Bulls sterile

[aj]

Had a neighbor semen check 3 older bulls. All three failed I guess because the cold weather smoked the ole testes. Any other people have problems out there?

 

[cowman 52]

Do you recken the pipes might be clogged?

 

[knabe]

Was the failure due to droplets on the head middle and tail?

Was just reading about this and temp can make a diff.

 

[knabe]

Was your th carrier bull one of them?

 

[justintime]

I was expecting some semen failures this year as we had one of the coldest winters in over a century, with lots of days of below -40C with wind chill. When we tested all our bulls, they all passed with flying colors including some bulls that were not even a year old yet, in fact some of the younger bulls had some of the highest scores. We had one bull with a slight infection so he could not be passed ( he was the only bull we sold with a deferred semen test and he was our top selling bull at $8200).
I think a common thing that causes a lot of bulls to fail their tests is just them having rusty loads. I am sure if some of these bulls had the opportunity to breed a couple cows before they were tested, that several more would pass. When we had our Charolais herd, I had 4 bulls that we could not get to pass after several semen tests. I had a rancher from Montana stop in and he liked these bulls and wanted me to price them. I told him the story and he said he would buy them and he would turn them out in a large pasture for 6 weeks before they went into the breeding fields. He said he would test them again before they went to breeding fields and if they did not pass he would call me. I never heard a word from him. I saw him a year later and I asked him about this, and he said all the bulls had excellent semen tests.

 

[aj]

Thanks guys.....I always try to have extra back up bulls. My one back up is a yearling behind a two year old though....30 cows. I guess I'll just have to test mine and see......the were always in a wind break. One wonders about those 20 below wind chill days here though.

 

[TPX]

Our main herd sire hadn't passed a semen test for 2 years but bred every cow he was ever with, this year we had a cow slip her calf on the ice early so we put her in with the bull when she was standing 2 weeks before we semen tested and this year he passed with flying colors.  Just needs the old pipes cleaned out. 

I was expecting some semen failures this year as we had one of the coldest winters in over a century, with lots of days of below -40C with wind chill. When we tested all our bulls, they all passed with flying colors including some bulls that were not even a year old yet, in fact some of the younger bulls had some of the highest scores. We had one bull with a slight infection so he could not be passed ( he was the only bull we sold with a deferred semen test and he was our top selling bull at $8200).
I think a common thing that causes a lot of bulls to fail their tests is just them having rusty loads. I am sure if some of these bulls had the opportunity to breed a couple cows before they were tested, that several more would pass. When we had our Charolais herd, I had 4 bulls that we could not get to pass after several semen tests. I had a rancher from Montana stop in and he liked these bulls and wanted me to price them. I told him the story and he said he would buy them and he would turn them out in a large pasture for 6 weeks before they went into the breeding fields. He said he would test them again before they went to breeding fields and if they did not pass he would call me. I never heard a word from him. I saw him a year later and I asked him about this, and he said all the bulls had excellent semen tests.

 

[knabe]

http://www.producer.com/2013/05/breeding-soundness-exams-often-disrupted-by-droplets/


"I believe semen improvement can be sped up by housing young bulls close to cycling females so that they ejaculate off the senescent semen."