BULL MANAGEMENT

At Te Mania Angus, the calves are weaned at four months of age.  Early weaning was introduced a number of years ago to enhance rumen function and to allow the females a better run through the Autumn and Winter.

All calves are weighed and tagged with an NLIS tag and stud tag on the day they are born. They are weighed again at weaning and at 400 days, when they are ultrasound scanned for marbling, fat cover and eye muscle area. Testicle measurements are taken on the bull calves.  All this data is submitted to Breedplan.  

All Te Mania Angus bulls are examined by a veterinarian immediately prior to sale day.  This examination includes palpation of the sexual anatomy and measurements of the circumference of the testicles.

Structural assessments are carried out by Jim Green and are provided for each bull throughout the catalogue.  This ensures that any bulls not meeting our uncompromising standards for structure are culled by an imdependent assessor.

When a bull leaves Te Mania Angus, he is leaving the security of a large mob and will arrive at unfamiliar territory at your property. If you can’t put him into the bull mob straight away, unload him and make sure he has a steer or cow as a companion.

A young bull can move in with older bulls and settle in well, but remember, being the youngest he will get the last of the feed available because of the pecking order. The paddock needs to be reasonably large so he can keep away from the others and find adequate feed.

Young bulls are still growing fast and need enough feed to maintain their growth pattern and to be able to settle the cows quickly and efficiently.

Te Mania Angus bulls are accustomed to being handled by stockmen on motorbikes and with dogs. Most of the fences are electrified and the bulls treat them with respect. Always be considerate to your bull and handle him with respect and kindness. You will find you will receive these acts of respect back from him. 

Health Treatments 

7in1 Vaccination
We recommend bulls be given a 7 in 1 vaccination annually, 2 to 4 weeks prior to joining.
All calves at Te Mania Angus are vaccinated twice as weaners, follwed by an annual booster.

Drench 
The bulls are drenched at weaning and periodically according to worm counts.  They will also receive a drench before leaving the property.

• Cattle are all Ear notch tested before sale to make sure they are not PI
• A wide scale Ear notch testing/eradication program has been carried out - we believe Te Mania has no PI animals!
• Bulls are Vaccinated prior to sale so they are protected in the event they come in contact with the virus after leaving Te Mania.

This is in line with world's best practice, and provides the highest level of protection possible against the terrible losses that Pestivirus can sometimes cause.  For more information Pestivirus

Bull:Cow ratio
Under reasonable paddock conditions, a rising 2 year old bull should handle 40 empty cows on his own. An older bull can probably handle slightly more.

A synchronized AI program can decrease the number of bulls needed, because cows become pregnant to AI, but be aware that if the returns are returning over one week rather than three, then this will increase your bull requirement. Please contact Te Mania for further clarification if required.

Before putting the bull out
Before mating, cows should be seen cycling in groups with male calves also hanging around. The cows must be on a rising plane of nutrition, before you put the bull out, this ensures they have the optimum chance of cycling.

Observing the bull
A bull is most likely to develop a condition or injury that causes infertility AFTER THE JOINING PERIOD HAS STARTED. It is vital that you monitor your bull at least twice weekly to ensure that he is able to mount cows and that he looks physically normal and is not lame.

Towards the end of the mating period, you should spend some time watching the cows to make sure that large numbers of cows are not cycling. Set aside half an hour one afternoon when the cows are at rest to make sure that most of the cycling activity has stopped, and give yourself some peace of mind! Writing down the cows number at service and observing them 21 days later is the most thorough infertility check.

After mating season
When the season is finished, the bull should be drenched and put away on good feed. Adequate feed will help stop fighting and help the bulls settle into their groups.


Bull Management by Dr David Beggs, BVSc, MVC
(by Brydon Coverdale, Stock and Land, reporting on a presentation to the Team Te Mania Workshop in July 2006)

Taking care of bulls and cows during the joining period is one of the most vital things a beef producer should focus on, according to specialist cattle vet David Beggs.

Dr Beggs likened a bull's initial few days of mating to an athlete who suddenly started running long-distance races with no warm-up - problems were most likely to occur early on.

Corkscrew penis was one problem Dr Beggs advised producers watch out for - a condition in which the bull's penis twists before it enters the cow rather than after, as is required for conception.

"It's a common condition and it's not one that I can pick up before the joining season. It needs to be picked up during the joining season," Dr Beggs said. "It's a disease that gets worse as time goes on."

Other structural problems such as straight legs were greatly exacerbated when a bull began working hard, so regular observation was necessary, Dr Beggs said.

Even if a bull manages to serve his cows, there could still be semen problems. Dr Beggs said because semen needed to be produced at low temperatures and depended on a bull having a good diet, over-fed show bulls and bulls that sat down a lot often produced sub-standard semen.

But because it takes 50 days for semen to leave the bull after it is produced, once a problem was detected it was sometimes difficult to determine the cause. It was therefore vital that producers watched their bulls' diets and behaviour carefully.

Not using enough bulls was another common problem, Dr Beggs said, with 30-50 cows per bull an ideal number.

But if joining is not going as planned, the other half of the equation to check up on is of course the health of the cow.

Dr Beggs said conception rates increased noticeably the longer the period between a cow calving and being rejoined.

Cows joined just 20 days after calving had only about a 20 per cent chance of conceiving first time, while cows joined 100 days after calving had closer to a 50pc chance.

Cows that had twins, calving difficulties, or retained foetal membranes at their last calving had a lower chance of conceiving first time when rejoined.

Abortions were another serious problem, Dr Beggs said, with about 2-4pc of cows aborting naturally.

Diseases such as leptospirosis, which can be prevented with a seven-in-one vaccine, and vibriosis sometimes caused abortions, as did some copper treatments.

Dr Beggs said cows that were injected with copper close to the time of conception were likely to abort, but other copper treatments were fine.

"In the couple of days after you inject an animal with copper, you'll have very very high blood levels of copper and that's toxic to developing embryos," Dr Beggs said.

Cows that ate from cypress tress were also highly likely to abort, Dr Beggs said, so any cypress branches that fell down in a paddock should be removed immediately.

"Cattle don't tend to eat cypress trees but there are occasions in which they do, and you can see huge outbreaks of abortion," he said.

KEY POINTS

• Bulls are most likely to develop problems early in the mating season
• Closely observing the bulls at work is a necessity
• Poor nutrition or lameness will cause low quality semen in the future
• Several reasons cows might abort pregnancies - most causes are preventable