AI beef bulls

Danube

Danube

Well-Known Member
I don't know if there is a thread already on AI beef bulls. Just wondering what bulls lads are using and what ye find good. Used some blue genetics from DBZ last year. First time in a good few years using a blue bull and am very impressed by them. Also have a nice elite ice cream bull calf. Find FSZ, OKH and Lisnacrann fifty cent good as well.
 
Hitman from Bova is good. He's a polled CH. Calves do seem to take their temperament from the cow though. Had a nice Bivouac CH, Dovea, calf too. Also some nice LMs by Junior, again polled, also Bova. Gunshot, Dovea, Sim, are very quiet, so far.
 
Bogtrotter said:
Hitman from Bova is good. He's a polled CH. Calves do seem to take their temperament from the cow though. Had a nice Bivouac CH, Dovea, calf too. Also some nice LMs by Junior, again polled, also Bova. Gunshot, Dovea, Sim, are very quiet, so far.
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I've heard good things about Bivouac alright. Was it a replacement you were after? The polled bulls are fierce handy. Have a nice heifer calf this year off Auroch Deuter a polled simmental bull.
 
My Bivouac calf was a bull, so he was sold. Mine are Sims, so I've kept a couple of Gunshot heifers (he's a polled bull too). Looked at Auroch Deuter but haven't used him yet.
What are your cows breed lines? CH? LM? SIM?
 
We have used a good bit of Bivouac on heifers. Great comfort calving and cattle have come nicely off him. Have used A good bit of FSZ recently too. I find the cow has bigger say in the type of calf FSZ breeds compared to some other bulls. Mostly nice cattle though.
 
Bogtrotter said:
My Bivouac calf was a bull, so he was sold. Mine are Sims, so I've kept a couple of Gunshot heifers (he's a polled bull too). Looked at Auroch Deuter but haven't used him yet.
What are your cows breed lines? CH? LM? SIM?
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Don't have big numbers here so there's a bit of everything. Best cow is a toss up between a CH cow off of Fiston and a black saler (would prefer is she was red) off of RIO. Have a nice first SIM first calver from said charolais cow off of lisnacrann fifty cent. The rest are a mixture of LM and CH. Gunshot looks a fair bull. Our AI man carrys progressive genetics bulls so I'm probably limiting my choices by that but he's very good.
 
eddie86 said:
We have used a good bit of Bivouac on heifers. Great comfort calving and cattle have come nicely off him. Have used A good bit of FSZ recently too. I find the cow has bigger say in the type of calf FSZ breeds compared to some other bulls. Mostly nice cattle though.
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I like fiston as a cross alright. I'd agree with you about the cow having a say in the cal type alright. Probably wouldn't use him if I was breeding pedigrees but that would just be personal preference.
 
I suppose much of it depends on what your priorities are for the cow and calf. I look for docility and ease of calving, try to avoid the muscle/myostatin variants that could be troublesome, so I go through the ai book and narrow down which bulls i will/won't/maybe use, and on which cows, then see what the ai man has on board on the day. I've had easy calving bulls where the calves have needed pulling, and harder calving ones that have almost fallen out. There's nothing guaranteed! I have Elite Ice Cream down as 'don't use' because of the q204x variant, but if you've used him successfully then you'd probably be fine with any of the ai bulls, just need to match them to each cow. I used bb a few times and the calves were fine but didn't tend to sell that well unless they were very well fed before they went.
Bova ai will send straws out to your ai man, so you could always ask him (or her) if you wanted to try something different. They have a lot of top 10 bulls at the moment.
 
Using eby here this past while. Getting on great with him and a nice east calving bull which turns out a nice shape.
 
Bogtrotter said:
I suppose much of it depends on what your priorities are for the cow and calf. I look for docility and ease of calving, try to avoid the muscle/myostatin variants that could be troublesome, so I go through the ai book and narrow down which bulls i will/won't/maybe use, and on which cows, then see what the ai man has on board on the day. I've had easy calving bulls where the calves have needed pulling, and harder calving ones that have almost fallen out. There's nothing guaranteed! I have Elite Ice Cream down as 'don't use' because of the q204x variant, but if you've used him successfully then you'd probably be fine with any of the ai bulls, just need to match them to each cow. I used bb a few times and the calves were fine but didn't tend to sell that well unless they were very well fed before they went.
Bova ai will send straws out to your ai man, so you could always ask him (or her) if you wanted to try something different. They have a lot of top 10 bulls at the moment.
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I totally agree. Docility and calving ease are king. Yeah I used him in a very mature cow for that reason. But I am trying to look at myostatin genes to breed shapey cattle for the mart. But calving ease is still a major priority when you're not there 24/7. That's ianyersting I didn't know that I must have a look at Bova's selection so
 
FIAT 450 said:
Using eby here this past while. Getting on great with him and a nice east calving bull which turns out a nice shape.
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I've heard good and bad things about him. Lads love him or hate him. My cousin was showing me eby suckler calves from some of his heifers and he wasn't happy with them at all compared to other bulls he had used on their comrades
 
Danube said:
I've heard good and bad things about him. Lads love him or hate him. My cousin was showing me eby suckler calves from some of his heifers and he wasn't happy with them at all compared to other bulls he had used on their comrades
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Oh really? Guy that buys a good few of them off us maintains they are def better shaped animals than white heads
 
FIAT 450 said:
Oh really? Guy that buys a good few of them off us maintains they are def better shaped animals than white heads
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I suppose they just didn't cross well with his cattle and he has written him off but sure you're obviously getting on well with him with good calves.
 
Danube said:
I suppose they just didn't cross well with his cattle and he has written him off but sure you're obviously getting on well with him with good calves.
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I know eurogene had a lim bull and we stopped using him. You could pick out the difference between the two bulls a mile away. Weren't near as strong as the eby.
 
Danube said:
I've heard good and bad things about him. Lads love him or hate him. My cousin was showing me eby suckler calves from some of his heifers and he wasn't happy with them at all compared to other bulls he had used on their comrades
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I used eby quite a few times, but ended up with one calf who could barely walk due to spastic pareisis, where the tendon upwards from the hock is too tight/short - calf was standing on tip toe the whole time. Had to put him in the freezer at 5 months. LM and FR suffer worst with that particular affliction. Vet said to ring the stud and tell them he's a carrier, which I didn't, but stud got very defensive and said that no-one else had complained! Haven't used him since.
I'm now cautious about using lims, if their back legs look too straight then I steer clear of them.
 
Had two cows bulling today. Very disappointed to hear that Elite Ice Cream is gone from progressive genetics. Went with a limousin bull Noob and a Red Belgian blue New Red. Anyone used them before?
 
Danube said:
Had two cows bulling today. Very disappointed to hear that Elite Ice Cream is gone from progressive genetics. Went with a limousin bull Noob and a Red Belgian blue New Red. Anyone used them before?
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I haven't used either of those bulls, sorry.

I know there is a handling fee but would you consider putting a few of the bulls you like in the AI mans can so that they are there when you want them? It might be an interesting exercise to pick a bull that your own ai man might not carry and see how you get on and get the full value out of the bull selection you have with AI.
 
Bot.exe said:
I haven't used either of those bulls, sorry.

I know there is a handling fee but would you consider putting a few of the bulls you like in the AI mans can so that they are there when you want them? It might be an interesting exercise to pick a bull that your own ai man might not carry and see how you get on and get the full value out of the bull selection you have with AI.
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No worries. Do you do much AI yourself?

Yeah I have considered it alright and I probably would if I was looking for a specific bull to breed replacements. I am a lot more particular about bulls for breeding replacements. As regards terminal bulls I usually select bulls with similar myostatin genes to bulls that have worked well on that cow. I suppose it gives me the opportunity to use bulls that wouldn't normally if he doesn't have a bull. But I only have a handful of cows.
 
Danube said:
No worries. Do you do much AI yourself?

Yeah I have considered it alright and I probably would if I was looking for a specific bull to breed replacements. I am a lot more particular about bulls for breeding replacements. As regards terminal bulls I usually select bulls with similar myostatin genes to bulls that have worked well on that cow. I suppose it gives me the opportunity to use bulls that wouldn't normally if he doesn't have a bull. But I only have a handful of cows.
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All AI here, that's fair enough and makes perfect sense.
 
Used dimoiwii, think he’s LM2388, on whitehead heifers, first time using him and very up easy calved good growing calves and don’t carry any time with them
 
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