Reports across the country from farmers indicate that breeding has gone well, with favourable conditions in May making for a straight-forward breeding season.

As high submission rates turn to high pregnancy rates, activity in paddocks is slowing down.

Where farmers are using electronic forms of heat detection (collars, tags, etc), they should stick with these to finish off breeding.

Where tail paint and scratch cards are used, it can be more difficult to spot cows in heat when activity is low.

An option many farmers will choose is to turn out a stock bull to mop up the final stragglers. The stock bull should have a full health check and fertility check completed before turn-out.

New surroundings

If a young bull has recently been purchased, care must be taken that he has been well adjusted to his new surroundings, especially from health (received necessary vaccines, isolation period) and diet (reduced concentrates over a period of weeks) perspectives.

Stock bulls are a valuable resource on farms, so they should be observed closely for any signs of ill-health post-turn-out. Pneumonia is a major concern in young bulls coming off a high concentrate diet to being turned out with cows, with unfit bulls sweating and raising their body temperature in the day at risk as nighttime temperatures dip.

A good rule of thumb is one cow per month age of the bull - ie, 15 cows for a 15-month-old bull.

Teaser bull

Where farmers wish to use 100% AI, a teaser bull can be used.

A vasectomy should be completed six weeks before turn-out to ensure the bull does not inseminate any cows himself, so it should have been completed prior to now for the bull to be of use.

Ideally, a homebred bull around 12 months old should be used from a disease point of view, although many suckler farmers will opt to purchase a dairy-bred bull for high activity.

As with purchasing any stock, isolation and vaccination protocols should be in place.

A chin ball harness will visually aid farmers in identifying cows served/in heat for both stock bulls and teaser bulls.

Caution should be taken when handling or herding stock with any type of bull present in the herd.