Snip time for vasectomised bulls

With much talk this week about the new active bull lists, the breeding season is coming into focus. And one of the first jobs most farmers should be thinking about is getting a team of vasectomised bulls ready for action.

You need to have the vasectomy job completed five to six weeks in advance of when you need the bulls.

Breeding season for most dairy farmers will start between 20 April and 5 May depending on location. Those further north might leave it for a further week.

Either way, most farmers will require vasectomised bulls between week four and five of the season. That suggests they need the bulls ready for action between the end of May and the middle of June, so you need to have a plan in place if possible in the coming week.

Greenfield

Staff on the Greenfield farm in Co Kilkenny have purchased eight vasectomised Holstein Friesian bulls. They have been operated on at the owner’s farm in the last week. They all are autumn-born 2015 bulls weighing between 450kg and 500kg with good size.

They were vaccinated for blackleg, IBR, BVD and Lepto. They have been outside since they were operated on and will be transported to the Kilkenny farm in the next 10 days. They will get a booster vaccination soon after arrival in Kilkenny and will be grazed as a group in small paddocks around the farm.

While picking good strong bulls, getting the cut job completed and herd health taken care of is paramount, what is even more important is managing the bulls during the breeding season.

You should not need the vasectomised bulls during the first three to four weeks of the breeding season because there are normally enough cows in heat. However, in the second and third round the vasectomised bulls come into their own.

They need to be swapped in and out to give them a rest and they need to be well fed to keep the energy up.

If one becomes lame, they need to be taken away from the herd and rested.

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Dairy breeding: decision time on farms