Bovine eating disorders

I appologise in advance for the title but it seems pretty accuate to some of the things I have seen this week. Eating disorders suffered amongst the human population are getting quite a bit of discussion thankfully bringing these awful problems to the attention of the wider world.

The disorders Im talking about are those involving obesity in breeding bulls. We regularly see programmes on the television (for those that have time to watch) showing how obesity affects the population and how much it is costing the NHS to treat the rising number of related diseases.

Shockingly cattle breeders are quite happy to reward the production of fat in breeding bulls through their buying habits. "Oh no" I hear you say, "I would never buy an over fed bull, I want my bulls lean, fit and fertile" which is a bit like the British consumer saying they only want British strawberries until they realise the spanish ones are 2p cheaper.

I have been to two breeding cattle sales this week both of which had large numbers of young breeding bulls to sell. Both to be fair had to types of bull, the good and the rest. One lot of bulls were all naturally produced on milk and grass and very little else, they had all the health tests and vaccinations you could imagine too. The other lot were a colective sale of which I had one bull in. I had the EBV's(top 10% of the breed for SRI), tested free of IBR, Johnes and BVD ( we dont do Lepto) and produced with a limited concentrate input.

This isnt sour grapes but off the buyers go with their wad of cash to buy that easy doing naturally reared bull and come home with the ad-lib fed one who only lifted his head out of the trough for breath. I still have my bull which Im disapointed about but he is going to our commercial cows instead (we might as well benefit from his easy calving and high milk) but Im scratching my head wondering what bull buyers are thinking?

Cattle are no different to humans in very simple terms. If they are too fat their life expectancty is reduced and they will leave the herd prematurely through feet/leg problems, poor fertility, inability to serve or the condition will just fall of them (as they have never had to graze much to survive) and will die!

What do you do about it? Heres a few ideas to put into practice.

Buy bulls produced in systems similar to your own.
Buy the bull well in advance of needing him.
Find out as much as you can about the farm he is coming from.
Check out his disease background.
What are his EBV's like? Do they fit my requirements?
Is he fit and agile?
Has he been semen tested or used successfully?
Whats his temperament like?

Going to a sale and buying the bull because he was champion is un-cool! The judge liked him but it doesnt mean he was right or is the right one for you. The decisions you make today in sire selection will haunt you for years to come. The calves conceved today wont leave you any money for maybe 18mths and if your breeding replacements you wont know for maybe 3 years if they are any good.

Is a fat bull a safe bet to ensure your long life in the cattle business?