DocTalk Ep 460 - "How Do You Select a Bull for Your Herd" with Dr. Randall Spare

Hey folks, welcome to DocTalk. It's gonna be a great show can't wait, today we got a good friend and colleague Dr. Randall Spare from Ashland, Kansas and Ashland Veterinary Center. And we're gonna talk about how to select bull for your herd. Hey folks, welcome to DocTalk. I'm Dr. Dan Thompson. Thanks for joining us today. Today, I'm gonna have a friend a dear friend and colleague Dr. Randall spare. He is the owner and operator of Ashland Veterinary Center down in Ashland, Kansas. He is probably one of the most world-renowned cow, calf and seedstock veterinarians. And today he's gonna be on the show with us, sharing his expertise on how do you select a bull for your herd?
Thanks Dan for the opportunity to talk a little bit about bull selection for the coming year and in the next six months there'll be a tremendous amount of bulls that will be sold. And as producers, now we have the opportunity to sit back and reflect about what are our goals when we purchase a bull? what do we look for? There're so many different parameters today in seedstock production about the size and the kind the shape of bowls that we can purchase for our cow herd. But before we get to that point of deciding going to a sale, we have to ask ourselves what are our goals as a producer? And I think there are several things that play into that when are we planning on selling those calves? Do we sell them at weaning time and who's gonna buy them? Do we sell them at 800 pounds or do we sell them at harvest time? And so I think that it's important to know when we're gonna sell and who our customer really is. And many times people think, well I'm gonna sell at weaning time. So it doesn't really matter what kind of carcass qualities they have or what kind of growth they have. I just wanna sell as many pounds of beef pounds walking out the ranch and once they leave, it doesn't really matter. But I think Dan, we have to remember that somebody is gonna own those and they wanna capture more value that's in those cattle. So it's more than just what kind of weaning weight we have. So we have to understand what our goals are who's our client? The other part of the equation is, what are the resources that we have on our ranch to make those cattle healthy as possible so that the next person can be successful with them also? So Dan, one of the things that this particular group of bulls that I really like and I think it's so important is if we pan across these animals we don't really see a nervous animal in this group. One of the things that all breeds have is a dosimetry score. Temperament is so important. None of us are getting any younger and safety is really important and temperament is well-defined within each breed and we can choose to go find animals that are in the top percentile for the facility no matter what color breed whether it's Hereford or Angus or red Angus or Charolais, or the other breeds temperament is part of that equation that allows us to get the most out of their genetic potential. And so I think that it's really important to find bulls that are gonna be, that are tame and easy to work with.
Great information Dr. Randall as always, folks when you're thinking about buying a bull, remember, think about what your goals are think about who you're gonna sell those calves to, when you're gonna sell your calves. And then as Dr. Spare said, you know, none of us are getting any younger docility is not only important so they don't chase you up the fence, but it also helps with building that trust between you and your animals so they tell you when they're sick. So many more things to come with Dr. Spare in Ashland, Kansas. Hey folks, welcome back to DocTalk, Dr. Dan Thompson here at Iowa State university. And now we're gonna jump up. We're gonna beam over to Ashland, Kansas and we're gonna be there with Dr. Randall Spare who is the veterinarian, probably one of the best veterinarians I know for seedstock and just bovine medicine in general. And he's so good for our industry, somebody if you have a chance stop through Ashland or give him a call to be a speaker for one of your events but let's bump back out to Ashland where we're gonna talk about where do you get started when you're gonna pick that bull?