 Hello guys and happy Tuesday. We're going to start it with our second junior beef cattle update tonight's topic is forms of natural service. Tonight our speaker is Miss Jennifer Herbert she just defended her thesis last week. So, if you guys have any questions feel free to send them to us in the chat and we'll ask them when we can. Jennifer if you want to give yourself a little intro and then go into your presentation we'd sure appreciate it. Probably helps if I turn my microphone on there we go. Can you see my presentation here Joe. Yeah, great great version. Awesome. Alright thank you Jill for that introduction. Like she said my name is Jennifer Robert. I attended my master's here on Friday so officially starting my PhD program with Dr Carl Dolan at NDSU in the area of reproductive physiology. And so a lot of the work that I get to do is based off of bovine reproduction, specifically though some some impacts of nutrition around the time of breeding and that how that affects reproduction. So we're going to talk a little bit about some, some nutrition but we're not going to get too deep into it because I know that there's some upcoming webinars that will focus a little bit more on that pre breeding nutrition. But the goal today is to talk about natural breeding service and kind of give you guys as some options. Maybe you have some goals of going to a ranch or managing a ranch or maybe you just want to learn a little bit more about beef cattle production. Last week you talked about AI today we're going to mix it up and talk about natural breeding service. So with that we will get started. Okay, so just an outline of what we'll be covering today. So pretty simply put, there's a couple big important pieces of this formula that equate to pregnancy success. And so obviously we've got some cows involved we've got some bulls involved. And also some some people factors as well. And so in order to successfully do a natural service in a cow calf operation we need to make sure we've got all of our ducks in a row in terms of our females and the males that we're going to be using for that breeding program. And so to start some cow calf operations. Just briefly, maybe some of you come from from cow calf operations yourselves and maybe some of you don't but I want to make sure that we're all at that on the same page. Before we get too deep into this. And so a cow calf operation essentially is one that has revenue every single year in the form of a calf. And so what's really important for a calf to be born to a cow every year every 365 days, we need to have a successful breeding program. That means cows need to be getting pregnant. And so you learned last week that there's lots of ways that this can be done. But we want to talk a little bit first about the basics of pregnancy. What needs to happen, regardless of what kind of breeding program you're using. We need to make sure that we understand what's actually required of a successful pregnancy. So that we as managers can make sure that these things are do the best that we can to make sure that these things are happening. And so the three things that are required for a successful pregnancy and these are pretty primary these are pretty basic but these are the big ticket items. We need fertilization to happen. I hope most of you are old enough to understand that part of biology but essentially we need sperm and we need an egg. And so that's our male component and our female component and fertilization needs to be successful. Now we'll talk in a little bit about why fertilization might fail or why, why pregnancies might not even be established if you have poor reproductive performance in your males or your females. But that's where we'll leave that for now. The second part of a pregnancy though is the establishment of that pregnancy and so there's lots of things that go into that. But the primary one is the establishment of the placenta and the placenta is essentially this tissue that surrounds the baby in the female reproductive tract and it kind of serves as an organ and a facilitator for nutrients for blood for oxygen from the mom to the baby during pregnancy. And so a really important piece of a healthy pregnancy or one that's going to be established and maintained through through its full term is the functionality of that placenta and its ability to deliver nutrients to that fetal calf. And then finally, the maintenance of the pregnancy is ultimately important for carrying that calf to term to 280 or 285 days. A give or take some days on either side of that for pregnancy like pregnancy like so just wanted to cover some basics there to make sure we're all on the same page in terms of pregnancy, and then we can talk about some options for how to get there. So again, you talked about artificial insemination last week, some estrosynchronization options, not sure if you touched on any embryo transfer I don't think so maybe a little bit. We won't be talking about that today. But what we will be talking about is natural service and so by far the simplest option for breeding your cow herd. But it's going to be up to you as young producers or people interested in this industry, or managing some kind of heard it's going to be up to you to really evaluate some of these options and determine based on your production goals, what system is going to work best for your herd. And on a financial basis on a labor basis for a lot of different reasons, you need to figure out which one is going to work best for you. So, what is natural service we keep saying natural service, what is it really really simple definition is using live bowls to breed cows as they naturally show So this is putting a bull out on pasture or out in a pen with cows and letting the bull do his job to get cows pregnant. This has minimal human human factors with this will talk some pros and cons as we go along. So essentially you're letting bulls and cows do what they're going to do. What we need to do though is we need to keep in mind the cow and the bull leading up to the breeding season and make sure that we're managing them correctly so that they're going to perform as reproductively as good as as they're supposed to and we have something in the chat here I don't know if this is AI recording sorry somebody's looking for a recordings from last session I believe there are sorry to interrupt there. So, jump into the next one here. My advance isn't really working. Okay, starting with the cow. So again, there's two big points to this formula, our cow and our bull so let's talk about the cow. What do we need to make sure we're doing with our cows leading up to breeding to ensure good reproductive or. Yeah, good reproductive success I guess I'll put that. So a couple things that we need to consider. I know this was talked about last week a little bit as well. But it's extremely important because ultimately we can't have good reproduction without solid nutritional plans. And so we need to make sure our cows are in a good or a proper nutritional status. That's considering body condition score and relative plane of nutrition. We'll talk about that here in the next slide. So having our cows in good condition allows other things like establishment of a new pregnancy to actually occur. So yeah, talk about that in the moment. Also if we're considering heifers we need to make sure heifers have reached puberty or really close to reaching puberty. Pretty simply put we want to make sure that our heifers are pubertal by about a year of age. That's a couple things that go into that. But essentially, if our, our heifers are ready to breed shortly after they turn a year of age. And we know that our heifers are pubertal when they're going into breeding. We would hope that those heifers would breed early in the breeding season and thus have earlier in the calving season. So the work that talks about cows that calf earlier cows that breed within the first 21 days of the breeding season tend to stay in the herd longer for a lot of different reasons. But primarily those cows that are having calves early in the calving season. Those calves are a lot bigger than cows that are born way way late in the season. And then there's also some evidence that talks about cattle getting rebred again, if they have a little bit more time in between calving and the next breeding season they typically have a little better pregnancy success. Going into that next breeding season. And that kind of gets us into that third point there, talking about days postpartum at the start of the breeding season so I've got a slide that talks about that in a little bit more detail. But essentially when we put this out on a calendar. 45 days postpartum is really what we're shooting for at the start of a breeding season, if we want to have a calf out of the cow every 365 days. So if we do just briefly if we do some math on that 365 days minus our gestation length let's just say 280 days. So that puts us at what is that 85 days that we have from having a calf to getting pregnant again. And if we have a 45 day postpartum period that means we have 40 days to get a cow pregnant again. And so at a minimum we want 45 days postpartum for cows at the start of the breeding season for a lot of different reasons, but recovery of those reproductive organs is a big thing. Uterine involution is what it's called. Essentially it's a fancy word for getting the uterus and the female reproductive tract healed and shrunk back down to its normal size after having a calf and returning to estrus and being able to breed again. Also some things about cows going into breeding. It seems that cows or cows that really struggle having a calf that spring will have a little bit more trouble getting pregnant again, potentially that's that's because they need a little bit more time to heal, and maybe some other things as well but generally from a welfare standpoint from a from a cow health standpoint rebreeding standpoint as well, having cows that have on their own that calf easy is definitely preferred to ones that we're going to have C sections and really difficult pulls on. Okay, so I mentioned body condition score a little bit. And yeah I know you talked about this last week so we'll keep it pretty brief. Body condition scores are on a scale from one to nine in beef cattle. And so we've got a couple different ones here show him. You can see this girl on the top would be considered a body condition score one that heifer that cow in the middle is about a five and that cow on the bottom would be a nine in the body in terms of body condition score. And so what kind of what we need to think about when it comes to body condition score is really the one it when it comes down to nutrient partitioning of this animal and what that is is it's a fancy way of saying, how will nutrients go to certain functions or certain organs in the body, based on that condition of that animal. And when what are the priorities of where those nutrients will go. Top priority for an animal when it comes to where am I delivering nutrients to my body is maintenance we need to support based on metabolism we need to keep our body functioning. Lower on that priority list is the establishment of a new pregnancy. So essentially, if we're not in a good body condition as a cow and we're working really really hard just to maintain our body metabolism and our body functions. The thing on that cows mind or from a from that cows body I guess is is the establishment of a new pregnancy. So getting a cow pregnant in a body condition score one for example is going to be really really tough. Similar things are happening when you have overly obese cows, definitely will run into some issues with fertility and things like that but generally speaking we want our cows somewhere in a body condition score five to six. So definitely that's going to have the greatest fertility in terms of what to her body what is her body demanding in terms of maintenance is her body adequate in terms of maintenance and can she support a new pregnancy, going into the breeding season. So I just want to throw this in there. And this is talking about the peri conceptual period and nutrition during that period and so what this period is is it's this time, shortly before conception, and shortly after conception and so what we found in our research, and this is a little caveat of what we do is that this is a really really important time, both for that cow and for the establishment of her new pregnancy. There's some there's some evidence that what that cow is eating, how her new, how her nutrition what her nutrition looks like kind of going into the breeding season can set up a lot of things actually for that calf, as early as, as you know, that time of maternal recognition of pregnancy which happens, just at a couple weeks post conception and so what we call those are some programming impacts and so it's essentially setting up that calf for long term performance and productivity, based on what that cow eight slightly before during that really early pregnancy time period. Another thing that we need to think about with cows though is days postpartum and so I mentioned a little bit earlier that 45 days postpartum is really what we want to shoot for for cows going into the breeding season. Essentially, this is the number of days between giving birth and getting pregnant again. Maybe that's giving birth in in April and becoming pregnant again in July. That period in between is your days postpartum so it's really essential that cows undergo enough time postpartum. One their uterus needs to resume normal size and they need to return to estrus and so what cows do, and what a lot of species do is they go through this period of an estrus that's called, so they're not cycling. The cattle are nursing a suckling calf they're not cycling and so establishing a new pregnancy during this period where they're they're not having an estrus cycle is going to be obviously really difficult. And so that days postpartum period is really important to get that cow cycling again and get her ready to accept a new pregnancy. There's also some things going on in terms of kind of that nutrient partitioning aspect kind of how cattle mobilize their fat stores and mobilize their energy stores and kind of what their demands are in terms of production during this period in those postpartum days after calving essentially the requirements to milk that calf shoot way up. And so fat stores are mobilized to supply milk to that calf. And so there's a lot of things happening there in terms of energy demands and energy that she's actually getting delivered into the feed but generally speaking, if we have more days postpartum. So if a cow has more time to recover between calving and getting pregnant again, we have more time for uterine repair and a better chance that these cows are going to be returning to estrus. Therefore, we'd hope for some greater pregnancy rates, and I see a bunch of chats coming in so I might just take a moment. Thanks Travis. Good answer. All right. Jumping in here. So talked a little bit about cows. Now we need to talk about bulls. And this is probably a point that the section that didn't get talked about with AI. Obviously, because there's less of a need for live cover bulls. If you're using AI services. Nevertheless, there's still going to be a need for for natural service bulls at some point or another though so definitely some things to talk about here in terms of bull factors. We've got a couple things that we need to address. One, we need to consider the age of our bull battery, the age of our bulls that we have on hand. We'll talk here in a moment but yearling bulls act very differently and perform differently than mature bulls. So that's something that we need to recognize when it comes to selecting bulls that we're going to have breeding our cows or breeding heifers. Next we're going to talk about breeding soundness exams. This is a very, very important piece to using natural service and a very good option for you as managers or future managers to look into as a way to kind of put some insurance on your reproductive breeding or on your breeding programs. So you have an idea of how your bulls will be performing out on pasture out in the pens with your cows. So something we also need to consider with our bulls is their libido. What is their drive to mate. Do they have a drive to mate. Ultimately we could have a bull with the best semen characteristics the best semen quality but if he has no desire to mount a cow that doesn't do much for us. If that's his job out with the cows. And then finally we'll talk about some stocking rates and give some natural service kind of breeding recommendations. So you have an idea of how you would actually incorporate a natural service breeding system into your herd. Okay, so I mentioned mentioned a little bit about how different ages of bulls act a little bit differently when they're exposed exposed to cows. So you'll see here we've got three different ages of bulls we've got a yearling bull. So one year old, two year old and three year old or over three year old bulls. You'll see here on the left we've got mount services esters female service pregnant females that were serviced and overall pregnancy rates. You can see on this very very top line here. Yearling bulls are mounting a lot of cows they're doing lots and lots of mounting out there compared to mature bulls. Okay, kind of interesting. Look at the next circle line there at the bottom when it comes to pregnant females that were service. Although yearling bulls are mounting a lot of females, their pregnancy rates are a little bit lower their pregnancy success is lower than what mature bulls would be achieving on pasture with fewer mounts. And so what this says is that as bulls get older, they have more mating experience they kind of know the ropes they know what they're doing. And so we have potential for greater pregnancy success. And so something to note, and we'll we'll talk about it in the recommendations here a little bit later. But, but it's important to note that with yearling bulls we don't really know how they're going to act on pasture until they're out there. And so definitely a smart idea if you've got a if you've got a smaller let's say you've only got 30 cows, probably smart to use a bull that's experienced kind of knows what's going on might be a little risky throwing out a yearling bull and telling him good luck, you might get some things like this you might be mounting a lot of cows but he might not be doing much. Just because yeah with age comes some experience and some some pregnancy success as well. Okay, so what makes a good bull, how do we pick a good bull. I'm gonna interrupt you quick we had a couple of timely questions. Can you prevent toxinia and heifers on our ranch we had a similar problem where heifers would transfer to me nutrients, the calf and later die. Is there a scientific way for this or way to stop it. Oh, that's a good question. Oh, I don't know. That's a really good question. I'm, I don't have an answer for that one. I might have to look into that I don't know if anybody else might might have an idea about that but I'm not, not entirely sure on that one Madeline. And so the next question is so kept so cows can be exposed to bulls while their calves are still inside. Yes. Yes, and often that's, that's the scenario so if we think of a production calendar what's happening on the ranch. So calves are typically getting weaned around six to seven months of age. So let's say we're calving in April. And remember we need that 80 days to get pregnant again with that next calf so that puts us somewhere mid summer. So yeah, absolutely cows are are becoming pregnant with their next calf, while their last calf is still nursing outside. Good question. Good point there Travis as well. Bulls have very, very different libido. And you kind of need to watch them and we'll get to that here in a second. But yeah, one of the most in peace, important pieces of determining if your bull is being successful is watching him to see that he's actually doing his job. Thanks for catching me Jill on that I've got my chat here on the left in my presentation in front of me so if I, if I missed some questions just all right me. So, what makes a good bull. So, there's a couple things that we need to think about one the probably pretty obvious one is he needs to be reproductively sound. And what that means is his swimmers need to be good. He needs to have modal and morphologically normal sperm. That means his sperm needs to be moving it needs to be alive, and it needs to be shaped correctly in order to get to the egg. That's the one job of the sperm it needs to find the egg and so if that sperm doesn't move correctly. It's not moving in the right direction. There can be some issues with fertility that show up when you break check cows later on, likely in the fall if you're if you've got a spring cabin coward. So, two things in addition to reproductive soundness. I guess I should address this scrotal circumference for bull ages really important to. I don't have numbers here to go along with this in terms of minimum maximum scrotal circumference measurements, but essentially scrotal circumference is is related to fertility. And so we need to make sure that our bulls are developing reproductively in terms of male sex organs, and that kind of thing for their age. And I see another question here. Okay, Travis address that one. Okay, so then in terms of physical soundness so a lot of things that we need to keep in mind for a bull. And these might be pretty obvious but sometimes we forget about them. So we need to make sure that a bull is physically sound in terms of his feet and legs. Anybody know or I guess anybody who's seen a cow or a bull at work with the cows knows that he's got to stand up on his back two feet to mount the cow. If a bull can't do that we're going to have some trouble. If a bull can't physically move around in a pasture to get to the cows. He's not going to be a very good breeder. He's not going to be very efficient, a very effective at getting the job done. If he can't get himself around to find the cows. Okay. So feet legs, but also an exam of his external sex organs is going to be really important. Bulls can get hurt really easily. There's some nasty injuries out there. But essentially, whether it's it's damaged to the to the scrotum with frostbite in the winter. That's not a new thing that's not unheard of in North Dakota. It's definitely something that we need to be aware of. So damage to the scrotum damage to the penis as well some bulls can really get some nasty injuries or have some diseases or infections. And so the physical soundness of those external sex organs is definitely something that needs to be evaluated as well. Okay, bulls as I mentioned earlier bulls need to have libido bulls need to have a desire to mate. They could have, again, they could have the best semen that you've ever seen but if they have no desire to hang out with the cows, or think about the ladies like this guy is doing in this picture, then he's not doing much as a breeder. Okay. But another question. Genetics to determine libido is that progeny difference or estimated. I'm somebody correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that there's any PDs that estimate libido. Yeah, thanks Travis. All you got to do is watch. And that's what's going to be really really important as a manager. What we'll talk about here in the next couple slides. So I don't think that there's any service being low input kind of low labor, but it's just important for you as a manager to watch your cattle, watch breeding happening. Because yeah, if you're a bulls are sitting down by the water, just enjoying the summer sun, kind of soaking up the rays, they are not doing anything for you. And so definitely just need to watch bulls, watch them in action, and see that they're actually interested in the cows. I don't think that there's anything that you can do to fix libido. I'm not really sure there might be something as bulls increase in age you might see that libido kind of get established. I would I'm not 100% sure on that. I'd have to do a little bit of research into that but interesting thought there. Good question. Okay, so breeding soundness exams. Really important thing that we can do as managers to see if our bulls are going to be effective when it comes time for the breeding season. And so I'll add to, even if you're doing AI, even if you're doing, you know, heat detection AI method or a fixed time AI. There's a good chance that you might need a cleanup bull at the conclusion of those breeding programs as well. What's really, really important is that you do a breeding soundness exam on bulls that are going to be your breeding stock. So you can see what the sperm quality, what the semen quality is actually looking like, and you can kind of predict fertility and how successful this bull is going to be with the cows by doing this breeding soundness exam. And so this is something that's done on a yearly basis. A lot of veterinarians do this. I don't think you have to be a veterinarian to do this. But pretty typical to call your vet's office, take some bulls in or maybe have the vet come to you and do some breeding soundness exams on your herd sires. Biggest thing with breeding soundness exams doesn't tell you how they're going to be, how they're going to act in terms of behavior in terms of libido with their cows, you have to observe that. Simply a breeding soundness exam is only an evaluation of reproductive soundness in terms of sperm quality, external sex organs, and then some physical evaluation is going to be included as well. So kind of good timing of doing this is somewhere four to six weeks before the start of the breeding season. It's important though to give yourself enough time with breeding soundness exams and case a bull fails bulls fail breeding soundness exams all the time. What you need to do is have a backup plan. If you have 30 cows and you only have one bull, any fails. What are we going to do what's next so you need to make sure that you're giving yourself enough time between this breeding soundness exam and the start of your breeding season in the case that you need to retestable, or you need to go out and buy a new bird sire, because your trustee rusty just failed. So, some things that are included in this breeding soundness exam, scrotal measurements, again seeming collection physical evaluation, and any pre breeding shots. I don't know if anybody's covering health in the upcoming webinars, but some bull shots and cow shots pre breeding, definitely something to look into I won't address them today. But do some research if this is something that you're interested in and see what might be important for the bulls in your area for your herd. And so essentially at the end of a breeding soundness exam though bull can be classified as satisfactory, questionable or or fail. And so these, this is just a little table showing what that satisfactory and questionable rating actually mean when it comes to these bulls breeding cows. They're not satisfactory bulls, somewhere 45% pregnancy rate in this in this specific study this is an older study 1989 this one was done and bulls that tested, and we're deemed questionable at the end of breeding soundness exams, only had about a 36% pregnancy rate so when a vet or whoever is doing your breeding soundness exams, says a bull is questionable that questionable that bull is probably questionable. And it might might be an indicator of how that bull is actually going to perform during the breeding season. Hey Jennifer so a couple quick questions back to our BSE. So if bulls fail the first time how long do you have to wait to retest them. I have a question. There's a lot of different answers out there. Oh shoot. Someone might correct me if I'm wrong but I'm thinking it's it's somewhere around that four weeks that you need to retest. I could be wrong there I might need to double check on that number. Maybe what's what we need to keep in mind is is how long that the lifespan of that sperm is. And I should have that number off hand but I don't. But essentially we need to want to retest when a new batch of that sperm is coming through. So maybe there is something environmentally. Maybe it was frostbite on the scrotum maybe. Maybe it was just a it was a it was a poor round. And he needs to get retested and he needs to generate some new sperm to get a more accurate representation of the semen that he's got. But yeah that's a that's a good question I would have to double check into that number sorry I don't have that one with me. A little more on some BSE so some things that we can find when we do a breeding soundest exam. So obviously these aren't these aren't normal sperm. And so if something like this comes up. Obviously that person doing the breeding soundest exam would would deemable questionable or or a fail if you see a lot of these abnormalities. These are just some morphological defects so what's keeping that sperm from actually getting to the egg. So maybe the sperm move, but do they move in the right in the right direction. Are they actually progressively modal are they getting to the egg like they're supposed to and these are just some common ones that I've seen. There's a lot of proximal droplets here essentially there's this little water droplet on the far left between the the head and the tail and that water droplet is supposed to shed off the tail of that sperm. But it gets stuck on there and so has that sperm has some trouble advancing and moving as it should to fertilize the egg. We also have some coiled tails you see the second image that tail is kind of all wrapped around itself. So this struggle with moving as well. Some abnormal ahead and bent mid pieces again really just just some issues with movement and getting to that egg and fertilizing it is what's going to cause some of these bowls to be called questionable or even fail if there's a great enough concentration of these abnormal sperm cells. And then last detached heads obviously no tail, no way of that sperm moving and so obviously that's not going to do much good. When it comes to getting deposited in the cow and trying to make it to the egg. So I see a question. Six weeks. Thanks Travis. Okay, so why else would a bull fail a BSE. Obviously morphological defects are a big one. But this is a comparison talking about yearling bulls and mature bulls. And so we mentioned yearling bulls and mature bulls behave a little bit differently out on out during the breeding season with cows or halfers, but sometimes they also fail breeding soundness exams for different reasons. So yearling bulls are in the in the green bars here, mature bulls are in the yellow bars. So you'll notice that yearling bulls will fail breeding soundness exams in terms of morphological defects, more than mature bulls. However we see a little bit of difference. So we're talking about abnormalities in terms of some external sex organs. And so mature bulls tend to fail breeding soundness exams for for abnormalities or injuries to the penis as well. Compared to yearling bulls. This is for some pretty obvious reasons, mature bulls are out on pasture they're out working. They've they've been in the field a little bit longer and so there's a better chance that they, they might have gotten hurt somewhere along the way. But on those external sex organs. Those can be some issues a lot of times you can cut those off or if that can cut those off, and that bull can still be functional. Decided not to put any images of that up for your guys's sake, this time but any of these kind of injuries or abnormalities to the male reproductive system for beef cattle you can look and and some of these are pretty gnarly looking but you can check them out because they absolutely do happen. Similarly, we have some differences in terms of mature bulls and yearling bulls for those failing breeding soundness exams in terms of foot and leg structure, and then stroke scrotal circumference as well. Pretty, pretty evident here that that yearling bulls are failed more often for scrotal circumference issues compared to mature bulls. Essentially what this might mean is that at the time of breeding soundness exams, these yearling bulls just aren't sexually mature because they haven't reached the scrotal circumference that they need that corresponds with their age to commit to be considered good breeders and so they might fail breeding soundness exam for that reason. But essentially, kind of big, big picture and what I want you to take away from this is that a lot of these defects and a lot of these abnormalities are really hard to pick out if you're not doing a breeding soundness exam. So some issues with physical structure, maybe that's some bad feet, some bad toes, bad legs, whatever you might be able to see that when that cow or when that bulls out on pasture. But these others, especially issues with sperm quality and other issues with that external male reproductive track you're really not going to see unless you do a breeding soundness exam, or until your cows show up in the fall and they're open, because the bull wasn't doing its job. So just some some big picture things to keep in mind there. Again, behavior is super variable. For the most part, though, a bull will mount a cow and service her somewhere between one and 27 times. And with that it's really important that a bull is physically sound can actually do the work stand on his back two legs to do that and so a bull somewhere is mounting a cow and servicing a cow around four times on average, until she becomes pregnant. Also, bulls will tend to seek out more receptive females at the start of the breeding season and find females that are in standing estrus. What's interesting with the cow estrus cycle is that the estrus cycle is 21 days and so at any point during the during that 21 day period, 5% of your herd should be in standing he should be an estrus. And so, typically, though, bulls will service far more times or mount females far more times than there are actually number of females if that makes any sense. But bulls become a little bit less selective as the breeding season progresses. As some of those cows were in standing heat, became pregnant or no longer cycling or no longer in heat. They become a little bit less selective as the breeding season goes on if the bulls are still interested in those females maybe maybe they're showing estrus maybe they're not, but they'll still continue to service those females as the breeding season goes on. And so, some recommendations here in terms of bull stocking rates and length of the breeding season and probably the most important slide to walk away from. If this is something that you're hoping to take back to your herd, or something to keep in mind keep on the back burner for a little bit later in your beef, beef industry careers. And so what we need out of a good breeding bull for natural service breeding, or really a clean up bull for that, for that matter as well. If you're doing a little bit of AI. So obviously we need our bulls to pass a breeding soundness exam we need to have a score of satisfactory from a vet or whoever is is is experienced in doing breeding soundness exams for your bulls. Your bulls need to have a high libido, they need to be interested in the cows. And if they're not interested in the cows, it really doesn't matter how good he is. So we need to make sure that he has an interest in doing his job as a bull, and is mounting cows and is successful in doing so. Okay, some stocking rates. If you're just doing natural service. Again yearlings behave a little bit differently than mature bulls. We maybe don't want to trust yearlings with a big big group of cows. They don't have time out their first time out on the road so yearlings, one yearling bull for 15 cows, or 15 heifers is is adequate for mature bulls, however, we can do one bull for 25, even 30 cows, and we can be okay. So if you're synchronizing females, and we didn't talk about synchronization programs for natural service at all today, but it's something that you might want to look into. If you still want to do some synchronization but don't want to AI you can set up some cows to be synchronized for natural service. However, as I mentioned, at any given time during a 21 day period 5% of your herd, 5% of your cow herd would be in estrus. If you're synchronizing those cows, obviously more of them would be in estrus at the same time that estrus would be synchronized it would be a little more concentrated. And so if your bull can only cover 5% of your herd at a time you're obviously going to need to increase your bull power to cover those synchronized females and make sure that your females that are coming into heat are actually getting service fireball, instead of waiting another 21 days for that next estrus cycle to roll around. Okay, with that we want, at a minimum just a good recommendation is a 42 day breeding season that means bulls have access to the cows for a 40 day to 42 day period. So that's two estrus cycles that's to 21 day periods. Essentially you're giving cows two chances to become pregnant during those are two big chances to become pregnant during those estrus cycles. Some folks leave bulls in for a lot longer some a little bit shorter. It's kind of up to you and how selective you want to be about your, your most fertile females and and really how close or how tight you want that to be for how long you leave your bulls out with the cows. Essentially we want to watch bulls closely as the breeding season progresses. That's not necessarily going out and watching the bull the first day that he sees the cows and seeing that he's going to mount a couple. That's watching the bull throughout the breeding season bulls can get hurt bulls can hurt a foot bulls can get caught up in a fence. Who knows what throughout the breeding season. And so it's really important that you check up on them as the breeding season goes on and Casey's come down with an injury or is struggling to breed cows somewhere in the middle of that breeding season. It's better to catch that early and get a new bull in in with that group of cows, instead of finding out much later when it comes to preg checking that that bull really didn't do his job. And in general we want to have a backup plan. What happens if our bull fails a breeding soundness exam gets hurt in the middle of the breeding season. We need to have a backup plan so that we can still get good pregnancy rates in our cows. We've got a question. Yeah, thanks Travis Travis said if you choose to synchronize full battery needs to be greater. Absolutely because more of those cows will be an asterisk at the same time. And that's going to be a lot of work for a bull to cover all these cows that are that are in heat at the same time. So, almost finished here I've got just a couple more slides left I know I'm pushing time just a little, but just some general herd expectations and these are some really good benchmarks to go off of. Kind of no matter what your herd size these are just some really good markers to see if your herd is doing well. Okay, so obviously we want a calving to calving interval every 365 days or we want that interval to be 365 days. We want a calf on the ground every 365 days. This means cows need to have a calf and get rebread somewhere between 80 and 85 days. We didn't talk really about cold cows, but the hope is to keep cows in the herd who are calving we're getting pregnant early in the breeding season, therefore calving earlier in the calving season. And we're and we're calling only about 5% of cows that don't become pregnant or maybe cows that that have some reasons why they might not be getting pregnant that next breeding season, hopefully over 95% of cows will mean a calf. Some more things here about heifers and heifer replacements which we didn't really talk about, but kind of another point that I'll talk about here though is is the length of our calving window. And so the length of your kind of calving season is really up to you as a producer. And what what pregnancy rate you want, what kind of calving season you can actually handle from a labor standpoint from a timing standpoint. There's a lot of things that are going to go into this and so what we want a good benchmark is to convince our calving season to 42 days. And I'm sure you know folks out there, you know, we've had it at home I can't say our ranch is perfect at home. Sometimes we we condense all our calving to March and April and sometimes we have a straggler out and out in late May, it happens. And I'm sure you guys have seen it before, but really our goal is to concentrate our calving season to 42 days two cycles to increase the uniformity of our calf crop and potentially do a little bit better at sale if our calves are looking a little more alike. When it comes to that time. Okay, and finally, there's some things that I mentioned there's a there's a third aspect to that formula and that's the people factor. And so, granted, this is a much, much bigger part if you're doing AI. But definitely some things that we need to think about from a handling standpoint and from a welfare standpoint that apply to really all methods of reading programs that you're going to that you might be implementing. Okay, so what can you control from a people standpoint. Because managers, we can test bowls ahead of time, and we have a backup plan. That one's a little bit different than the than the other options here. But calm handling, absolutely a good thing to do, whether you're doing natural service whether you're doing AI, keeping caught cattle calm, implementing low stress handling options is is all around a good option for for animal health for animal welfare, but also animals who are really really stressed at the time of breeding or stressed around breeding. We tend to have some issues with reproductive success as well so just some general thoughts, reduce noise reduce stress, try and keep the hot shot away if you can, but a really good thing to do whether you're running cattle through a shoot, maybe five times with an AI protocol, or maybe just maybe just a time going out to pasture to breed is you want to make sure cattle are acclimated to the system that working So we can follow some of those low stress handling options as well. I see a couple of chats. Should your bull be taller than his cows or can he but can he be smaller. That's a good question. Most bulls are taller than the cows. What it comes down to is his ability to reach what he needs to reach. If that makes any sense at all. If your bull is is trying to mount cows that are much much bigger much frame year than him. And he's and simply the, the active population is unsuccessful, then there's going to be some problems. If he can reach the cow if he can get where he needs to go. Then I don't see a problem with it, but something that you might want to observe if your bulls are actually out there, breeding cows that are much taller than him. Okay, a couple more here. For natural breeding is it recommended not to sink, because don't want everyone to be an actress at once good question. It's an option for you. You can absolutely synchronize cows if you're going to do natural service, or you can let them do what they want you can just turn the bull out with the cows for a couple of cycles, and let the bull cover the cow as she comes into natural service. There's a lot of ways that you can do it and I'll kind of that's actually a really good bridge into this slide. And we'll talk about some pros and cons of natural service. Okay, so why might we do natural service, I want it to probably a little bit cheaper than I AI. Depending, of course, depending on how much you're willing to pay for a live cover bull, paying $4,000 for a bull and $14,000 for a bull is the looks a little bit different on paper. So definitely some things you might want to work out from an economical analysis standpoint to see what actually that's going to cost you on a per pregnancy or per per cow basis. Also for natural service though, there's less room for human error. Obviously there's less, less shots, less equipment. Less, less fewer times running through the shoot, as compared to AI. And so there's less room as for humans to mess it up. I guess that's a really simple way to put it. With that less labor goes into using natural service less facilities and equipment needed to utilize a natural service program. Of course, as that individual mentioned we can synchronize cows for natural service and that's going to take a little more labor a little more, a little more work from a human standpoint, but absolutely something that we can do some cons for natural service and just some things to think about. Obviously this is the low labor, a low intensity kind of option. But what we what we struggle with with natural service is we maybe are a little bit more limited in terms of live bulls that have the genetic profiles that you want. Maybe a little less selective about what bull you can use just based on what you can get at a production sale are from somebody you know who sells sells breeding bulls, or maybe even some bulls that you've retained from your own herd. Obviously you're going to need more live bulls if you're not using AI, and there's a cost associated with maintenance and bulls throughout the year. Potentially there's some a little bit less hybrid vigor maybe if you're using some some maybe some outcross bulls with an AI sire compared to maybe some live bulls or might be some differences there in terms of hybrid hybrid vigor. Also, if we've got our calving season spread out a little bit and we're kind of just letting bulls breed cows as they come into natural heat. Our calving season might be a little less concentrated, as opposed to maybe we're breeding all of our cows on a fixed time AI we're breeding all of our cows over a three day period, obviously our, our calving season is going to look a little bit different. Maybe that's a pro for you maybe that's actually going to work for you depending on the labor that you have or the health that you have during calving, but all very, very important things to think about. I did have some slides on pregnancy detection but I think I'm going to skip those today I'm running way low on time. So I'll fast forward through those, but absolutely if anybody has any questions, I will end on that slide there and address some questions as they come up. One, is it okay to use the hot shot once in a while good question. What I would say to that is, yep, it's okay once in a while, a good response though we're kind of a good thing to keep in mind is that a hot shot maybe just shouldn't be used as a primary driving tool. There's lots of other ways to move cattle that are low stress, but when it comes down to it. Yes, sometimes a hot shots okay in a in a kind of dire situation when it comes down to a well being of the animal, or, or a person or another animal yes sometimes a hot shot is needed. Yeah, good question. Okay did we have another one. I think we got that one. Okay, while we're waiting for questions to trickle in I'm going to launch a poll, and just to see if you guys have any questions you want answered or any that kind of stuff okay. Is this presentation recorded and where might it be accessible or is that sent out to the attendees at some point. It is recorded and I will you wrote down your email I can send you the recording. Once I get it tomorrow. Okay, I got another question on here. Do you recommend having all yearling bulls together for breeding or have at least one mature bull. Thank you for that question Taylor. Um, so there's some things to think about in terms of mingling bulls. And it comes down to dominance and so if you put some some new bulls all together you'll notice they start fighting right away. And sometimes they'll fight for quite a while and so there might be some dominance issues if you're mixing yearling bulls with mature bulls. And if you've got the facilities that can handle some bulls fighting a little bit. It might not be the end of the world. Some folks will say that having some mature bulls and yearling bulls mix though when it comes to actually being out breeding. Maybe the yearling bull will kind of learn the ropes from the mature bull. Okay, sometimes it's, it's a little risky to just have a yearling bull all by himself but perhaps if you have some yearling bulls together, kind of bulls of similar age, similar battery. That might be a that might be a smart idea if you don't want bulls to fight. So go ahead somebody ask what's the stocking rate for cows per bull for breeding. Oh yeah. Um, so for yearling bulls. We'd like to do one yearling bull for 15 cows. And then for mature bulls. We can do one bull for 25 to 30 cows. If you have multiple bulls as a possible one could be injured and put out a commission from fighting. Yeah, absolutely. And that's kind of a risk when it comes to mingling bulls who maybe haven't been around one another, or introducing new bulls. Yeah, fighting can absolutely be an issue. And so yeah, definitely something to think about when you're maybe buying new bulls and tossing them in the big bullpen at home. They might beat up a little bit and might take them out of commission for breeding. So some things to think about for sure if you're bringing on new bulls in the place. Maybe you want to isolate them. Maybe you want to put bulls of the same age together that kind of thing. Okay, another one how much does temperament factor in for you and choosing a bull. Great question. I'm a person who I come from a cow calf operation. And I've seen far too many cows who are a little too high strong cause injury to other people or risk causing injury to other people. To me and you'll hear different answers from different folks. But for me it's not worth it. You might have a really, really good bull. But if he's endangering folks. They're well being their lives. To me it's not worth it. I don't know if people might have different answers to that. But for me temperament is a is a really big deal when it comes to choosing a bull because that's the, that's the well being in the safety of my people helping me and my safe, my safety as well. Good question Catherine. Um, faith, if the bull gets injured will that affect the calf. Um, are you talking faith maybe you want to clarify on that question. What calf are you maybe talking is that when the bull is breeding if he gets injured will that affect that that that fetus. Is that what you're asking when breeding sure. Um, I guess maybe a way to to simplify that answer is if a bull gets injured maybe he's not even able to breathe. That's that's maybe the easiest question. If there's nothing wrong. I mean, if the bull hurts his foot and he can still, he can still mount a cow and breed I don't suspect that there's anything wrong with that calf board, you know at birth or anything like that. But yeah I guess it comes down to tend that bull actually still breed. If he's injured. Alright, lots of questions. How can you help stop a lot of fighting between your bulls we have this problem at our farm. That's probably putting both together that are the same age and allowing them to establish some dominance with bulls it's kind of a factor life that they're going to fight. But but I would say avoid putting a five year old bull up against a yearling because the yearling will kind of get beat up. And I would, my suggestion of that is, is keep both together that are close to the same age. And how long do you leave your bulls out with the cows. Good question sage. And so, it kind of varies a lot, I would say at a minimum 42 days leave bulls out with the cows leave them out for two cycles. So leave them for a lot longer. Some folks will leave them out for a 70 day, 70 day breeding season. Of course if you think about it the longer you leave a bull out with the cows. The more chances that cow has to get pregnant while she's while she's in heat while she's in standing heat. And so your your pregnancy rates will will be a little bit greater as you as you leave bulls out for a longer period of time. I don't know about what that might do on the on the backside, the longer breeding season. Subsequently the longer calving season, you'll potentially have and Taylor asked how old should a bull be until you should think about calling. Good question. And so bulls can can be productive and can be fertile for for a number of years and I heard. Bulls hang around in a herd for four or five, six years, sometimes more. I would say probably the like average productive life of a bull though is somewhere between four and six years. Okay, Bella says when working with your bulls what type of setup should you typically have a good question. So obviously bulls are a little bit more powerful than cows so if you're working bulls. If you're handling them typically they're going to they might get a little more aggressive than they would if they're just kind of hanging out in the pasture. And so if you're running bulls through a facility. I would strongly suggest some solid fencing, whether that's a continuous panel whether that's a solid panel, whatever. Bulls can can barrel over a barbed wire fence or a wire fence pretty easily. So definitely something with solid siding. In a, if you're testing bulls, that's a little bit of different scenario that's a little more high stress kind of scenario. Most of that clinics have a good setup, whether that's a hydraulic shoot or a higher functioning manual shoot. But definitely some solid sturdy sides is is preferred for bulls definitely got any more. Great question. Okay, is it favorable to have a bull with a more masculine face build, or is it not an important characteristic. That's, that's a good question. Probably a little bit of that goes into. I guess to me from a reproductive soundness standpoint it, that doesn't really matter to me. There might be some more thought into that though, depending on what kind of offspring you're looking for. Maybe maybe a bull that has some more masculine characteristics might might produce some some male offspring with masculine characteristics or female might be a little more masculine looking. But from a from a reproductive performance standpoint, I would say that's maybe not as important of a characteristic. What do you do when a bull won't breed anymore. I'm guessing you don't butcher it and eat it. You can. A lot of times bulls that that fail breeding soundness exams will head to the sale barn and go for a coal market. And at some point or another those bulls do end up in a terminal market in a plant for for primary probably secondary beef markets. As compared to like a finishing animal or something like that. How many cows can a bull cover per season on average. Oh, per season I guess per season on average. You might cover more than you're actually than you stock them with. That's a that's a good question because I'm guessing you're looking for a little bit different answer. I guess I'm not sure the actual just the stocking rate, but in a in a 42 day period we're confident that bulls can bulls can cover like 25 to 30 cows. But per season if you just let him let him out with a with a bunch of different cows and said have at it I guess I'm not sure the answer on that good question though. How can you tell if your bull is fat not fit. I think I'm fat not fit. That's a good question. Being probably, I would suggest do some work on body condition scores and look into how you evaluate an animal properly in relation to body condition scores. There's a number of indicators on an animal that say this animal has got a lot of extra condition or a lot of extra fat cover compared to an animal that doesn't. You know, some some really obvious indicators are some maybe some fat around the tail head. Some some fat in the brisket area maybe some fat in the flank. But yeah I would I would suggest looking into some body condition scoring and looking at the indicators within each of those score. Each of those score categories to determine if a if a bull has actually got a lot of condition or if he's muscular. I would suggest when working bowls would you use wood or metal panels. I would suggest metal, just when it when it comes to sturdiness. Some of these bowls are 2000 pounds some of them more some of them less. A bull that heavy can can absolutely bust down some wood panels if he felt like it. I guess I would suggest or I would answer that Brody sturdy metal panels would be preferred. You can consider a masculine face from a cavity standpoint. Oh that's a good question. I hadn't thought about that. I guess from a from an EPD standpoint, I'm not sure. I'm sure somebody has a better answer for that. I'm not, I'm not entirely sure to have to look into that. Is it good to have EPD is on all your bowls or some sort of genetic history. That's a great question Bella. I would say record keeping is very, very important when it comes to the success of your reproductive program in your herd. Knowing what bulls throw really big calves or calves that cause cows to have some calving issues is very, very important to know some genetic lines are more prominent with that or more prone to that. So maybe you can get some EPD is on your bulls maybe you can get some kind of performance history at the minimum and see how these bulls are actually doing when it comes to generating offspring and the ease of generating those offspring to all really good things to know year after year. Are bulls or cows more dominant when determining genetics for cats. Well, a simple way to answer that is bull is half of the genetics and the cow is half of the genetics. In terms of, I don't know how to answer that anymore. If there's if there's certain traits from the bull that are carried through a little bit more. I'm not entirely sure my background is is less genetics as I go here but but good question and maybe a simple way to answer that is is bulls and cows are 5050 when it comes to the genetic makeup for that calf. It's a neat stress effect breeding. Oh yeah, good question faith absolutely. Sometimes we'll we'll notice in really hot really dry years are reproductive performance kind of kind of goes to can look really really bad and maybe is the best way to say that. Maybe observed more often in AI systems, or in AI protocols. And when it comes to timing of breeding, breeding early early in the day to beat the heat keeps that heat stress off of those animals. But yeah breeding in the heat of the day can absolutely hurt reproductive success for your cows. Let's see Travis address that question from Catherine. Thanks Travis I knew somebody would have a little bit better, better approach on that genetic aspect of head shape and kind of shoulder structure and stuff like that yeah that's a that's a good response. For sure. Bella asked should you have a lot of different genetics in your herd. That's a good question depends on what you're after. You can have a lot of similar bloodlines in your herd. That's something that you can capitalize on from from bringing in some different bloodlines or some different genetics is hybrid bigger. And that's something that I'm not sure if the speaker last week talked about that at all. Last week, something important to think about though. Different genetics, maybe you have some different looking cattle, some different performing cattle. When it comes to to uniformity and selling a calf crop that's that's similar and weights similar in design. Some of the different genetics that maybe complement each other or or or representative of your herd is is is a good idea instead of maybe having some really really big frame bulls and really really small frame bulls all breeding the same cow herd I guess that's how I would answer that one. Are there any red flags you should watch out for when buying the bull. Oh yeah, lots of them. Let's just start. I'm probably goes into a lot of production goals as well with that one. You know, and you kind of have to think okay what are what's your selection criteria, when it comes to buying a bull. Do you want the biggest frame bull that you can find. Do you want to really small do you want a cavities bowl that's like as Travis mentioned maybe he's really smooth shoulder, going to be really easy for for heifers, or for cows with a little smaller pelvic area. So yeah, lots of things that you can think about maybe it's temperament. Maybe it's cavities to me cavities sticks out a lot. So my goal as a as a beef producer is to have cows that can have on their own, and that calf gets up to nurse right away. If I'm having cows that are having a very very hard time calving on their own, typically the vigor of those calves is is is hurt a little bit. So if you have struggled to get up, and those calves might run into some more sicknesses, or just struggle with with bigger later on in life. So if you have access to EPD is at all I kind of just need to think about what your goals are as a producer, what can you manage as a producer from a labor standpoint, and from a I guess from the offspring as well that's probably where I would start with that one. But also, I would suggest when you're buying a bowl that you buy from somebody who's either going to test that bowl for you, or guarantee that bowl satisfactory for a test. There's there's some producers who will test before the sale some won't test, but we'll guarantee it sound. So I would I would definitely look into that. Look into some some production sales look into some producers. If they're going to back you up if they if somebody sells you a bowl. And they, they're not going to back you up when that bull fails this first semen test I would call that a red flag as well. Okay, a couple coming in here. If you have older cows how old is too old to keep in your herd. Are you talking about cows faith or bulls. Yeah, good question. And so I, I saw I'll answer this one maybe with a little story. I teach the cow calf production class at NDSU. And these students are asked to make a ranch plan so essentially go through all of these things like we're doing today, and make a ranch plan and pretty much a management plan for lots of these aspects of the cow calf operation. And sometimes I have students say well I'm going to, I'm going to sell all my cows when they hit eight years old or when they hit nine years old. There's a number of cows out there in the country that are double that in age. I guess I would say, I would keep a cow around as long as she's productive as long as she's healthy, and she's able to raise a high performing calf. Now if a cow is 11 years old and she's barely getting around she's she's struggling to raise her calf I wouldn't necessarily keep her around anymore. I know saying that your cows can't stay around till they're 12 maybe 13 years old. If they're still productive. Why not. There's some producers who keep cows around they're just genetically made to be very good cows in terms of longevity. So some producers are able to keep cows firm for far far longer, but the the primary reason for selling a cow or for a cow to leave the herd is that she comes up open. And I would say that that older cows once they come open. Maybe that's maybe that's their ticket to, to go on down the road and find a new place or find a cold cow market. So good question. Another one here. How much water should your bull be getting every day and does the weather predict how much water they will drink from day to day. Oh, good question I don't have that number with me I don't know if anybody else would have that number of how much a bull is drinking every day. I don't know I don't know Bella I might have to I might have to reach out to you after it and get you some of that information I do have my email on this last last page if you want to send me email. I can look into that that number for you I know what's out there. I think she asked that question is where to go. If weather. Yeah, definitely in in times of heat stress, or periods of really really hot weather yeah water in water intake will definitely increase. Okay, I had another one. I've heard the rule a good bull is worth five of the steer calves steer cows would you say that that's accurate. I don't know I've never heard that rule before. Maybe I'm maybe I'm in the shadows on that one. I've never never heard that rule so I might have to look into that. I am not sure not try to answer that one for you. Alright anything else. Okay they had some good question for you is this is like rapid fire around this is great though. Should you be putting mineral tubs out or salt blocks out into pasture with your cows and bulls. Oh, good Travis just answered that that other question for me thanks Travis. Yeah so really good question Bella. And so this is where I can put in a little bit more in my caveat to with the research that our group does. We've been looking specifically at supplementing minerals to cows before and during pregnancy. And we found that supplementing mineral the cows is beneficial. What you need to keep in mind as a producer is the cost of doing that. There's some there's some mineral supplements out there that are a little spendy and some that are a little more inexpensive. I'm just walking through that on paper and seeing what's going to work for you from a financial standpoint but some blocks absolutely salt was required in the diet. So I would suggest some salt blocks out there, but mineral if that's something that you can that you can float financially yeah there there is benefit to doing that, both for cows and bulls. So yeah, good question. Alright anymore. We're waiting for some more questions to come we know you're waiting on them. If you could take a quick minute and answer the poll questions that would be much appreciated by all of us. I decided to buy you a few seconds. Maybe going at some more. So Brody's asking what mineral tubs would you use. Good question so I unfortunately I'm not here to advocate for any brand or any company. So there's a lot of differences out there in terms of supplements in terms of composition of those supplements. Obviously the the more expensive mineral supplements might be in the form of an organic or a key related kind of mineral. There's pros pros to it there's cons to it. Essentially if you're using a mineral like that it's supposed to be more available for the animal. When it comes to absorption in the small intestine and the animals both sir, the animal should be able to use a little bit more of that. That that mineral compared to some other sources which we would call inorganic sources. And so I would, I would suggest that any mineral is better than no mineral. There's there's give and take there's there's differences in cost with what you're choosing to use. But I would, I would say that yeah definitely using one is is better than than not using one at all. Now there's a, there's a number of of mineral packages out there, marketed for reproductive performance, the available for mineral is one that I'm familiar with with. They're incorporated into a lot of purina minerals. That one is shown to be successful. There's a number of them that are good. But again it comes down for me it comes down to what can you afford. What can you make work from a financial standpoint. Okay, along with the mineral is it better to use lick tubs or bags of salt and mineral. Does it make a difference on breeding. I have a question so yeah there's lots of different ways that you can offer free choice mineral. You can offer it in a in a lick tub. And usually those are that's like a cooked tub with molasses, or you can offer it in a loose form, which is mineral balance stuff with some salt to control the intake. Really really good question there. The tubs are more convenient you just drop the tub out and let them let them look at it slowly. The design is slow intake. So they don't just go crazy on it like they might if they were just given a loose salt with or a loose mineral with no salt. So as far as what's out there. In terms of research in terms of data of do cows perform better reproductively consuming a tub or a loose mineral. It's not really out there. We don't really have an answer to that. Some producers might tell you differently, but coming from a from a data standpoint, we don't really know if tubs or mineral or a loose mineral are going to be better one way or the other. To understand though the differences that you might see an intake and so kind of the goal of a free choice mineral is that they're going to consume a little bit every day. Some cows just won't. Some cows are would go to the mineral feeder and sit there all day long. And some will maybe visit it once a week. And so it's kind of tough when it comes to free choice mineral. I'm not sure that cows are are consuming that that desired intake every single day, but I'd kind of close on that probably offering a mineral is better than not. And in your choice of of tubs, or a loose mineral kind of it comes down to convenience and it comes down to cost, typically tubs are a bit more expensive. And so just some things to think about there is having a nutritionist a good idea or does it depend on how you run your herd. Yeah, absolutely having a nutritionist is a good idea. Whether that's just somebody to consult with about these kinds of questions exactly, whether it's somebody that's that's helping you make your rations or being there for some nutrition based questions. So having having a nutritionist in your back pocket answering questions for you is is absolutely a good idea. Yeah, maybe that's a nutritionist maybe that's an extension specialist. Somebody of the sorts who's qualified to answer those kinds of questions. Yeah, the more support that you can have when it comes to management decisions for your herd, the better. On our cow calf operation we do rotational grazing does that affect the time of when bulls want to breed, or interrupted. I guess I, I think, if you're coming from a bull libido standpoint that's how I'm reading that and correct me if I'm wrong. The way that I'm reading that is the ambition or the desire for bulls to breed if you're on a rotational grazing system as compared to maybe a season long grazing system. I don't I don't know that that's the type of grazing season would really affect the bulls ability or want to breed. I would answer that like answer that question like that if anybody else has something else maybe to contribute to that question, I would welcome it but if I'm if I'm answering that question correctly I would say that rotational grazing, maybe isn't going to affect that bulls ability to breed. I see Travis address that question. Thanks Travis. I never heard that one so that was a that was a new one for me but that makes sense. Okay, we will give you guys one more minute to get your questions in, and then we will let Jennifer out of the hot seats you guys, it was so fun hearing your questions, and all of the other stuff like I had never heard that your bull is worth five calves. Well, I also want to know like, is it five calves sold this year when there's money in cattle, or five years when it costs more to feed them than it's worth. Yeah, that explanation Travis has on there that that makes a lot of sense yeah so thank you for that I don't know maybe I've been in the shadows are been in the dark why I've never heard that one. But definitely make sense. Does it affect breeding when you give your bull antibiotics. Oh, that is a good question so maybe I'll back into that a little bit more. And the reason you gave your bull antibiotics. There, there might be some, some infections in the reproductive track that might be a reason to give antibiotics. In that case, I would definitely wait a little bit before turning that bull out to breed. There's some things, some bulls can have some infections, or some, essentially some some presence of white blood cells in the semen and that means that there might be some infection presence somewhere. When a bull is breeding, and they've got white blood cells in their semen. We can have some issues with fertility. I guess in terms of, like if we're talking like withdrawal on the antibiotic or antibiotics in the system. I'm not sure I have a good answer to that. But there might be some, some preemptive reasons why you might have given your bull antibiotics that might be a better reason to hold them off breeding for a little bit, or some reasons that might affect his breeding success. Sorry, you don't have a better answer for you on that one Bella. What is range cubes for your cows. Yeah, I hope we do. And there's a lot of different cubes that you can get. Depending on what you're looking for if you're looking for a protein supplement if you're looking for an energy supplement, maybe a convenient way to deliver mineral or remensin the cows, for example, range cubes can be really effective. So if that's something that you're interested in, talk to talk to nutritionist talk to feed company. You can get a range cake spreader that you can put on the back of a four wheeler, and you can take cubes out to pasture to your cows and dump them. You can give them to lots of classes a cattle. But yeah, good question. If you're interested in that yeah I've definitely talked to a nutritionist or your, your local folks at the feed store. Do injectable dewormers given to the bulls that semen testing affect their fertility. As far as I know they don't. A lot of bulls actually receive an injectable dewormer at the time of breeding soundness exams. There, maybe somebody can, can answer this better than I can but as far as I know dewormers aren't affecting their immediate fertility, but might have to look into that one again for you Kaley. I will check on that but yeah that's my, that's my answer right now for that one. Would you use them on your bulls I think that's referring to the range cubes. If your bulls need it. I guess something to keep in mind when it comes to bull nutrition and you might talk about this in the next couple of webinars. Is that bulls work pretty hard for a couple months out of the year. And then they're kind of just lounging if they're only out for one breeding season. I'm not sure you get bulls back in the condition after the end of the breeding season. But if bulls don't necessarily need that extra protein or that extra energy, it might just contribute to them getting too fat and too big. But if it's if it's something that that works in their ration or in their in their daily feed. Based on based on their weight and what what weight you're trying to get them to yeah can be an option for them for sure. And then your bull a big deal or isn't an easy fix of a way to answer that, maybe what foot. If we think about what feet a bull really needs, or what feet are important for a bull, or most important for the bull are his back to obviously because if a bull needs to mount a cow he stands on his back to feet. So a limp on a front foot probably less of a big deal, but a limp on a back foot to keep that bull from mountain cows and doing his job. So yeah that could absolutely be an issue. Kind of depends on on what's going on foot rot is is really common in bulls on pasture it happens a lot. And so, for them, I mean, maybe an assumption is that if a bull starts limping maybe it's foot rot. Maybe he stepped wrong when he when he was mounting a cow maybe he stepped in a rut, something like that. Most of them would be a pretty simple fix might be something a little bit more serious, you'd hope a bull doesn't break a leg out on a pasture but it happens to. You can consider what foot is it on and try and get that bull up close and maybe you can take a better look at it or run them in the trailer and take him to the vet. If at all possible so he can be back on all four quickly. Travis confirm that one for me thanks Travis dewormers, not affecting sperm quality and overall and overall health so dewormers aren't affecting bull fertility. Thank you Travis. What are some ways to help with preventing foot rot or watching for science. And so foot rot comes on for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes we see foot rot a lot when bulls are. Well, there's lots of things that can happen. Sometimes bulls or some animals will stand in water for a long time and sometimes some infection will start to grow up in between their hooves. Sometimes there might be a crack to a hoof and cause some infection in there. There is a foot rot vaccine. It's efficacy. Maybe not totally sure that it's it's 100% reliable. I guess if you if you see foot rot coming on you're probably going to see some swelling in the foot. You'll maybe see him kind of holding that foot up, starting to get a little lame on the foot. The hoof definitely starts to swell up and you might see some signs of an abscess in there. For the most part though if you if you catch it early, and you can get him into the vet. Maybe get some some antibiotics in him, and maybe get a wrap on the foot you can maybe get ahead of it and clean him up. If it's all summer before you notice a foot rot case though it might be a pretty nasty one to try to fix if it's if it's a really really bad infection. Again yeah foot rot vaccine isn't isn't 100% reliable so prevention might be kind of tough. If you dart a bullet a treat foot rot won't make the bull infertile, not necessarily. Depending on, I guess, I don't know if some, and maybe have to look at some some different antibiotics and what the response is going to be, or what their implications would be for both fertility, but from my from my best knowledge, darting a bull to treat him for some foot rot isn't going to destroy his semen quality. How often could you should you check your pastures when the cows and bulls are out breeding. Great question. How often should you check your pastures. I would say at a minimum once a week. There's some folks you know depending on how far away your pastures are. Maybe that's not doable. You know pastures that are close to home obviously you're going to see them more often, but if you can get up and check pastures at least once a week that's going to be good for if you can be there for a while to and kind of drive through the cows, check everybody out, maybe stand watch a little bit. That's going to give you some indicators of is my bull able to roam our bulls able to get around. Are they doing their job are they mounting cows are any cows, any bulls looking injured are they looking sick. That's a good time to treat or run animals into treat as well so that would be my answer to that one. Good one. And just like that Jen I think they're tired of questions. I think I am too. They've been great though thank you all those are those are awesome questions that was a good discussion. So thank you guys so much for tuning in tonight we'll be back next week with a show cattle nutrition, I think. I'm really excited for that presentation I hope you guys are checking along with that as well. If there's, like we said if it was mentioned in the comments earlier if you guys want to get on and find these recordings will be available on the NSU animal science YouTube page. So, with that, thank you for joining and have a great night. Awesome. Thanks everybody.