Leasing a bull

What's the going rate to lease a bull for 60 days? I had someone contact me about leasing a yearling bull from us.

  For just a clean up type of a bull, $1000 to $1500.

Many top bulls are leased by Lautner farms and others and it is usually around $3000 for 60days.Some good bulls have been leased for pick of top calf which is many times actually higher.An average bull that produces average calves will actually cost more than a high performance guality bull just in pounds lost.If a young overworked bull loses 300# the owner has lost near $300.Quality and performance should be a priority over cost.I have leased several top A-I well known bulls[Hostage,Cigar,Jackpot,H.W.clones,Milkman] and in all reality they haven't cost a dime.

obie - just keep in mind if you lease a bull and then have it returned, you are risking spreading disease into your herd.  Also, keep in mind that trich has become a real HUGE issue and once your herd has it, it is a long road back.  You can trich test the return bull, but it will have to be kept in isolation and test 45 days (?) after servicing the last cow.  Keep that in mind when you price.

Also this year while selling bulls, I have had more people ask if I lease bulls because they did not want to open their herd up to a herd that is "open to the highest bidder".  It is similar to the theory of keep in mind you take to bed everyone in your significant others past.

I do not know a whole lot about Trich. Would it be present in heifers? He bought 7 open heifers this year and will try to AI everything 2 and wants my bull to kick out with them to ensure everything is bred. I don't mind testing him to insure that he is clean when he comes back. There are a few details to work out tho the more I look into it.

get him tested and you're fine-

Most of the show calf world seems oblivious to Trich.  Does anybody know if Lautners or any of the other bigger outfits that lease bulls have them tested or not?  They frankly need to be tested everytime they come home.

I've seen two commercial herds in my area ruined with it.

For those that haven't ever had a bull tested for it, you or your vet needs to have very good facilities in my opinion - our bulls didn't care for it too much if you get my drift.  It involves getting a sample from inside the sheath and you could get a vet or a bull hurt very easy if they aren't properly restrained.

The concept of leasing bulls just scares me for a variety of reasons.  I guess I'm just old fashioned.  But if I have a bull good enough to be worth the trouble to lease, I'd be too worried about getting him hurt on somebody else's place and I'd probably want too much money.  If he wasn't good enough to be worth too much money, it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

My general philosophy is if you can't afford a good bull, you don't need to be in the cow business.  If you want to use really good high dollars bulls, that's what AI is for.

With my luck, the first time I tried to lease one of Lautner's or any else's bull the neighbor's bull would jump the fence into my herd and cripple the leased bull fighting.

Rented a bull from lautner's last year. They do trich test before you pick it up, then you have to have one done a week or two before you return it to them.

For 60 days it was like $3,000, depending on the bull.

I'm impressed Lautner's do that and require that.

The Lautner bulls all have a Trich tested ear tag with date and part of the agreement is a clean test at end of lease.You can have a calf out of an unknown bull that is as good as any promoted bull and most buyers except the real sharp ones want a Monopoly or H.W. or W.A.due to the number that have turned out.Most herd bulls usually are mated to 40 cows or less and highly promoted bulls may have several thousand to pick from.I have seen some nice bulls that were not famous until they were in in the right hands.Bull promotion is expensive and not many people can do it right.Many have tried and only a few have made a profitable business out of it.