The last few weeks have seen plenty of bulls sold into southern Australian breeding herds. The general feedback I'm getting from vendors and others appears to reflect a sense of confidence and optimism for the direction of the beef industry into 2014.
I reckon that sense of confidence is great news. Its very easy to become overwhelmed by the frustration of the drought and the challenges of the industry in northern NSW and northern Australia.
One story which did catch my eye this week came from Victoria. You may have seen the story about knee surgery being performed on an angus bull. Not just any bull, but one which was sold for the record Australian Angus price of $91,000.
I reckon there are lots of things people could say about this story. Its an extraordinary operation on any large animal, and its exciting to know this capacity is available in the right circumstances.
No doubt, the bull has been used to collect semen from for use in AI programs as well as being well insured.
And there is probably plenty of speculation among his owners and managers as to how he injured himself and what will happened in his rehabilitation.
When I read this story I was prompted to think about what lessons I could take from this for myself and my clients, particularly in the current southern bull sale season and as my northern clients go looking for this years sires.
Firstly without a doubt, assessing you bull for his structural soundness is an over riding priority. If you have chosen him for his genetic potential, based on his EBVs then you need to balance that with carefully checking your intend bulls feet, legs, shoulders and hips. I reckon I say this to people every week, but I don't think I can ever say it enough. If your bull has trouble with his feet and legs, he will have trouble walking to cows, mating with them and worse still, putting the genes for bad structure into the herd.
Don't neglect to plan what you will do when you bring your bull home. How will you introduce him into the herd? And more importantly how will you manage him as he integrates with the other bulls in your sire battery? Last year I wrote about bringing your bull home, and there are some useful pointers in that blog.
I reckon the other point this article re-enforced for me was the importance of regularly inspecting your stock for injuries and for general health. If you can't prevent something happening, quick action can ensure the problem doesn't get worse. Of equal importance is the fact that if you catch a problem early you can also start planning on what your backup options may be.
As with most things, if you plan early and think through the implications of an event, you give yourself time to develop good strategies to minimise the impact of a problem on your business and allow you to be proactive rather than constantly reactive.