Beef AI/Bulls MEGATHREAD

TPF2012

tanko wrote:

Serious looking unit alrite and figures to match but unproven yet, €28 a straw too i think. Cant see him being easy calved.

Is it worth paying that bit extra for straws from top class bulls to get high quality weanlings for 15 to 20 cows. Surely it would pay off as much as a few extra bags of meal? An ounce of breeding and all that.

charolais0153

TPF2012 wrote: »

Is it worth paying that bit extra for straws from top class bulls to get high quality weanlings for 15 to 20 cows. Surely it would pay off as much as a few extra bags of meal? An ounce of breeding and all that.

There’s as good bulls for a tenner imo

tanko

True, if someone is not getting good quality calves off bulls that cost a tenner a straw then their cows aren't good enough and using expensive straws won't change that.

patsy_mccabe

Lads, there's serious bull**** going on with these expensive straws. Just because a bull's straw is expensive doesn't mean he's a good bull. No way, you can justify those prices for unproven bulls.
Look at Bova AI for example, they are selling good bulls, proven in France at €10 a pop.

Sugarbowl

Was looking for an easy calving LM bull to use on beef heifers and came across Damona (DMM) from Eurogene. Anyone ever use him before?

Homer jay

TPF2012 wrote: »

What about Derrygullinane Kingbull?

He is savage looking bull with great figures but I also think he will be hard enough to calf, 5.9% based on 18 calvings. Who like to try him on a mature cow but not at €28 a straw.

TPF2012

What Lim bull from PG would be recommended to bring a bit of frame while not being too hard calving. Have a XGL heifer here that is going to be very tall off a big SIM cow which I will keep as a replacement ever though his maternal figures aren't great.

bogman_bass

50HX wrote: »

tanko wrote: »

PG dont seem to have much like that at the momemt. The likes of ADX and LM2117 look more like for mature cows, never used either.
Lodge Hamlet looks easy calved, he's small but brings a lot of muscle, €22 a straw tho.
ZAG brings muscle and shape but not the biggest.
Gamin ZGM from Bova is a serious bull and easy calved.
LM 2014 from Dovea looks very good too, easy calved, decent size and muscley.

Any adx i've used over the years are clean bonkers....off of quiet dams, great shape to them tho

Any i’ve Had we’re grand temperament wise. Serious width.
The daughters don’t have enough milk to colour your tea though.

patsy_mccabe

bogman_bass wrote: »

Any i’ve Had we’re grand temperament wise. Serious width.
The daughters don’t have enough milk to colour your tea though.

Exact same experience here.

Hard Knocks

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Was looking for an easy calving LM bull to use on beef heifers and came across Damona (DMM) from Eurogene. Anyone ever use him before?

Haven’t used him, but used JSS
Easy calving but 292 gestation
Have a lovely heifer off him that I’m Keeping for breeding.

Hesitant on DMM as think he’s narrow

Hard Knocks

Has anyone used Tweedale lookout or Clenagh Mischief?
They’ve 2 copies of Q204X gene

charolais0153

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Has anyone used Tweedale lookout or Clenagh Mischief?
They’ve 2 copies of Q204X gene

That mischief bull doesn’t have any calves yet

Hard Knocks

charolais0153 wrote: »

That mischief bull doesn’t have any calves yet

There’s 1 bull calf on ICBF
Could be others not recorded

adne

bogman_bass wrote: »

Any i’ve Had we’re grand temperament wise. Serious width.
The daughters don’t have enough milk to colour your tea though.

Same here. Good sq cattle quiet but no milk even when off milky dams

charolais0153

Hard Knocks wrote: »

There’s 1 bull calf on ICBF
Could be others not recorded

Very few I’d imagine

golodge

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Has anyone used Tweedale lookout or Clenagh Mischief?
They’ve 2 copies of Q204X gene

Have 4 calves from Tweeddale Lookout (3bulls, 1heifer) and a couple cows incalf. Heifer was born at 278days and was pretty skinny and small, ~40kgs, second calf for the cow, but a heifer would have been able to calve such calf no bother. Bull calves were born at 285-291days, 48-56.5kg weight. All out of limx or charx cows. Had to assist to deliver the biggest calf.

Overall, not too bad calving and pretty good shape. The eldest calf is just 3months old, so can't say much yet, but overall quite a good bull. Have two first calvers incalf now. Going to use him some more. Not suitable for harder calved cows or heifers and wouldn't use on a more muscled cow, except if she's a spectacular calver.

That's 7 weeks old calf out of plain, tall limx second calver.

This one is out of charolaisxdairy 10years old cow.


The biggest calf at birth. Calves haven't expressed much of muscles at birth, but they have that Charolais calf look.

antrim1

Anyone using the Sim bulls Earp SI2152 or Fifty Cent SI12469?

Have a lovely batch of sim x heifers will be bulling in the Autumn and looking at them as possibles.

Sugarbowl

I used SI2152 a few years ago. Nice calf and didn't have an issue calving him. Killed out as an R grade bullock, good carcass weight too if I recall.

High bike

antrim1 wrote: »

Anyone using the Sim bulls Earp SI2152 or Fifty Cent SI12469?

Have a lovely batch of sim x heifers will be bulling in the Autumn and looking at them as possibles.

only one Fifty Cent bull calf here from a heifer calving at 24 mts , nice square calf and no issues calving.Will be using him on a few more heifers this year

tanko

antrim1 wrote: »

Anyone using the Sim bulls Earp SI2152 or Fifty Cent SI12469?

Have a lovely batch of sim x heifers will be bulling in the Autumn and looking at them as possibles.

Have used both here, i wouldn't put Earp on heifers anyway, he's a good bull but not easy enough calved for that job.
Fifty cent is easier calved but calves off him are a bit plainer and less muscled than Earp calves, nice square calves off fifty cent all the same.

pure breed

antrim1 wrote:

Anyone using the Sim bulls Earp SI2152 or Fifty Cent SI12469?

Being using Earp for about 3yrs or so. We've got nice heifers off Sim x cows.
Had the first of them calf there in May nice CH x. 2 to calf in fall of year.
Was expecting a better bag of milk.
We got 3 heifers first yr out of 4 and 2 in last two yrs out of 2 straws used.
So his lucky enough for heifers.
Only had the 1 bull and he sold well off a CH x BB cow.

furandfeather

pure breed wrote: »

Being using Earp for about 3yrs or so. We've got nice heifers off Sim x cows.
Had the first of them calf there in May nice CH x. 2 to calf in fall of year.
Was expecting a better bag of milk.
We got 3 heifers first yr out of 4 and 2 in last two yrs out of 2 straws used.
So his lucky enough for heifers.
Only had the 1 bull and he sold well off a CH x BB cow.

That would be his biggest fault from talking to lads, his daughters aren't awful milky. Breeding nice calves though

squinn2912

antrim1 wrote: »

Anyone using the Sim bulls Earp SI2152 or Fifty Cent SI12469?

Have a lovely batch of sim x heifers will be bulling in the Autumn and looking at them as possibles.

I threw 3 fifty cent straws in maiden heifers last week. Got him once before and turned out two good rugged bull calves not wonderful shape though

pure breed

furandfeather wrote:

That would be his biggest fault from talking to lads, his daughters aren't awful milky. Breeding nice calves though

Agreed on milk, our Earp heifers are mostly outta of milky Sim x cows so hopefully they'll be ok, have one calving in fall of year out of BB x and she'll earn it to have milk from look of her at moment.
Like the shape of heifers, the bulls not great sellers at all, which could be said for most Simentals being sold as weanlings I suppose.

whelan2

Young lad has a few heifers he is going to ai a nice red white head and 2 AAx fr. His plan is to use si2152. What do ye think or a lim.?

tanko

whelan2 wrote: »

Young lad has a few heifers he is going to ai a nice red white head and 2 AAx fr. His plan is to use si2152. What do ye think or a lim.?

Ive used SI2152 (Curaheen Earp) on young cows and think he would be risky on heifers.
Lisnacrann fifty cent SI2469 would be a safer option if using a Simmental bull i think.
If going for a Lim from PG, ZAG might be an option and lots of people put him on heifers but he's not an out and out easy calved bull either.
My choice would be the Saler bull SA2153, a safe option for heifers.

antrim1

pure breed wrote: »

Agreed on milk, our Earp heifers are mostly outta of milky Sim x cows so hopefully they'll be ok, have one calving in fall of year out of BB x and she'll earn it to have milk from look of her at moment.
Like the shape of heifers, the bulls not great sellers at all, which could be said for most Simentals being sold as weanlings I suppose.

Sell all our bullocks at 9 to 11 months and I have to say cant complain about the prices. All would be Sim out of Sim x cows. Might not weigh as heavy as a CH (or shapely) of the same age but are always well priced in the local mart. Heifers all kept and the pick taken to go with the bull at 24months, again those sold always do well through the ring! The cow plays a big part

148multi

Have one off fifty cent, you'd have to push him out of the way. He is a touch short with good shape but lacking muscle, he's out of a plain enough cow with a replacement figure of 94, his replacement figure is 135. I'm very happy with him.

charolais0153

148multi wrote: »

Have one off fifty cent, you'd have to push him out of the way. He is a touch short with good shape but lacking muscle, he's out of a plain enough cow with a replacement figure of 94, his replacement figure is 135. I'm very happy with him.

Would ya not say shape and muscle are the same thing?

148multi

Shape as in frame, here's cow and calf.
Now icbf have cow replacement of 94 but calf at 135?
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