About These Bulls
The mating’s to produce this set of “R” Sale Bulls occurred in the spring of 2019. Most of you will no doubt still have very vivid memories of the spring of 2019, we certainly do, we had sold off two thirds of our Composite Bull breeding herd, one third of our Angus Bull breeding herd and had retained 300 Bull breeding Angus females with the intent of feeding them “To The End”. “The End”? well, simple really, the Drought breaking, or us wearing out-physically, mentally, financially. The fires of that 2019 Spring in the Shannon Vale, Bald Knob, Wytaliba etc. precincts most definitely took their toll on the young (and some not so young) of the district.
We, like most fed cows and calves plus replacement heifers in the hope that we could not only keep them alive but also get them to cycle so that we might re-breed them. Most of our feed ingredients came from the irrigation district around Deniliquin and comprised Vetch Hay, Barley straw with often silage coming down from Marshlands our irrigation block at Murgon.
The pressures brought to bear by the non stop feeding meant we had to take the decision not to A.I. Cows and calves, just too difficult fitting in the Time Control preparation plus we were concerned re the eye damage the calves at foot would suffer from the Dust ridden yards.
We did commit to AI’ing the heifers selecting Moe and Ashland.
We were happy with the battery of homebred sires we had to naturally mate the cows to-:
- Dulverton Medaglia M028
- Dulverton New Approach N208
- Dulverton Montjeu M013
- Dulverton Pins P101
- Dulverton Ploy P288
- Dulverton Peter Pan P058
- Dulverton Peter Pan P104
In addition we did have our Dunoon Bull, Hank N668, a creditable sire battery from our perspective.
One of the problems with committing to naturally mating cows and particularly older cows, is that there is no opportunity of correctively mating for traits that are showing up in the EBV’s as being below par/substandard. Note these older cows are a tremendous asset from our perspective, if they have lasted until they are 7/8 years, then chances are their sons have a better than average chance of working for you for 4 seasons. A.I most definitely offers us the opportunity to correctively mate. That is, if a cow does show a weakness say for CED then it is possible to select from the semen tank Sires who exhibit a strong suite for CED. The conditions were what they were, using natural mating and including a significant number of homebred sires was our most practical option. We have recently completed videoing this draft and I must say they do present very well, check them out on the website.
This Draft’s Growth Since Birth
The season made a dramatic turnaround in 2020 and by the time this set of “R” calves were born pastures were starting to rebound and the annual crop we planted Oats & Rye, Chicory, clover mixes for the Spring and the Sudan Grass x Forage sorghum for the summer and early autumn had kicked in.
Weaning commenced 23/02/2022 by this time the calf growth had been quite spectacular. It was great to see that our goal to improve our so called “Set-Up”Growth at weaning was showing plenty of positive signs. Remember the Set-Up Growth period Birth to Weaning is helping-:
- Heifers bound from their weaning weight to their projected joining weight at 13 months of 320kg and thence to their Calving weight at 2 yrs of 460kg
- Steers develop and grow from their weaning weight to their respective feeder weights or to their pasture finished turn off weights.
These Set-Up performances certainly drive the commercial cow calf operators Bottom Line. Note the heritability for Weaning Weight is about 40%, so 40% of the weaning weight expression is attributable to the genetic makeup of the Individual.
The three sires with the largest numbers of progeny represented have performed really well to weaning-end off February. Consider their weaning outcomes
No doubting the initial start has been of significance in having this draft of “R” Bulls achieve their current growth status. The Dulverton Team is ecstatic with the performance of the three but in particular of M028.
The nutritional run for this “R”Draft continued all the way through from weaning until now, with all four Sale Team Management Groups still deriving part of their daily dietary requirements from their respective paddocks. The Bulls were graded and catalogued on Thursday May 19th, at which time the 81 two year olds averaged 794kg. This extremely satisfactory weight has meant the task of feeding the draft during June and July was much simpler than normal, all we have had to do is keep them healthy with a shine on their coats.
Preparing The Sale Team
During the week commencing the 11th April we divided the “R” component of the draft into 4 groups including the six bulls we had used as Yearlings and put them into paddocks that were accessible to the mixer. It had been our plan to have had oats and or the Rye clover chicory mix for them but unfortunately the season became too wet in early February for us to plant and so we have been forced to feed The Sale Team from the Mixer. While there has been more feed in their paddocks than normal the months of June and July are cold, with pasture growth non existent to very minimal and to ensure the draft “presents” on sale day we need to assist them over these two months. On Monday 18th April we did start our preliminary diet for the “R” Bulls from the mixer. This mix comprised 2 parts Lucerne hay to one part Barley straw, 750 grams of Lupins our mineral premix and probiotic. This diet was fed virtually on an add lib basis for the first six weeks, in fact for the first three weeks they consumed only about 8 to 9 kg/head/day, as much as anything this introductory period was as much about “socialising” the bulls as feeding their diet. There was almost enough feed in their respective paddocks to sustain them.
Importantly it is not our goal to fatten the bulls but rather to have them healthy and with enough condition on them to allow them to show their individual abilities to “cover” with an even and adequate layer of fat. On the 23rd of May the Lupin component was increased to 1.1 kg/head/day and 1kg/head/day molasses introduced. No grains such as Barley, Wheat, Sorghum etc are used in our ratio.
We remain committed to trying to ensure each and every Dulverton Bull is able to work his 4 seasons for you our valued clients. Feeding bulls-:
- To Too heavy a Sale weight
- On rations with too high an energy content is totally the wrong recipe to achieve the stated goal.
The “Heat” generated by high grain, high energy rations is particularly bad for young developing Bulls Joints, Feet and Semen production.
Lucerne, Lupins, Straw, The COOL Ingredients! Molasses, a late inclusion keeps the boys warm during The Frost Season.
Semen Checking is the final task in our quest to deliver a functionally effective young sire with the ability to work 4 seasons for you our valued clients. It is our intention to have our Sale Draft of Bulls semen checked in the fortnight preceding the Sale. Without putting too fine a point on it, a Spermatic Cycle runs for a period of six weeks. Interruptions to normal bodily function during that period e.g. major changes to routine, infections resulting in increased temperatures, undue social stress etc. is likely to interfere with the Bulls ability to produce viable semen in sufficient quantity. Ideally, potential young sires should be semen checked within that six week period pre joining, this gives as close to a guarantee as biologically possible that the potential young sire is “Ready To Go”.
Chap’s Pick D. Rogan Josh R219 definitely ready to go, 43 scrotal circumference; 3 for Scrotal tone; 80 for Progressive Motility and 2 for Mass Activity
