{"id":9394,"date":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/dairy-bull-market-on-the-up\/"},"modified":"2013-12-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T11:00:00","slug":"dairy-bull-market-on-the-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/dairy-bull-market-on-the-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Dairy bull market on the up"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Whale says there is a growing market for unregistered beef bulls in the dairy industry particularly given recent industry advice that the ratio of follow-up bulls to cows \u2013 not in calf by AI \u2013 be increased from 1:25 to 1:15.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Add to this a high payout and dairy farmers have been buying a lot of bulls \u2013 Whale sourced 700 bulls this year, over double the number he sourced last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Herefords are by far the most popular beef breed for use in the dairy industry, followed by Angus and Murray Greys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Herefords produce the white-faced calves favoured by beef finishers and the calves can be easily identified from birth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whale says Angus fall down in this respect as it hard for inexperienced staff to tell the difference between a replacement calf and an Angus cross calf during the transition from AI to naturally-bred calves at calving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He says he has seen replacement herds where a few Angus cross calves have slipped through the system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are a few dairy farmers who will select bulls by taking into account estimated breeding values (EBVs) for birth-weight but Whale says these farmers are more likely to buy a bull from a pedigree bull sale, or select bulls partly on EBVs and partly by eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By far the majority don\u2019t worry about EBVs and will focus on getting the management right to prevent calving difficulties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whale adds that a lot of calving problems come down to physics, particularly with dairy cows with narrow hindquarters and these would be better suited to dairy-type bulls than beef bulls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Disease status is the other major factor dairy farmers take into consideration when buying bulls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDisease is right up there in people\u2019s minds when they are thinking about service bulls and the risk of introducing undesirables into their herd.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whale says dairy farmers now require proof that the bulls they are buying have been blood tested and where necessary vaccinated for diseases such as bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), Tb, leptospirosis and enzootic bovine leucosis (EBL).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInsistence of proof from the dairy farmer is growing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to see the paperwork on the bulls they are getting or at least know that the paperwork is available so, if need be, they can rule the bull out as a source of infection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Health a priority\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Whale says all dairy livestock agents are very aware of the need to have all bulls tested and vaccinated and will insist any bulls they deal with be 100% ticked off with regards to their animal health status.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NAIT tags have helped in this regard as dairy farmers can be assured the bull they are buying is the one that has had the required tests and vaccinations and there can be no confusion over tag numbers, as has been the case in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Service bulls are typically only used for one season and then sent to the meat processors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some will hang on to yearling bulls which have been used over heifers but these are typically Jersey bulls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is a market for leased yearling beef bulls but these are sent back to the bull producer after they have been used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calving ease and disease status are the primary concerns for dairy farmers buying service bulls for their herds.\u00a0\nThis is according to Rod Whale, a North Canterbury-based dairy livestock specialist with PGG Wrightson, who says calving ease is a priority and that is why there has been more of a move to dairy-type bulls.\u00a0\nBeef breeds are still very popular though as farmers look to add value to their calf crop by producing calves for the dairy beef market.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":9395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t