Bull Advice

[clubbie2011]

I know this question is asked a lot, but I would like some advice on what bull to use on
my heifer. This is my first experience with all of the breeding and the like. One of our
good friends is going to AI her for me.

She is a little over two years old, and this will be her first calf. She is out of a Who Made Who cow
and her sire is Heat Wave. We plan to have her AI'd in late May or June. I was thinking possibly
Ali 2, or maybe Doc Silver.  She's the black heifer in my
display picture, but if needed be I can post a more recent one of her.

Thanks for the input!  ;D

 

[aandtcattle]

My advice to you would be not to be too greedy on her first calf and use a light birthweight, proven angus bull the first year.  Check out Rockin Horse Tailor Made at Select Sires.  We have calved nearly 100 head of 2 year olds to him with no problems and the calves are very complete.  You will get a live calf thats born easily and your heifer will breed right back.  If you get a Tailor Made heifer out of her, keep her for a cow, they are awesome! 

 

[kevin guinn]

If you are going to go with an Angus bull you need to go with In Focus. He is the most proven Angus bull. with very low birth weights. We use him all the time, he is the only bull we AI to.

 

[hamburgman]

I would suggest Foreplay, they come out easy and they make good females, might even make a good female out of a HW cow (lol).  Otherwise i agree you can use an angus, Northern Improvement females always sell well as do anchor daughters, just a thought.

 

[aandtcattle]

In Focus is a great bull for calving ease, no arguement there.  The cattle are ok to look at but some of the udders I have seen recently on In Focus daughters have been far from good. Just FYI

 

[mark tenenbaum]

DNCC Bodybuilder-he is an OCC Anchor out of a Pridette cow-years of calving ease-and they get THICK-he is the sire of TLM Bouncer-a highly used and lowest BW epd maine there is-along with Majors Money Man-another choice. O0

 

[MCC]

Angus is probably your best bet but if you are wanting to use something else Foreplay would be good. But I would use a bull called XFL. We have calved alot of heifers that were bred to him and haven't pulled any. He throws freaky fronted good calves. We kept a bull out of him for a cleanup bull that worked well for us and had a heifer calf out of a two year old that stood second in her class in the fancy heifer show at the American Royal a few years ago. 

 

[aandtcattle]

This post is for "Dirt".  I tried to reply to your pm, but it kept saying that the system could not find the user "Dirt".  I thought "that's funny, he sent me a pm?" You can buy Tailor Made (7An288) semen from Select Sires.  He's priced at 15/straw all day long.  It is high quality semen too as we have been well over 80% conception using him on synchronized heifers!

 

[ploughshare]

The last I checked with my ABS rep  In Focus was not producing and in short supply (relative to demand). He may have caught up by now.  I agree, use an Angus bull.  What are your choices for suppliers? I would suggest either the Northern Improvement or Final Answer lines for your heifer.
My best advice - your virgin heifer has enough to learn with the first calf, make it as easy as possible for her in your situation.  She will pay you back many times over if you plan an easy first parturition.

 

[Freddy]

Final Answer is not able to even be ordered now because of back order, is Mytty 50.00 ,N.I.not sure on him .  Bismarck might be available ...There is some Charolais bulls used in this country with out any problems .....We have Chars we use all the time .  Northern Gun is one of many N.I. sons out there ...Reflection works also ...N.I. is carried by Vision .....

 

[farmboy]

I wouldn't hesitate to breed her to total solution. Throw all this angus stuff out the window if you want a decent calf

 

[showsteerdlux]

If you are going to go with an Angus bull you need to go with In Focus. He is the most proven Angus bull. with very low birth weights. We use him all the time, he is the only bull we AI to.

If you want unmarketable, poor growth, and flat pi** poor calves use In Focus.

 

[aandtcattle]

To the last 2 posts:  Did you not read in this kid's initial post that he is new to this thing and really wants an easily born calf with no problems?  Let's see? We know we are dealing with a heatwave daughter being calved by a novice cattleman.  Ok, with that much being said, how much fire do we want to play with?  A maine "calving ease bull"?  I don't personally think so.  A "highly proven, calving ease club calf sire"? I doubt it very much.  Lets get the first calf on the ground, then get a little more aggressive.  Boys, you can talk your crap all you want about angus but lets face it, a fine boned, no-muscled live one still sells better than a stout, hairy, big boned dead one any day of the week.  Plus the heifer will breed back a lot better if she aint all tore up. As Napoleon Dynamite would say: "GOSH!"

 

[clubbie2011]

Thanks for your suggestions guys, I'm gonna look up the bulls soon.  

Like stated before, I am very new to breeding cattle. This is my first one, actually, and I don't
want to jeopardize her or her calf. My main goal is to have a live calf on the ground and
a heifer that can be bred back.

 

[aandtcattle]

You are on the right track clubbie.  Keep that mindset with you forever, it will save you from being the first responder to a major trainwreck.

 

[OH Breeder]

There are alot of options.
You can go angus but you can also go Red Angus, Shorthorn, Simmi and as Freddy said there are some sure fire Char's too. If you can find out anything about your heifers dam's history that will help. Did your heifer have a big birthweight. The other thing for you to consider is what carrier is close to you. ABS, Cattle Visions, Select Sires etc. for smaller volume of semen you may want to pick the carrier who is closer to you to reduce shipping cost.

Right off the top of my head the sure fire calving ease sires for us have been

Northern Improvement- Makes awesome females and his steers have done amazing for us.$30/straw
Gizmo- adds lots of rib shape and good momma's but won't give you any size-$75-100/straw- GIve you a chance to register Shorthorn Plus calf
SS Traveler 6807 of T510- Lots of perform start as peanuts but grow and perform. Makes nice females semen $30/straw
Fat Tony, Above and Beyond,- Red Angus lots of folks on here can give you the inside track on RA sires.
Dream On- Simmi sire that offers dependable calving ease option for Simmi's. Chance for a registerable foundation Simmi

Do your research before you stick her. You 'll be fine. Calving ease first.

 

[showsteerdlux]

To the last 2 posts:  Did you not read in this kid's initial post that he is new to this thing and really wants an easily born calf with no problems?  Let's see? We know we are dealing with a heatwave daughter being calved by a novice cattleman.  Ok, with that much being said, how much fire do we want to play with?  A maine "calving ease bull"?  I don't personally think so.  A "highly proven, calving ease club calf sire"? I doubt it very much.  Lets get the first calf on the ground, then get a little more aggressive.  Boys, you can talk your crap all you want about angus but lets face it, a fine boned, no-muscled live one still sells better than a stout, hairy, big boned dead one any day of the week.  Plus the heifer will breed back a lot better if she aint all tore up. As Napoleon Dynamite would say: "GOSH!"

I didn't say Angus, fact is I have some Angus, and it is all we use on the commercial cows. However, In Focus is not what I would describe as a good breeding piece. Yea the calves are small, but they really don't grow. JMO

 

[olsun]

      Go back and read aandtcattle's post, then read it again, he says everything that needs saying. I wish that I could have read what he posted many years ago, I'm sure I would have sold a bunch more cattle over the years. His advice is solid.