New bull

nqtfarmer

Hi there, we’re summer calving suckler cows and keep the calf on slats with the cow over the winter. We’ve been having a tough time calving this year with a home bred bull. The cows are mostly lm x fr put with a lm bull. With a young family I’m looking to make life as easy as possible. What breed of bull would suit? I know many would say an easy calving lm but am curious as to what others. Calves are either sold as weanlings in April but may begin looking at keeping them for a second winter

tanko

An Angus bull could be an option, usually easy calved, lively hardy calves, no dehorning to be done.

minerleague

https://boards.ie/discussion/2058199179/new-bull

Saler bull would be easy calving, maybe not great for selling in mart compared to others, but angus would be similar

I am in a similar position and was thinking blonde aquitane

Angus calf easy on lmx.

Nutrition is very important to ease calving, over fat cows will often struggle with calving.

nqtfarmer

The cows here are on bare paddocks and I move the wire daily for them. The bull is mostly to blame. I’m curious if the Angus but wonder how they do in the mart and their temperament? I A.Ied heifers this year and the aubrac calves are fine calves. Would they be generally considered easy calving?

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117622336#Comment_117622336

Aubrac is actually a great idea for heifers if you can AI, we ran an angus with 20 odd heifers mixture of lmx, hex and aax. About half the hex needed assistance but the had very large calves. The aax had smallish calves and the lmx had similar sized calves a bit bigger with a bit of class.

Angus cattle are quiet enough. Angus bulls are aggressive sounding making a load of noise but generally harmless. I would say they would frightened kids etc. Look at the mad price of angus yearlings this year, anybody buying them will struggle to turn a profit.

Easten

Angus on suckler cows is a waste of time. You'll get paid only a bit better than dairy cross bucked reared weanlings. You might be better off looking at an alternative farming system than going down the route of easy calving

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117622520#Comment_117622520

It depends on the angus, certain angus cattle come in to big weights, however the typical angus that you see out there wouldnt be great for suckling.

OP has lmx cows so growth rate and frame is already there, a good angus could be a winner.

The angus calves coming out of hex heifer are massive, I can see them going way over 400 kgs as finished bullocks at 26 months

Sheep breeder

https://boards.ie/discussion/2058199179/new-bull

Simple change your bull for an easy calving Limousin, follow an easy calving line like gamin etc, now a days plenty of easy calving lines to be had, changing to AA is only going to loose money and no money in suckers.

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623154#Comment_117623154

Depends on the system, if selling weanlings then angus isnt the best as the mart customer likes the continental look, but if finishing cattle off lmx then a good angus could be a runner

Bellview

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117623154#Comment_117623154

i'm going to make a general statement on beef breeds & specific to angus also but looking across all breeds its the easy calving that has taken away the thrive/terminal from cattle..generally the bone is lighter and while no one gets paid for bone, it does carry the body. for Angus bulls like KYA that were used with only the dairy market in mind. Bulls like KYA have done damage to the AA breed in general as they are just too small... and there are a lot of KYA son's in dairy herds... and these KYA's sons temperment is dodgy at best (I used him on 4 heifers & 3 of the calves were mad, with a bull dangerous). Over the past 2 years I see some dairy farmers are moving away from looking for a calf the size of a cat and willing looking for something a small bit bigger and willing to give the heifer a small help.

on sucklers you may want to watch the bulls with myostatin genes because if you have nt821 in your females and you introduce a bull with the nt821 then you could have bigger calving problems as you could then have calves with 2 copies... you will have a BB type calf which is good for the mart but not for the calving jack

blue5000

Angus for a simple life, no de-horning to do and are easy to sell at any stage. Aubrac for easy calving continental with better shape than angus, but will have horns, and will be knocked for the jersey snout if selling in the mart.

Getting hard to buy a good angus these days, There's an awful lot of ratar5ed angus bulls out there now. I suggest buy a mature cull bull directly off a farm this time of year. You'll be able to see his calves, he'll be fully mature so you can see his shape better than buying a young bull, hopefully you can see if he's quiet or not. Finally he will be bought for less than 2k.

Look up his tag number on icbf bull search before you go look at him, look at docility, check the carcass side and look at maternal figures(milk and calving ease) if you want to keep his daughters as replacements. As Bellview said above, avoid anything with KYA in his pedigree. Good luck.

whelan2

We had a pedigree angus in calf to knockmountagh poker a pg bull. She calved at 272 days. A big heifer calf. Might be worth looking into him. I know that herd have bred for shorter gestation and calves are decent not like kya

Katie 2018

Looking to purchase new limousine bull for spring.would I be better with a mature bull say 3 or 4 year old.or a young bull around 20months .have 18 to be bulled.15 cows an 3 heifers

Hard Knocks

Once looked after a 18-20 month should be ok. It can be hard finding a good mature bull unless it’s a clearance sale

Silverdream

By any chance are the ones hard calving first calving's? The Bull might not be fully to blame, not all Fr X are big enough for beef breeding, some fr X can be a narrow cow.

As for the Bull choices

Angus - easy calf, No debudding, Weanling worth small money

Shorthorn Easy calf, Heifers can be worth a bit but in general you are on small money with the Weanling

Hereford - Easy - Medium calving. Weanlings still small money and competes with dairy calves

Simmental - Hard calvings, Weanlings sell better than Herefords but can often be mistaken for them.

Saler very easy calved, Calves very vigorous, Weanlings worth on par with limousin but can sometimes weigh more but sell for less

Limousine Easy to hard calving depending on the Bull, but with the right combination they produce top Weanlings. Weanlings can be wild though.

Charolais Produces the most saleable Weanling. Can be very hard calvers and the wrong bull could destroy a herd of cows at calving. There are some so called easy calvers but not easy compared to the other easy calving breed.