consider the size and age of the bull and the type of calves he produces.
You may want to consider a calving ease bull for your first-calf heifers.
Putting a mature, low-calving ease bull on a first-calf heifer may produce a very hard and difficult calving for that heifer and leave that animal in poor physical condition. The stress of a difficult delivery could affect the rate and degree of bonding with the calf, milk production and the success of being bred-back.
Calving ease. Heifer calving ease EPDs were calculated using a multi-trait animal model including birth weight and calving score data. The result is a heifer calving ease direct and heifer calving ease maternal EPD, as defined below.
Calving Ease Direct (CED): Calving Ease Direct EPD is expressed as percentage of unassisted births, with a higher value indicating greater calving ease in first-calf heifers. It predicts the average difference in ease with which a sire’s calves will be born when he is bred to first-calf heifers.
Calving Ease Maternal (CEM): Calving Ease Maternal EPD is expressed in percentage unassisted births with a higher value indicating greater calving ease in first-calf daughters. It predicts the average ease with which a sire’s daughters will calve as first calf heifers when compared to daughters of other sires.
Are you breeding cows?
While CED is intended to be considered in breeding first-calf heifers, some of the top Angus breeding programs, such as Beckton Stock Farm in Sheridan, WY encourage using their calving ease bulls on your cows as well. They explain that calves from these cows can provide a good source for replacement heifers in your herd.
Using a non-calving ease bull may also be appropriate for breeding your cows. A mature cow has had more experience in calving and in maternal care-taking than a first-calf heifer. As such, she may be better equipped to deliver a calf not sired by a calving ease bull.
Calving Ease and Gestation Length
The ideal bull in the cow-calf operation is one who throws small calves that have high weaning weights in the fall. The advantage of having both calving ease and high pay weights is an attractive one, and can often be achieved by using short-gestation bulls.
The standard gestation length of a cow is around 283 days.
The fastest period of calf growth in the womb is during the last days of pregnancy (often around 1 pound per day, or more)
By being born several days earlier, a calf with fast growth potential can be born at a lighter weight, making for easy calving, and still achieve a high weaning weight in the fall.
Short Gestation Length (SGL) bulls produce smaller calves that will still reach maturity at a large size. Therefore, calves from these bulls should not be kept as replacement heifers with a smaller mature size in mind. Your cows may have low birth weights, but they’ll still be large at matureity.
That said, you can have a short-gestational bull that is ALSO a calving ease bull. Our friend and mentor has had great success in using these SGL, calving ease bulls and does use some of these calves as replacement heifers and/or additional heifers to his herd.
Even more time and thought needs to go into planning your breeding season when using SGL bulls, though.
Using a SGL bull can be advantageous for your heifers and cows.
An earlier birth allows the mother more time to start cycling again and to build back her body condition for being bred back.
Feed Efficiency/Forage Convertibility:
Economically viable characteristics in a cattle herd include the ability to maintain weight on low quality forage. In fact, beef cattle were originally developed to take advantage of lower quality forage that wasn’t fit for dairy cattle, sheep and other livestock. Producers should look for a bull that can maintain his weight or even gain weight on a grass-only/roughage diet EVEN when that grass and roughage is of a lower quality.
Easy-keeper/easy fleshing: A bull that can convert forage efficiently is considered an easy-keeper, or easy-doer. This trait is often described as fleshing ability. The ability of a bull to maintain his weight on a grass-only or roughage diet is desirable, but is often related to smaller mature frame, which can sometimes impact market demand for your cattle.
Many bulls are growth-tested on a high octane ration that isn’t a realistic situation on the average cattle farm. These bulls may gain lots of weight in the feedlot, but turned out to pasture they can fall apart. If a bull loses weight or cannot maintain his weight on a grass-only/roughage diet he is considered a hard-doer and will cost producers more in feed. Tread cautiously in leasing a bull that is a hard-doer. Do you want to bred that into your herd? If your operation is grass-only/roughage, you may struggle with daily gains and weaning weights in feeder calves from sires that are hard-doers.
There are many factors to consider when developing your breeding program and quite frankly, for newbies like us, it can be a tad bit overwhelming. We are learning every day, as we consider the genetics we want bred into our herd and how to develop a breeding program that meets the goals and needs for the growth of our operation and performance of our animals.
Two sets of genetics go into making a calf and therefore, much thought and genetic consideration needs to be taken into account when deciding what bull to breed to which heifer or cow.
Speaking from personal experience acquired in just these past few weeks, a calving ease bull or a bull with calving ease genetics does not 100% guarantee a small calf and/or an easy birth. Please click here to read more about our experience.
We’re just getting into the cattle business, but have found ourselves owning a herd of mostly red cattle. Why red? I could spend a lot of time talking about Red Angus cattle and their genetics, but here’s just a brief overview.
When first looking for cattle, I didn’t care much about breed or color. As long as they produced good beef and met some basic requirements for our herd I was satisfied. But after a few unsuccessful journeys looking at poor cattle, I realized that breed does make a difference.
We made contact with a nearby farmer that raised mostly Red Angus cattle. His interests and goals for the farm were just what we wanted in our herd. He also turned out to be an incredible source of knowledge and information that helped us get started.
We soon learned more about Red Angus and why they’ve become such a popular breed and are being used to rebuild the U.S. cattle herd. Here’s why we like ’em.
Red Angus have always been about the commercial cattleman. When other breeds went the way of the show cattle business or super sizing their cows, the Red Angus breed continued to focus on efficiency and the bottom line. The breed didn’t change with the fads, but kept improving on performance-based genetics slowly over time.
Total herd reporting has also helped the breed make positive strides in genetic improvements. Unlike other breeds, the Red Angus Association requires complete performance reporting for the entire herd of a registered Red Angus operation.
The genetic and physical characteristics of cattle in each breed vary substantially. As the saying goes, there’s more variation in animals within breeds than among breeds. Still, as a general rule, Red Angus cattle tend to come from herds that demand smaller framed, easy fleshing, lower maintenance momma cows that wean a high percentage of their body weight and breed back year after year. Those are performance traits we’re looking for in our herd, which means we tend to favor Red Angus in our herd a bit more than the other beef cattle breeds.
For more on the Red Angus breed, here are a few resources:
