Agricultural News
Questions You Should Be Asking Yourself First, Before Seeking Advice on Choosing the Right Bull
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:53:20 CST
Kansas State Beef Cattle Specialist Dr. Bob Weaber gets a lot of questions from cattle producers about what kind of bulls they ought to be buying. Farm Director Ron Hays talks with Weaber about how he responds when he is approached for this kind of advice. He says he usually turns the table on the producer and begins asking his own questions.
"I usually put three questions to them," Weaber said, "Depending on what your response is there, it has an influence on what direction of genetics you might go."
The three questions Dr. Weaber typically puts to producers are 1.) how do you sell calves, what is your marketing endpoint; 2.) how do you generate replacement heifers, raise your own or buy them; and 3.) where are you at today with the cattle you run on your operation, what genetics make up your herd currently - are they mostly British, continental, bos indicus or some combination of those?
"Whatever the case is," Weaber said, "trying to figure out a little bit in terms of breed complementarity, what direction we might head as we think about combining optimality in terms of maternal and growth and carcass traits to produce really what I like to call environmentally adapted cows."
Weaber explains that each piece of the puzzle falls together to help form a strategy that guides your selection of the right bull with the right genetics to help you focus and emphasize the traits in your herd that will serve you best in meeting your goals, based on how you operate.
Listen to Dr. Weaber explain his bull selection strategy more in depth with Ron Hays, on today's Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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