The next few months are bursting with opportunities to bring home your next great herd sire. This is the bull that will set you up with fancy replacements and fat feeders for the next three to five years. These are the genetics that will play an immense role in the profitability of your operation for the foreseeable future. He will carry a sizable burden for the ranch, so buying the best bull for your business and your budget shouldn’t be a fleeting decision.
• Identify your goals — First and foremost, before you buy a bull, you should identify what kind of genetics you need for your business. Do you sell your calves newly weaned at the local auction market, or are they marketed on the grid? Do you retain your females or develop and market them to other producers?
There are significant differences between bulls selected for a maternally centered herd as opposed to one that is terminally focused. These are key aspects of your business that have a sizable influence over the kind of bull purchase you should make, so having a clear road map of where you want to go is essential.
• Seek out breeders of interest — Finding the right bull starts with finding the right breeder—easier said than done, right? Ask your fellow cattlemen and women who tops their list of seedstock suppliers. Make a list of breeders who raise bulls that fit your operation, and contact them for their insight. Share your goals with them and listen to their feedback about the genetics they are selling.
If you remain interested in their offering, learn more about their program and genetics. Don’t be afraid to try a new breeder or buy a bull from a private treaty sale. Just as there is a wide variety of breeder philosophies, there’s also a wide variety of how bulls are marketed.
• Prepare — An often quoted phrase used in leadership development is “Failure to plan is planning to fail,” and that also holds true for bull buying. It’s unlikely that arriving at a bull sale unprepared will lead to favorable results and purchasing decisions. Before heading out to the sale, or sales in many cases, gather catalogs and study them to identify bulls that fit your breeding goals.
If possible, visit the ranch before the sale to get your eyes on the bulls before the hustle and bustle of sale day. Study the EPDs of the bulls you like and factor them, along with the bulls’ pedigrees and phenotypes, into your decision.
• Brush up on EPD awareness — EPDs change as performance records are added to the database. If you don’t check them regularly, your perception of the numbers and what could be favorable to your business could lead to a misinformed purchase. Additionally, breed associations and geneticists are constantly discussing and developing new EPDs, and if you’re unaware of new indexes, you could be caught off guard the day of the sale.
For example, the Red Angus Association of America (RAAA) launched the ProS index in the fall of 2020, which is an all-purpose index that covers economically relevant traits across all aspects of the beef supply chain, from conception to carcass. Familiarizing yourself with the updated indexes can help you make more informed bull buying decisions.
• Utilize the RAAA marketing team — The RAAA marketing team exists to aid commercial cow-calf producers with their profitability goals, and part of that role is to provide support through viewing and bidding on desired bulls at sales. Marketing team members can also answer questions about how a certain bull may fit into your breeding program. Utilize the marketing team to help you reach your ranch’s goals both leading up to and after bull sale season.
• Have a backup plan — We’ve all been there; the price for our first bull choice skyrockets past our budget before we can even get in on the bidding. If you have a backup plan and have identified secondary bulls that can still help you reach your breeding goals, there’s no need to worry. As with the “prepare” discussion earlier, it’s best to have a contingency plan so when it’s time to kick the bulls out, you aren’t short on bull power!
Buying a bull can be a stressful experience for sure—the pressure to get the “perfect” bull weighs heavy, and for good reason. A herd bull has the largest single impact on profitability from year to year, so preparing and planning for a successful, satisfying purchase is time well spent. And time well spent equates to similarly spent money. — Brandi Buzzard Frobose, RAAA editor and director of communications
