Post-breeding season recovery is essential for the bull battery
Breeding season is undoubtedly the most strenuous time of year for a ranch’s bull battery, and while pre-breeding nutrition and management is vital to the herd’s rebreeding success, it is also important to ensure bulls have the resources they need afterwards for adequate recovery.
Often, it is easy to pull bulls from the cow herd and essentially forget about them until they are needed again a year later.
However, multiple cattle industry experts remind producers bull management has an impact on calf crop and herd genetics before and after the breeding season, and they note attention should be paid to bulls post-breeding to get them back on track for the next breeding season.
“To achieve a tight calving pattern that will deliver both a uniform crop of calves and a calf per cow per year requires a breeding season of around 63 days,” states Dr. Ron Clarke, owner of Clarke Communication and Consulting and a veterinarian at the Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners, in an Oct. 18, 2021 article published by Canadian Cattlemen.
“This means for a mature bull running with 36 or more cows at any one time, there is little time for feeding and resting during this intensely active period. It’s completely understandable after this level of exertion, post-breeding recovery can take between four and eight months,” he adds. “A good recovery period is essential for bulls to be fit and ready for next year’s breeding season. Post-breeding recovery is important for all ages of bulls, but special attention to this recovery should be given to young bulls that are still growing.”
Close-up observations
After pulling bulls from the cow herd, producers should allow them some time to rest in closer confinement and use the opportunity to make close-up observations and/or run them through the chute if needed.
Because the breeding season is so physically demanding, Kansas State University (KSU) Veterinarian Dr. Bob Larson notes it is important to evaluate bulls’ feet and legs and check for any other kind of bodily harm. He encourages producers to look for swelling, lameness or other movement restrictions.
“Like offensive linemen, bulls are big, heavy animals, which make them prone to feet and leg issues, especially if they have been walking and breeding in rough pastures,” Larson states during an October 2022 episode of KSU’s Cattle Chat podcast.
Many experts also suggest running bulls through the chute to conduct a general health evaluation, administer any needed vaccinations and/or treat for parasites.
In an Oct. 6, 2023 Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach publication, ISU Extension and Outreach Beef Program Specialist Dr. Chris Clark notes efficacy of external parasite control has often waned by the end of the breeding season, and bulls may have picked up internal parasites while grazing.
He also remarks, “It may be worthwhile to test for things like trichomonas. In a relatively closed herd, this probably isn’t a big concern, but if the bulls have had contact with neighboring herds or if new open cows were added to the herd prior or during the breeding season, testing is wise.”
Oklahoma State University Extension Specialists Parker Henley and Mark Johnson also recommend conducting a breeding soundness exam if bull fertility is in question.
“This can be informative relative to management decisions and save the expense of prepping an infertile bull for an upcoming breeding season,” they say.
Culling decisions
As producers handle their bulls after breeding season, University of Florida Extension Specialist Nick Simmons recommends sorting three ways – mature bulls they plan to maintain, young bulls they plan to develop and cull bulls they plan to sell.
He notes several factors play a role when deciding which bulls to cull, but often the most important are fertility, libido and reproductive failure.
Other reasons include feet and leg injuries; penile injuries; age; temperament; health issues such as lameness, eye issues, lump jaw or respiratory issues and calf quality.
“Although a lot of emphasis is placed on the capacity of the cow to breed a good-quality calf, remember 50 percent of this quality comes from the bull,” Clarke explains.
“Producers should carefully consider whether the cow or bull is responsible for poor-quality calves,” he continues. “One of the ways to identify this is to examine the quality of calves produced by a set of cows bred to the bull. Where overall quality is good, any poor-quality calf is likely to be related to the genetics of the cow rather than the bull.”
Post-breeding nutrition
Often, bulls will come off of summer pasture thinner than they went on, with multiple sources reporting bulls – especially young bulls – dropping one or two body condition scores and up to 200 pounds during the breeding season.
Therefore, it is important to bring bulls back into condition with moderate weight gain over the course of the off season, beginning after bulls are pulled from the herd.
“Even for the bulls one plans on culling, taking time to allow body condition to improve will add value at the time of sale,” Simmons states.
Simmons, among other experts, also notes nutrition is dependent on the age of bulls and the amount of weight they lost during the breeding season.
Clarke says, “Mature bulls in good condition at the end of the breeding season will easily recover any weight lost through access to good-quality grazing, followed by good-quality winter forage without the need for grains or other supplementary feeding.”
Multiple sources note the importance of avoiding overfeeding, since over-conditioned bulls will have low sperm counts and reduced breeding activity. Therefore, mature bulls in fairly good condition should be managed on an all-roughage diet of eight to 10 percent crude protein fed at two percent of their body weight.
“The aim is to get bulls into an ideal body condition score of 2.5 to three,” Clarke says.
Younger bulls, however, may need increased supplementation for recovery, development and growth.
“For young bulls, rations should be formulated to gain one-half to two pounds per day based on age, size and desired weight gain,” suggests Clark. “Young bulls typically lose 50 to 200 pounds during their first breeding season, so prioritizing protein and energy in their diet will promote growth and subsequent reproductive health.”
“Young bulls fed three to six pounds of grain in the winter, roughage at two percent of body weight and total diet protein content of 10 and 11 percent often reach the target rate of gain,” Clark continues. “For bulls used in both spring- and fall-calving herds, young bulls typically need to gain more with a target of two to 2.5 pounds per day to recover from weight loss.”
Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
