Bull Sales
At Rissington, our approach to breeding bulls for our customers around NZ is not the traditional route others continue to take. Instead, we take a deeper dive into their own herds and objectives to better understand their requirements today and in the future. With the knowledge that breeding cattle is a long-term game, we like to have a measurable road map along the way to the expected genetic improvement to reach their goals & aspirations. Today, we have the necessary tools like Inherit Select & HD50K for $Profit to assess any commercial herd and its sire battery objectively and accurately to benchmark their herd. With this data, we can then plan the roadmap to where they would like to take their herd into the future.
Yearling Bulls
We have been marketing yearling for over 30 years & using yearling bulls for over 50 years. The key to success and often underestimated is that the bulls must be well grown out. We target a minimum of 500kg for delivery of yearlings for our farmer partners and customers. This ensures the bull is optimally grown out physically & sexually to do the job and will continue to grow out to be a bull that they are proud of as a 2-year-old.
If the above is adhered to and not compromised the advantages of yearling bulls are:
Advantages
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Latest genetics (yearlings were born the previous year rather than year before last, thus shorter genetic interval between our herd and yours)
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Cashflow (yearlings are purchased in the spring to go out with the cows immediately rather than the previous financial year)
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Last longer (the average useful life of bulls used as yearlings is at least one year or a breeding season longer than a bulls that are used for the first time as a 2-year-olds)
Beware
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Myth: ‘Calves sired by yearling bulls out of first calving heifers should not be retained’. This couldn’t be further from the truth as we’ve proven with those using Inherit Select™. It just means identifying animals and if they are a little lighter in weight at weaning then prioritising them into specific mobs or groups at weaning to be grown out. That said breeding poorly grown yearling bulls or heifers can have less than desirable outcomes.
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Of the bull breeders marketing bulls as yearlings who also have a feature 2 year sale as they typically mate no more females but selling their lesser bulls as yearlings while targeting their best bulls for 2-year-old sales
2 Year Old Bulls
Annually we market privately bulls we used in service as yearlings or have had on centre for semen collection. These bulls represent the latest bloodlines and genetics in their respective breeds and be from the top end of the age group. We also have a group that of late calves that are just not quite ready for September delivery.
