Beef AI/Bulls MEGATHREAD

patsy_mccabe

Christ, they should be paying us to test their bulls........not the other way around. :rolleyes:

Hard Knocks

tanko wrote: »

DBZ isn't a bad bull at all on big cows. He's easy calved for a blue anyway..

Used him, so hopefully

annubis

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Maybe the next time, I'll read the T&C more carefully.

ive bought loads of them over hte last few years and only used a handful, no one ever complained to me so dont think they care once they are sold

Durrus Boy

annubis wrote: »

ive bought loads of them over hte last few years and only used a handful, no one ever complained to me so dont think they care once they are sold

I second this, purchase away, must have 30+ straws from GI bulls still in the flask. They just want them gone and will only hound you for any insemination dates.
On an aside, has anyone ever purchased a bull from ICBF/GI??

annubis

Durrus Boy wrote: »

I second this, purchase away, must have 30+ straws from GI bulls still in the flask. They just want them gone and will only hound you for any insemination dates.
On an aside, has anyone ever purchased a bull from ICBF/GI??

considered throwing in a bid a few times but never bothered in the end

patsy_mccabe

Can straws from the older Gene Ireland test bulls still be got?

patsy_mccabe

annubis wrote: »

ive bought loads of them over hte last few years and only used a handful, no one ever complained to me so dont think they care once they are sold

Thanks. Kinda what I was thinking myself anyway. What are they going to do, if you don't use them all in the one year? People wouldn't buy them in the first place, if they hadn't planned on using some of them.

tanko

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Christ, they should be paying us to test their bulls........not the other way around. :rolleyes:

If I remember right, ICBF used to pay the farmer €20 for every insemination of a Gene Ireland bull.

Parishlad

Have three Lmx heifers that I want/need to AI as they are from my own bull and was thinking of giving the three of them Clonagh Frosty King in the hope that I might get a nice replacement from one or two of them. They are strong heifers and will be over 30 months when calving down. ICBF have calving difficulty at 6.7%.
Appreciate your thoughts on using Frosty King and if CD is too high?

patsy_mccabe

Parishlad wrote: »

Have three Lmx heifers that I want/need to AI as they are from my own bull and was thinking of giving the three of them Clonagh Frosty King in the hope that I might get a nice replacement from one or two of them. They are strong heifers and will be over 30 months when calving down. ICBF have calving difficulty at 6.7%.
Appreciate your thoughts on using Frosty King and if CD is too high?

That 6.7% Heifer Calving - is 9 percentile (bottom 10%) within breed and 18 percentile across breed at 79% reliability. So very easy calving.
However the Munster Bovine catalogue say to use him on second calvers........hard to know.

ZAG, by comparision is 8.2% heifer calving.

Parishlad

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

That 6.7% Heifer Calving - is 9 percentile (bottom 10%) within breed and 18 percentile across breed at 79% reliability. So very easy calving.
However the Munster Bovine catalogue say to use him on second calvers........hard to know.

ZAG, by comparision is 8.2% heifer calving.

Thanks Patsy. I used ZAG before on a few heifers and had one or two good pulls with him. I think I'll chance Frosty and see how it goes. Won't be AI'ing them until April anyway.

bogman_bass

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Can straws from the older Gene Ireland test bulls still be got?

Reserved for pedigree herds in the WHPS

furandfeather

Parishlad wrote: »

Thanks Patsy. I used ZAG before on a few heifers and had one or two good pulls with him. I think I'll chance Frosty and see how it goes. Won't be AI'ing them until April anyway.

Theres no hard calving in his pedigree anyways

tanko

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

That 6.7% Heifer Calving - is 9 percentile (bottom 10%) within breed and 18 percentile across breed at 79% reliability. So very easy calving.
However the Munster Bovine catalogue say to use him on second calvers........hard to know.

ZAG, by comparision is 8.2% heifer calving.

I've used his full brother Clonagh Direct Debit XCD a good bit on second and third calvers, not on any heifers tho. Don't think i had to help any of them, would consider him easy calved. Bullocks i've sold off XCD have killed out very well.
Have some cows in calf to Frosty King calving in the next few weeks.
I'd put either of them on a heifer before ZAG anyway, his calves can come with big enough ends i found.
Fifty cent is probably the easiest calved SIM NCBC but they can be fairly plain calves.
Curaheen Earp is a really good bull also i think, wouldn't put him on heifers tho.

Parishlad

tanko wrote: »

I've used his full brother Clonagh Direct Debit XCD a good bit on second and third calvers, not on any heifers tho. Don't think i had to help any of them, would consider him easy calved. Bullocks i've sold off XCD have killed out very well.
Have some cows in calf to Frosty King calving in the next few weeks.
I'd put either of them on a heifer before ZAG anyway, his calves can come with big enough ends i found.
Fifty cent is probably the easiest calved SIM NCBC but they can be fairly plain calves.
Curaheen Earp is a really good bull also i think, wouldn't put him on heifers tho.

I like the look of Curaheen Earp but also think he is a bit strong for heifers. Yeah, the few ZAG calves I had came with a fair back end alright so that put me off him for heifers.
I’m novice enough with AI so appreciate the feedback here.

Colin25399

Have two ZAG heifer both very shapey but short, any recommendations for a bull to add size and milk? I like the look of ZGM, LM2014 but both look low on stars for milk

patsy_mccabe

Colin25399 wrote: »

Have two ZAG heifer both very shapey but short, any recommendations for a bull to add size and milk? I like the look of ZGM, LM2014 but both look low on stars for milk

Dromanig King - skeletal 70 - milk 99
Edakkya - skeletal 70 - milk 79

tanko

What about Moondharrig Knell Lm4217.
Dromanig King would be too strong for heifers imo.

Colin25399

Cheers lads, used Edakkya last year and wasn’t very happy with the calves. Knell looks good but the docility puts me off him. Do you think heifers would calve Dromanig king? They will be calving down at about 35 months.

patsy_mccabe

Colin25399 wrote: »

Cheers lads, used Edakkya last year and wasn’t very happy with the calves. Knell looks good but the docility puts me off him. Do you think heifers would calve Dromanig king? They will be calving down at about 35 months.

I have a ZAG pedigree heifer here and hoping to use on-dit on her soon.

To be honest, I only picked those 2 bulls on skeletal and milk figures. I didn't consider calving. You'd like something easier than Dromanig King if possible.

What were the Edakkya calves like?

Seanhorse91

Colin25399 wrote: »

Cheers lads, used Edakkya last year and wasn’t very happy with the calves. Knell looks good but the docility puts me off him. Do you think heifers would calve Dromanig king? They will be calving down at about 35 months.

I’ve used knell a few times, no bother at all with docility with his calves. Sold a weanling Bullock by him off a 1st time Charolais heifer last Thursday, around 385kg for €1055, he was golden tho.
Have a pb maiden heifer by him off a mullary intrepid cow, good square heifer, should make a lovely cow, mother lacks abit of milk so he should rectify that. Actually have her incalf to Dromanig King this time around, calving in July, again hoping he’d add abit of milk

Colin25399

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I have a ZAG pedigree heifer here and hoping to use on-dit on her soon.

To be honest, I only picked those 2 bulls on skeletal and milk figures. I didn't consider calving. You'd like something easier than Dromanig King if possible.

What were the Edakkya calves like?

Yeah might try to get a few On-dit straws! We got a bull and a heifer off Edakkya and they are both average sized and very narrow, was hoping he would add more weight but we have a few better cows in calf to him due to calve so they might be better!

Colin25399

Seanhorse91 wrote: »

I’ve used knell a few times, no bother at all with docility with his calves. Sold a weanling Bullock by him off a 1st time Charolais heifer last Thursday, around 385kg for €1055, he was golden tho.
Have a pb maiden heifer by him off a mullary intrepid cow, good square heifer, should make a lovely cow, mother lacks abit of milk so he should rectify that. Actually have her incalf to Dromanig King this time around, calving in July, again hoping he’d add abit of milk

Might give knell a try so!
Another Munster bull we used is DWX and we were very impressed, any idea how he is on milk cause we have two lovely heifers off him we are looking to breed

Gudstock

Colin25399 wrote: »

Have two ZAG heifer both very shapey but short, any recommendations for a bull to add size and milk? I like the look of ZGM, LM2014 but both look low on stars for milk

Have 2 zag crossbreds maidens here, very difficult calving with one, waiting on the other one - not looking forward to her, too shapey and short.

RD10

Parishlad wrote: »

Have three Lmx heifers that I want/need to AI as they are from my own bull and was thinking of giving the three of them Clonagh Frosty King in the hope that I might get a nice replacement from one or two of them. They are strong heifers and will be over 30 months when calving down. ICBF have calving difficulty at 6.7%.
Appreciate your thoughts on using Frosty King and if CD is too high?

I used him on two cows last year, and both cows threw fairly biggish calves. one heifer and one bull.
Thats just From my own experience though, but it wouldnt be inclined to use him on a first timer here.
Will try post photo in while

Hard Knocks

Has anyone kept heifers off GWO or LM2206?
How did they do?

tanko

Gudstock wrote: »

Have 2 zag crossbreds maidens here, very difficult calving with one, waiting on the other one - not looking forward to her, too shapey and short.

I had two ZAG heifers calved here last spring, a good square R grade had a Highfield Odran bull no problem but the other one which is a more muscly shapey U grade type couldn't calve a Spiddal Pat heifer calf, had a nice bit of bother getting the calf out of her.
Neither of them are great for milk either.

Mac Taylor

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Has anyone kept heifers off GWO or LM2206?
How did they do?

I kept a gwo pbr heifer off a milky cow, turned into a lovely shapey cow, good docility, feet etc, no calving issues and no milk. Had more milk the first time she calved. Culled her in the end.

tanko

Daughters of those Vantastic sons like GWO and MBP were a disaster for milk.

Seanhorse91

Colin25399 wrote: »

Might give knell a try so!
Another Munster bull we used is DWX and we were very impressed, any idea how he is on milk cause we have two lovely heifers off him we are looking to breed

Never used him to be fair. I have used Dimouii Lm2388 on a handy black Lim heifer last spring. She’d a very handy heifer calf, no more than 40kg, little rat of a thing but turned into a lovely heifer. Has size but not shapey, will make a lovely cow. He’s a son of On-dit, +5kg for milk. 5% for calving but going by my lady I’d use him myself no bother on heifers again