By the middle of June most cows are bred to the first bulls turned out, and that’s exactly when a lot of producers stop paying attention to the pasture. The bulls are out, the exam papers are in the drawer, and the assumption is that things are getting done. Sometimes they’re not. A bull can pass a breeding soundness exam in April and go lame, sull up, or get run off by a bigger bull three weeks into the season. Nobody’s there to see it, and the first sign you get is a strung-out calving next February.
A semen test tells you a bull was fertile the day the vet pulled the sample. It says nothing about whether he’ll walk, whether he’ll fight for cows, or whether he’ll still be sound in July. Breeding is physical work, and a bull is working hardest right now.
Ride Through and Actually Watch Them
The cheapest thing you can do this month is spend an hour a few times a week just sitting in the pasture watching. You want to see bulls up and moving, checking cows, following the ones that are close to standing heat. A bull lying in the shade by himself while cows graze off in a corner is telling you something. So is a bull standing alone at the edge of the bunch, head down, not interested.
If you’ve got several bulls in one pasture, watch how they sort out. Two bulls will spend real energy fighting for dominance, and the loser sometimes drifts to the far side and quits working. On big country he might not even be in the same drainage as the cows for days at a time. That’s a bull you’re feeding for nothing during the only weeks he’s supposed to earn his keep.
Look at how many cows are still riding each other. Early on you’ll see a lot of standing activity. If you’re still seeing heavy heat activity in a group four and five weeks in, the same cows are coming back around, and that means they aren’t getting settled. That’s your cue to get a hand on what’s going on.
Feet, Legs, and the Injuries You Can’t See From the Truck
Foot rot, a stone bruise, a strained stifle, a cut sheath — any of these will pull a bull out of production without him going off feed or looking obviously sick from a distance. A sore-footed bull won’t chase a cow across a coulee, and he won’t mount if it hurts to bear weight. Get close enough to see him take a few steps. A short stride, a dropped head with each step on one side, or heat and swelling in a joint are all worth a closer look before it turns into a bull you’re hauling home in the middle of breeding.
Penis and sheath injuries happen during the act of breeding and won’t show up on the papers from spring. A bull who mounts and then backs off, or who has a swollen, dropped sheath, is done for the season whether he wants to be or not. The sooner you catch it, the sooner you can get a replacement out there while there’s still time for cows to settle in a tight window.
Don’t Ask One Bull to Do Two Bulls’ Work
Most mature bulls in decent shape can cover somewhere in the range of one bull to twenty-five or thirty cows on manageable country, and young bulls should carry a lighter load. But those rules of thumb assume every bull is working. Lose one to a bad foot in a pasture where you were already running a tight ratio, and the ones left over get stretched past what they can cover, especially on rough range where they’re walking miles a day.
Keep a sound spare or two close by if you can. A bull held back in a corral or a small trap costs almost nothing to have on standby, and being able to swap in a fresh one the day you find a problem is what keeps your calving window from sliding a full cycle later.
Come pregnancy check this fall, the difference between a producer who watched his bulls and one who didn’t shows up in the spread of the calf crop. Late calves are lighter at weaning and worth less, and the open cows the marginal bull left behind come off the payroll entirely. An hour in the pasture this month is cheap insurance against both.
