  BeefTalk:
Beef Production From a Bull’s Eye Point Of View
By Kris Ringwall, Extension Beef Specialist,
NDSU Extension Service
Driving the countryside in late summer often provides the opportunity to view
bulls wandering listlessly from hill to hill. The breeding season is over. All
the cows are bred – at least all that are going to get bred. The smell of
pheromones from cows has been dispersed and replaced with bellowing teenage
calves and cranky boss cows challenging anyone who dares take the last bite.
A bull’s eye view of breeding cows reveals life isn’t always easy: day
after day it’s the same routine and life is always at the edge. Equipment
failure assures a one way ticket and any miscalculation could be fatal.
(Glancing over the fence to the brood mares, brings a smile: at least cows don’t
bite and kick. Leo, the local stallion, is still holding his own. The guest
stallion has not fared so well, displaying several nasty cuts across his right
shoulder.)
Word was just received that bull 14 fell in the line of duty with a compound
fracture to the left hip. Fourteen was just a young yearling bull, in for the
first time on the front lines. No one knows, perhaps a gopher hole, unsure
footing on the rocks or may be a direct hit from his partner. No one ever said
this would be an easy life. The ranch manager found him on the hillside as he
took his last breath.
His number is quietly placed along side 86's number back in the barn (86 fell
earlier in the season to a stifle injury). The manager knew the trauma of 14's
death provided no salvage value. At least 86 filled the freezer.
The final days in the pasture are signaled by the distant rumble of a trailer
and smell of saddle horses. Several futile efforts are made at avoiding the
separation from the cow herd, but in the end, the bull joins several other bulls
in the trailer for the ride to the bull pasture.
Green grass and solitude await the battery, at least once the old territories
and pecking orders are reestablished. The young yearlings only need to look at
the older bulls to know their time has not yet come to take the better grazing
spots. Yet they joust and next year’s pecking order is already being
established. Experience has shown that old bulls need their space, at least
until the last thoughts of the breeding season have left.
As the ranch manager goes from pasture to pasture picking up bulls, the
second to last pasture brings a surprise guest appearance from a visiting bull.
Both bulls show some signs of scuffling, but overall, the cow herd was split,
two thirds for the guest bull and one third for our own bull.
Thoughts of exposing our cows to a bull with an unknown health status is a
concern but there is not much one can do about it anyway. The bulls are loaded
and our bull is dropped off in the bull pasture and the guest bull at home were
a quick brand check and call to the owner are completed.
We are short five cows. They have to be in the pasture to the south,
somewhere in 20 plus square miles of grass. There is plenty of time to find the
cows. Today bulls were our concern: the count is right, adjusted for the loss of
two.
It’s been a tough season, many of the older bulls have been culled, 28 and
74 are the oldest now, born in 1998, the last of their contemporary group. Bulls
are a tough investment, but they still remain a key to any successful cattle
business.
May you find all your ear tags.
Your comments are always welcome at www.BeefTalk.com.
For more information, contact the North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement
Association, 1133 State Avenue, Dickinson, ND 58601 or go to www.CHAPS2000.COM
on the Internet. In correspondence about this column, refer to BT0108.
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Source: Kris Ringwall, (701) 483-2427, kringwal@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu
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Graphic --
Bull and Cow Roundup at the End of the Breeding Season
NDSU Dickinson Research Extension Center
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Bulls ....................... All present
Cows ........................ 5 visiting the neighbors
Neighbors' bulls visiting ... 1
Neighbors' cows visiting .... 3
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