Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

No Bull: Leslie Farmer Sell Genetics

At his drug store in Salem, Tim Leslie sells medicine. At his ranch on the outskirts of town, Leslie sells genetics.

The pharmacist says 90 to 95 percent of the customers who buy bulls from his purebred Charolais herd are commercial cow-calf operators. Their main concern is weaning weight, says Leslie. "They want to know how much is a calf going to weigh when it's time to go to the sale barn."

Leslie's desire to give his customers exactly what they want is the main reason he's taking part in the on-farm bull test program being conducted by the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas. He's enrolled five sets of bulls in the program since the spring of 1997.

Stan McPeake, an extension livestock specialist and bull test coordinator, says, "With the on-farm bull test, we try to standardize the animals' environment and feeding program so we can evaluate genetic differences.

"With Leslie Charolais, we have a grain-based program. Typically, gains will be three to four pounds a day. Cattle here have gained an average of 3.5 pounds a day. They're pushed pretty hard."

The bulls are fed a balanced ration that includes corn for energy, cottonseed hulls for fiber and cottonseed meal or soybean for crude protein.

"We like to start the calves on test when they're eight to nine months old," McPeake says. "After we take their initial weights, we check their confirmation. Calves with structural problems are culled.

"The calves are hand fed long enough to get them on feed, and then they're switched to self-feeders."

The bulls remain on test for about 112 days, or four months. "At some point during the test, we pick a date to collect yearling data," says McPeake. "We get an actual weight and calculate an adjusted 365-day weight. We also get the yearling hip height, which is used to calculate a yearling frame score. The frame score is the projected mature skeletal size."

Farm manager Eddy Loggains says Leslie Charolais uses the extension bull test performance data as a marketing tool. The information is presented in their sale catalog and supplemental sheets. The data are also sent to the American International Charolais Association for their National Sire Evaluation.

Leslie Charolais also uses the bull test data to determine if they want to continue using certain sires.

"When buyers call me, the first things they ask me about are whether the bulls are polled or horned and about their birth weight. But that's not what they ask about at our annual March bull sales on the farm," Logoans says.

"Stan has gone over our sale information and given us a rundown on what people are looking for."

McPeake says the main thing potential buyers look at and the No. 1 factor influencing sale price for the farm is the adjusted 205-day weaning weight.

That's not surprising, according to Loggains. "I would say 90 percent of our customers sell their calves at weaning. They take them right off the cow and go to the sale barn."

McPeake says the bull's birth weight isn't as important to buyers as weaning weight, probably because most of the Leslie's bulls have birth weights in an acceptable range of 70 to 90 pounds.

He says today's buyers are looking for a bull with a moderate birth weight. Buyers also wanted polled bulls, and they prefer older bulls. "They're willing to pay a little more for an older bullnot a lot more, but a little."

Loggains says his customers are interested in average daily gain, but it's not as important as it would be in Kansas or other states, where large numbers of producers retain ownership beyond the farm.

"Another factor people look at is the total maternal EPD," McPeake said. "The bull's total maternal EPD equals one-half of its weaning weight EPD plus the milk EPD, which all affects weaning weight."

"In the past," Leslie says, "we've sacrificed a little weaning weight to get maternal traits such as milking ability. We also found that you give up a little weaning weight for small birth weights.

"Now we have a happy medium. We're keeping our better replacement heifers," he continued. "Most of the cows and heifers we have in our herd we raised ourselves. We use EPDs to predict the maternal traits we have.

"We have bulls with a more moderate frame, more muscling and higher weaning weights, what our customers want."

For more information about on-farm bull testing, contact your county office of the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas.