Fertility and Red Polls

Fertility Red Poll Cattle have always been promoted for their mothering and milk on the maternal side and fertility on the paternal side. There are numerous ways to estimate fertility in Bulls, the easiest being scrotal circumference size and an accredited examination of semen. The Australian Cattle Veterinarians Association runs a program called Bull Reporter. Bull Reporter is an independent assessment of fertility in Bulls by an Accredited Veterinarian and Pathologist. The Bull is examined in the field with respect to confirmation, physical examination and a semen sample is collected by electro ejaculation. The semen sample is examined by an Accredited Laboratory and if all is OK a Certificate of Breeding Soundness is issued. With this system involving the direct examination and assessment of sperm, a Bull can be declared as fertile without waiting 12 months to see if calves appear. At Balla Balla Red Poll Stud any Bull sold over $2000 will come with a full Bull Reporter evaluation so you know fertility is not an issue. Fercundity Fertility itself is no indication of how many cows a Bull can or will serve in a season. The accepted dogma is that the average Bull can serve 30 –50 cows in a 12 week period and get a 95% in calf rate. This year by an unfortunate twist of fate we had the chance to check the fertility and fercundity of our Bull Radean Bogart. We went into the mating season last November with 86 cows to join and Bogart our only Bull. Because of our genetic improvement program we did not want to introduce another Bull at this stage. Although not desirable, (and we will not repeat the experiment) we decided to let Bogart run with the 86 cows over a 16 week period. We hoped he would successfully impregnate his 50 or so cows and we would run any empties over till autumn joining. The results of pregnancy testing in March showed Bogart impregnated 84/86 cows successfully (one cow had a minor endometritis and so could not have got in calf anyway!). We started calving on 18/8/2005 and 40 calves have been born within the first three weeks. In other words not only did Bogart impregnate 84 cows but got 50% in calf within the first three weeks ! Although done with regret and never to be repeated fertility and fercundity do not seem to be a problem with Red Polls.

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