I reckon this time of the year is possibly the most frenetic for beef cattle breeders. Spring calving is well underway, and there are plenty of people talking to me about the ups and downs of calving. At the same time the bull selling season in northern NSW and southern Qld is dominating the minds of many producers. Meanwhile, in the back of everyones mind is the question about what the spring will be like and if we can finally move towards a good season and a strong market.
I've been giving this time of year some thought as I travel to meet clients and attend bull sales in the north.
A couple of things stand out for me. Firstly it seems like 80% of the people I speak to are looking for bulls specifically to join to heifers. These "heifer bulls" are being sought to address, in many cases, a difficult year for calving heifers.
If you are experiencing difficulty in calving your heifers, don't just blame the bull!
Birth weight is a major cause of calving difficulty. And the bull does contribute to the potential weight of the calf. However, don't neglect the other factors in calving difficulty! You should also consider how well grown your heifers are; what nutritional program they have been managed under and how has your management of this group been undertaken generally.
If you really want to get on top of a problem, you need to know whats going on in that part of your herd.
The second thing I've noticed a lot at recent sales is many producers have not really thought a lot about the structural soundness of the cows within their breeding herd.
It seems that people are confident in looking at bulls and saying they want to make sure of feet or legs or eyes.
But when I ask them whats the general level of structural soundness in their herds, on more than one occasion I've been told the producer just doesn't know.
I have to say it makes selecting a bull for long term herd improvement, a real challenge. Unless you know where your herd sits for all attributes, such as growth to meet market specs, for fatness, for size, for temperament and for structure, you can't actually make the most informed decision regarding the influence a new bull may make in your breeding herd.
At best, its an informed hunch! With EBVs and a physical assessment of a bull you can decide if he will generally improve your herd.
But; (and there is always a but) is the bull likely to improve the structural soundness of the herd? Does he help lift your herds muscle score? Will he help correct the level of cow hocked animals or introduce legs that are possibly too straight. In other words will the bull make existing problems better or worse?
If you haven't spent time considering your cow herd and working out whats going on in the herd, I reckon you've made your bull purchasing decisions just a little bit harder.
So while I know it's a busy time right now, try and put aside a bit of time to look objectively at your cows. Start assessing them and make some decisions about each female and her long or short term future in the herd. If you do this now, come joining time, you may actually be able to have a select group to join with the bull and this could be the group that really does achieve the lift in production you wanted!
If you need a hand or a second opinion to help you be more objective about your cows, then I'm always happy to come out and help you work out whats going on.
After all this will help me next year when you start looking for a bull to lift your herd performance that little bit higher!