Beef AI/Bulls MEGATHREAD

tanko

QCD is off VIO too, have a couple of cows off him here, nice medium sized animals, good quality bulls of him too.

Lady Haywire

I gave out about Bivouac earlier, retracted it after twins matured. Tried to use him again on a heifer, she chose neighbours bull instead :rolleyes:

ZGM, not used him before but have seen some serious, serious calves off him, all off blue cows but packing along the rib as well as the arse.

I really regret what I said about Pottlereagh Mark too, calf is the hairiest, most golden of the group & will make the most now I reckon.

valtra2

My replacements for this year to calf down on top and the bottom is the ones for ai this year. Usually pick 10 best and ai for 6 weeks and what stays in calf is kept and rest sold. Not sure what I will go with this year for bull

Hard Knocks

Lady Haywire wrote: »

I gave out about Bivouac earlier, retracted it after twins matured. Tried to use him again on a heifer, she chose neighbours bull instead :rolleyes:

ZGM, not used him before but have seen some serious, serious calves off him, all off blue cows but packing along the rib as well as the arse.

I really regret what I said about Pottlereagh Mark too, calf is the hairiest, most golden of the group & will make the most now I reckon.

What type cow would suit Mark?

Lady Haywire

Hard Knocks wrote: »

What type cow would suit Mark?

I say a taller plain frame Limousin but see what others say!

tanko

valtra2 wrote: »

My replacements for this year to calf down on top and the bottom is the ones for ai this year. Usually pick 10 best and ai for 6 weeks and what stays in calf is kept and rest sold. Not sure what I will go with this year for bull

How do you find the docility of Derreen Declan calves?
Some of mine are a bit lively sometimes but could be coming from the cows.

essgee268

tanko wrote: »

QCD is off VIO too, have a couple of cows off him here, nice medium sized animals, good quality bulls of him too.

How are they for Milk

tanko

essgee268 wrote: »

How are they for Milk

Good enough i think, their calves seem to thrive well anyway. I suppose other Sim Bulls will bring more milk but how muck milk does a suckler cow need to have.
QCD seems to breed medium sized blocky cattle, that are very good docility wise. I wouldn't be afraid to use him again anyway, good bull to breed a handy cow for wet land i'd say.

essgee268

tanko wrote: »

Good enough i think, their calves seem to thrive well anyway. I suppose other Sim Bulls will bring more milk but how muck milk does a suckler cow need to have.
QCD seems to breed medium sized blocky cattle, that are very good docility wise. I wouldn't be afraid to use him again anyway, good bull to breed a handy cow for wet land i'd say.

My Best Cow ever with her QCD calf. Now coming 3 and due in FEB.

tanko

Nice unit, lovely colouring on the calf. What is she in-calf to?

essgee268

tanko wrote: »

Nice unit, lovely colouring on the calf. What is she in-calf to?

SEAFORT GILL

Sugarbowl

Baalbec10 wrote: »

Excellent bull, very docile, good growth. We have two beguin heifers, 3/4 continental bred both weighing 600kg in September, born last April. Will be over 650 kg at housing in calf to knell. Killed a 16 month bull during the summer, from a hca x freisin heifer from beguin, killed out at u-3-, he is well worth the extra bif for the straw. Excellent bull all around. Will try get up pictures of his calves on saturday

Do you have any trouble calving the Beguin out of heifers? What age would you be calving them down at?

Baalbec10

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Do you have any trouble calving the Beguin out of heifers? What age would you be calving them down at?

Calve down at 22 to 24 months, they are well looked after the first winter and are run with the cows the following year getting moved every 2 to 3 days. No calving Jack used yet, only had to pull one myself this year,it didn't take much. heifer was out of a Bb ai bull so the blue camethrough in the calf.

Baalbec10

Baalbec10 wrote: »

Calve down at 22 to 24 months, they are well looked after the first winter and are run with the cows the following year getting moved every 2 to 3 days. No calving Jack used yet, only had to pull one myself this year,it didn't take much. heifer was out of a Bb ai bull so the blue camethrough in the calf.

Beguin calves this summer

Sugarbowl

Thanks for sharing - fine calves altogether. Will locate a few of those straws. Have a few maiden heifers for AI shortly so they would be nice to try!

Baalbec10

1st pic. Beguin bull calf off a ballymckeogh lucas heifer
2nd pic. Carrickbrack hutch bull off a charolais crosscow, gonna push him on this winter and see can I show him or sell him for a breeding bull. 97% charolais doing 1.8 kg since birth only getting 2 kg of nuts with the last 6 weeks.
3rd pic, islavale cracker heifer off my best charolais cross cow going back to pirate.
Any advice on getting a bull to the size and weight of the pedigree bulls at the shows??

Limestone Cowboy

Baalbec10 wrote: »

1st pic. Beguin bull calf off a ballymckeogh lucas heifer
2nd pic. Carrickbrack hutch bull off a charolais crosscow, gonna push him on this winter and see can I show him or sell him for a breeding bull. 97% charolais doing 1.8 kg since birth only getting 2 kg of nuts with the last 6 weeks.
3rd pic, islavale cracker heifer off my best charolais cross cow going back to pirate.
Any advice on getting a bull to the size and weight of the pedigree bulls at the shows??

My stock bull is by hutch. Some calves to pile on the kilos.

Base price

squinn2912 wrote: »

Anyone used the shorthorn bull Chapelton Kingsley? Ai man told me he’s far too hard calving for heifers but from what I can see he’s just 3% CD

IMO the calving figure is mostly coming from dairy herds, cows as opposed to heifers. Pedigree AI usage is minimal in Shorthorn as most breeders use stock bull. Also the figure is only 38% reliable so there is a lot of room for error. I would go with you AI mans recommendation.

Have you looked at SH4319 Hussar or SH4748 Firefox - https://webapp.icbf.com/v2/app/bull-search/view/1489022412
I have used both on heifers this year so fingers crossed.

Sugarbowl

I’ve a cow bulled with Hussar calving in March. He has only 7 calves on ICBF so not much proof there yet. Hoping for a milking heifer off him! :-)

Base price

Sugarbowl wrote: »

I’ve a cow bulled with Hussar calving in March. He has only 7 calves on ICBF so not much proof there yet. Hoping for a milking heifer off him! :-)

I bought three heifer calves this year from a dairy farmer friend by Matrix SH4209. I hope to make suckers out of them and maybe double suck if it works out.

squinn2912

Base price wrote: »

IMO the calving figure is mostly coming from dairy herds, cows as opposed to heifers. Pedigree AI usage is minimal in Shorthorn as most breeders use stock bull. Also the figure is only 38% reliable so there is a lot of room for error. I would go with you AI mans recommendation.

Have you looked at SH4319 Hussar or SH4748 Firefox - https://webapp.icbf.com/v2/app/bull-search/view/1489022412
I have used both on heifers this year so fingers crossed.

Thanks for your feedback. Some of the spring heifers were served with SH4209 Matrix. He's down for 7% CD with 90% reliability so on the face of it might be a bit harder calving. I don't adore the look of him but we decided we'd try a few shorthorns. So there's two more straws of him used now. Would give nice, colored replacements off lim heifers and the bull calves would do as well as AA, HE or the likes of parthanese or aubrac. Should be quiet cattle too.

Hussar only has data taken from 7 births from what I can see so not much reliability. You're right though it's as well to go with the AI man's recommendation. At times, I wonder though does the recommendation come from what's sitting in the tank more than anything else.

Who2

squinn2912 wrote: »

Thanks for your feedback. Some of the spring heifers were served with SH4209 Matrix. He's down for 7% CD with 90% reliability so on the face of it might be a bit harder calving. I don't adore the look of him but we decided we'd try a few shorthorns. So there's two more straws of him used now. Would give nice, colored replacements off lim heifers and the bull calves would do as well as AA, HE or the likes of parthanese or aubrac. Should be quiet cattle too.

Hussar only has data taken from 7 births from what I can see so not much reliability. You're right though it's as well to go with the AI man's recommendation. At times, I wonder though does the recommendation come from what's sitting in the tank more than anything else.

Don’t use any more shorthorn if you have any sense. I was chasing the exact same thing a few years back, my bulls all came roan and my heifers all came completely red. Ive four cows out of them that while they throw a reasonable calf, there will be no prize winners, they seem to stay very small too and progeny aren’t keeping up with the limo cows in terms of weight gain. There’s a reason the majority of lads like a limo cow and a ch bull. You just can’t go wrong. My shorthorns all got the ch bull this year so it’ll be good to see next back end what way they have clicked. If it doesn’t work they’ll get the gate, but they will only be 5-550 kg max weight. If it’s the roan look your after go for a lm x Bb.

patsy_mccabe

What is with the roan colour? Do lads think they will have loads of milk or what?

squinn2912

Who2 wrote: »

Don’t use any more shorthorn if you have any sense. I was chasing the exact same thing a few years back, my bulls all came roan and my heifers all came completely red. Ive four cows out of them that while they throw a reasonable calf, there will be no prize winners, they seem to stay very small too and progeny aren’t keeping up with the limo cows in terms of weight gain. There’s a reason the majority of lads like a limo cow and a ch bull. You just can’t go wrong. My shorthorns all got the ch bull this year so it’ll be good to see next back end what way they have clicked. If it doesn’t work they’ll get the gate, but they will only be 5-550 kg max weight. If it’s the roan look your after go for a lm x Bb.

I know it’s pure madness just an option for the heifers I wouldn’t be confident with a blue in them. Two of the bigger spring ones did get blue come to think though. It’s just with my own lim bull I like to try something else. Red roan a better seller than Angus imo and at least as good as other heifer options. I tried a few sim on the lim heifers and lim bull Ivor on two sim heifers I’m not going all out shorthorn or anything

Hard Knocks

Who2 wrote: »

Don’t use any more shorthorn if you have any sense. I was chasing the exact same thing a few years back, my bulls all came roan and my heifers all came completely red. Ive four cows out of them that while they throw a reasonable calf, there will be no prize winners, they seem to stay very small too and progeny aren’t keeping up with the limo cows in terms of weight gain. There’s a reason the majority of lads like a limo cow and a ch bull. You just can’t go wrong. My shorthorns all got the ch bull this year so it’ll be good to see next back end what way they have clicked. If it doesn’t work they’ll get the gate, but they will only be 5-550 kg max weight. If it’s the roan look your after go for a lm x Bb.

The LMxSH cow is a great dam and then cross with the CH
The CHxSH was a nice fauny yellow good selling calf

Who2

Hard Knocks wrote: »

The LMxSH cow is a great dam and then cross with the CH
The CHxSH was a nice fauny yellow good selling calf

Growth rates would be a bit slack from my experience and the calves lack a little confirmation. A good lm cow an ch bull all the way. I used to like the si cow but like the sh they can lack shape. IMO any lad sticking at suckling needs to have what everyone wants, middle of the road lads aren’t going to pay anymore.

squinn2912

Who2 wrote: »

Growth rates would be a bit slack from my experience and the calves lack a little confirmation. A good lm cow an ch bull all the way. I used to like the si cow but like the sh they can lack shape. IMO any lad sticking at suckling needs to have what everyone wants, middle of the road lads aren’t going to pay anymore.

That’s quite strong I agree in part. There are sim guys or bb guys or Hereford guys all doing well. I think you can get too far into lim and they’re becoming slack in terms of milk so my idea is to try to introduce better milk into replacements. Trying to buy them isn’t easy.
Do you go with a maternal lim bull in order to get your replacements?

Mac Taylor

Who2 wrote: »

Growth rates would be a bit slack from my experience and the calves lack a little confirmation. A good lm cow an ch bull all the way. I used to like the si cow but like the sh they can lack shape. IMO any lad sticking at suckling needs to have what everyone wants, middle of the road lads aren’t going to pay anymore.

I wouldn’t mind using a ch but working full time puts me off using one. It would have to be easy calving and lively calf’s at birth. How do lads find ch?

Limestone Cowboy

Mac Taylor wrote: »

I wouldn’t mind using a ch but working full time puts me off using one. It would have to be easy calving and lively calf’s at birth. How do lads find ch?

Probably not worth it if you are working. Might get 100 more for a chx calf but thats only 2k over 20 cows and if you are not there with them it would be easy lose a few. Don't think I would call any ch bull easy calving compared to lims. Mine were great to get up and suck once I managed to get them out but that wouldn't be normal for charolais either.

tanko

Mac Taylor wrote: »

I wouldn’t mind using a ch but working full time puts me off using one. It would have to be easy calving and lively calf’s at birth. How do lads find ch?

You could try Fiston, very easy calved on cows, lively calves, works well on Lim cows with a bit of size to them.