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herd. Thus, it pays to monitor bulls and make sure they are able to do their job.


Dominance factors can make a difference in whether the cows are getting bred or not. “If cattle are bred in any pastures with multiple bulls, the bulls should be of similar age and size (and breed),” says Mickelsen. For instance, if there are horned bulls and polled bulls, the horned bulls will be dominant and may keep the polled bulls away from the cows.


“Sometimes, I asked my students to think about this. I’d give them an example of a 2,500 pound Simmental bull in with a 1,200 pound Longhorn bull. Those horns more than make up the difference in size. If you put those two bulls in a pen together, that big bull will walk way around the smaller one because he does not want to get close to those horns!” Even in a horned breed like Longhorns, you should either use just one bull in a group, or bulls of about the same age and size with similar horns.


“Younger bulls should be in a group of cows by themselves, and older bulls in another group. You definitely should watch the older bulls closely to make sure they do not have something wrong. Even in that group, a dominant individual may keep the others from breeding cows,” says Mickelsen.


“Another important factor is size of the pasture,” says Kasimanickam. In western states, the range pastures are huge. Yet some breeders try to maintain the same bull to cow ratio as recommended in smaller pastures, such as one bull to 30 cows. This would be sufficient in a moderate-size pasture, but not in a pasture with hundreds of acres,” he says. In that situation, you may need more bulls, to make sure they can get around the whole pasture and find all the cows in heat.


“When I drive around the countryside with students, we talk about this, because we often see a bull just standing there, and there may be a cow in heat a couple miles away. These are factors that are often not looked at in a natural service situation, but very important,” he explains.


“When you look at the literature, bulls that pass a breeding soundness exam with flying colors before the breeding season may still not have enough breeding potential in the middle of the breeding season. Producers tend to think that one breeding soundness exam is enough to guarantee that the bull will be adequate through the season, but some studies show that bulls may not maintain the same level of breeding soundness by mid- season. This can be due to a lot of factors including, stress, social interaction, nutritional


26 TEXAS LONGHORN JOURNAL i JULY 2017


factors, or maybe not enough libido to get the job done,” says Kasimanickam.


A bull may get foot rot or some other disease that results in a fever. This can affect the bull’s fertility temporarily, since the sperm that were being formed during that time will not be viable. Illness or lameness issues can adversely affect the bull’s performance. Any soreness in a hind limb can make it difficult for him to mount and breed cows.


“It will vary with the farm or ranch, but the producer should try to have close observation of the bull,” he says. Even out on the range or in a large pasture, a person should try to see what is happening with the cattle. Then if something goes wrong or a bull has a problem, he can be brought home, and replaced with another bull.


It is important to make sure the cows in all pastures are disease-free. Some sexually- transmitted diseases can be spread from one cow to the next by the bull. “In many states, it is now mandatory to test for venereal diseases like trichomoniasis. It is wise to test the bulls before putting them with cows. This is always a good investment, beforehand, rather than finding a problem later,” he says.


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