Bull Sales and Selection

Written by Andrew Cribb - Director/Veterinarian, East Coast Farm Vets

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With the districts’ bull sales just around the corner, bull breeding and selection comes under the microscope.

When selecting your new bull, the process should begin with the establishment of breeding objectives that have a high economic value relative to your farm. This process, in my opinion, is the most important step but something that is almost always overlooked.

Some key points to keep in mind when planning your bull sales calendar:

• Identify a breeder who most closely meets your breeding objectives. The amount of genetic progress you make in your herd is going to largely depend on the genetic progress being made by the breeder.

• Look at the bulls first hand. Whether it’s an open day or farm visit, take the time to perform a thorough inspection with special emphasis placed on physical and reproductive soundness.

• Areas to pay close attention to – the head, jaw, eyes, neck, shoulders, front legs and feet structure, pastern angle of front and hind legs, sheath and hind leg and structure.

• Consider Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs). Ensure these align with your breeding objectives alongside the desirable traits.

• Overall condition. For sire stock to perform well they need to be fed well, year round. You will see this through confirmation and muscle formation which ultimately leads to the bulls performing to the best of their ability.

Once you’ve sourced and purchased your bull(s), the next step is managing him once he’s home.

How you handle him, the stressors that you place him under and the level of nutrition that he receives can have a very positive (or negative) effect on the eventual fertility of this animal.

When a bull is relocated to a new environment, the bull is subjected to new viral, bacterial and parasite challenges. This is unavoidable. The key to maintaining a healthy immune system is to ensure these animals have high quality nutrition (which can be a challenge at this time of the year), have had the appropriate animal health treatments (quarantine drench, lice treatment, BVD vaccination etc) and ensure that they establish new social groups quickly.

Once the new bull(s) arrives at your farm, let them settle in by leaving them in the yards overnight. Give them fresh water and good quality hay. If they are fighting, you might have to split them, depending on how serious it is.

If you have purchased one bull, find a mate or two for him straight away (this could be steers or quiet cows, not older sire bulls).  If you have bought multiple bulls from a number of different management groups or studs it is often better to put them all together at once. Introducing new bulls into a mob one at a time can lead to the new bull being given a hard time by his contemporaries.

Taking the time to understand your new bull(s), familiarise them with the yards and how they work and getting them used to you and how you handle stock all counts because this will be different to where they have come from.

This article was published in the Gisborne Herald on 24/05/25.