Stock bull or ai?

whelan2

Do you use stock bull, ai or both?

emaherx

Stock bull here, disjointed farm and working full time makes AI impractical.

K.G.

FR AI.beef 2 hereford stock bull

Mooooo

Dairy ai mainly. Two aa bulls to mop up. Use ai bb or HE on cow's I don't want fr from or if bulls are under pressure

bogman_bass

100%AI here

patsy_mccabe

Kinda mad here. Reducing tbe suckler herd and building up the pedigree limousin herd. So AI on them and 4 other bulls willing to do the work.

blue5000

Sucklers here, fragmented farm so stock bulls all the way here. I have used ai in the past, but no plans to use it in the future.

degetme

100% ai to cows and maidens. No bull used in 9 year's

golodge

Sucklers, used AI at first then started using bulls with no AI, and now use both.

Who2

A couple of the early ones usually get ai or if I have a few of my own heifers coming through they get ai. But in general everything else gets the bull. Muscly cows and maidens get the limo everything else gets charolais. I’m going extremely compact on the calving next year hopefully and I’m not around enough for ai.

jimmy G M

Sucklers here... run a ch bull with most of them..Run a lim or saler bull with a few cows and replacement heifers also. .

Too much bother watching to get cows in for AI/repeats when working.

cacs

Use a stock bull and some AI. I calf suckers in December next. Year when breeding starts in March I am going to use prids AI and mop up with stock bull

Dozer1

All stock CH Bull here and AI 2 or 3 replacements. Bull broke over 2 mains fence runs a ditch and a deep drain to get to a cow today....I guess breeding has started was hoping not to start till mid May.

Dickie10

no sucklers any more here

Sheep breeder

Use Ai when cows in the yard and bulls at grass, charolais and limousin used.

squinn2912

90% bull. Would ai a few early ones from time to time and some of the maiden heifers. Tried 10 with prid 2 years ago and got 4 calves. Would be a challenge picking out the ai calves on quality of it wasn’t for the colour.

josephsoap

Dozer1 wrote: »

All stock CH Bull here and AI 2 or 3 replacements. Bull broke over 2 mains fence runs a ditch and a deep drain to get to a cow today....I guess breeding has started was hoping not to start till mid May.

Part time suckler farming here and using 100% AI

I am getting sick of the work/hardship involved in it as I am very time poor and I am considering purchasing a CH bull for next year (will stick with the A.I for this year)

I’m just wondering as most of the fences here are natural whitethorn hedges would I need to put an electric fence (solar if possible) on the external boundaries to keep him in ?

Do many of you have problems with your bull breaking out ?

The post above is something I would like to avoid as much as possible.

Mooooo

A bull would go thru anything physical, the electric fence really is the best deterrent, just make sure they are used to it before leaving them off. Have had bulls go thru ditches, burst gates and attempt to jump walls here over the years. Have locking barriers and bar welded to the uprights a foot or two above that for the winter pen in the shed.

Sheep breeder

Mooooo wrote: »

A bull would go thru anything physical, the electric fence really is the best deterrent, just make sure they are used to it before leaving them off. Have had bulls go thru ditches, burst gates and attempt to jump walls here over the years. Have locking barriers and bar welded to the uprights a foot or two above that for the winter pen in the shed.

Never had that trouble with stock bulls here like that, two separate bulls lots and never had a bull travel away from his batch. Have good hedge and use electric fence. In the winter the bulls run in dry cow pens and then with calved cows on the slats and never any trouble. Bulls are quite as lambs from handling.

Sheep breeder

josephsoap wrote: »

Part time suckler farming here and using 100% AI

I am getting sick of the work/hardship involved in it as I am very time poor and I am considering purchasing a CH bull for next year (will stick with the A.I for this year)

I’m just wondering as most of the fences here are natural whitethorn hedges would I need to put an electric fence (solar if possible) on the external boundaries to keep him in ?

Do many of you have problems with your bull breaking out ?

The post above is something I would like to avoid as much as possible.

We always buy a young bull and run with the cows this time of the year to get use to the cows/ set up/ moving around/ and us. Come next spring fully trained for work and never a problem, the other big factor is buying a bull now won’t be over pushed and get be let grow on natural.

Mooooo

Sheep breeder wrote: »

Never had that trouble with stock bulls here like that, two separate bulls lots and never had a bull travel away from his batch. Have good hedge and use electric fence. In the winter the bulls run in dry cow pens and then with calved cows on the slats and never any trouble. Bulls are quite as lambs from handling.

Ah that is over a number of years. Maidens and cow's all under the one roof hence the extra security in there pen to prevent them from attempting to jump a gate. An electric fence is better than any ditch really

Who2

I always ran a bull here and never had any issue with them. They would usually be the last ones to break out. People have this pre conceived idea bulls are hard kept but I never find it that way. The only hassle I’ll have with them from here on in for the rest of the year is having to go check the pair of them as they are being put in a small garden on their own until next winter, then they’ll be put on the slats with the cows until they are needed. Different story if your going to be running a jersey or fresian, they are hard managed.

Mooooo

Have 5 here at the minute, one with cow's one with heifers both aa, and the retiree old aa in with 2 fr vasectomised bulls. Those 3 will get the road at some stage and will keep the 2 working bulls over winter. Ideally I'd keep them outside if I have a spot for them.

older by the day

I would think a young 2yr old bull should not be too hard to keep. Some people/places can never keep a calm bull. I think the mains fence around the boundary would be great peace of mind, bull or no bull.

Keepgrowing

Use both ai and s bulls here. Sync hand fix time all heifers followed by ai for repeats then dairy stock bull, for ease of calving more so than anything else.

5 weeks dairy AI for cows as this catches the most fertile dams for our replacements. We mop up with Hereford bulls.

Winter milkers are all bred to Hereford stock bull as we like to wind down at this time