How to Find a Bull to Breed to

[MyFather'sSheep]

Where are you located? I have a couple of homozygous polled Dexter bull calves old enough to breed (They will start breeding at 8 months) Young enough to not have the expense of trichomoniasis testing. They are not registered but definitely purebred.

Thank you for your offer. We are located in Texas, but we would only be interested in a purebred Jersey bull.

 

[farmerjan]

The only suggestion I have is to find a dairy and see if they have a young bull they are willing to sell or have you bring your heifer to them to breed. I honestly would not want to lease a bull ----ESPECIALLY a Jersey ----- to an inexperienced cattle person unless I were to inspect and approve the pasture and fences and you had a good loading pen to get him back on to a trailer. This is not to be mean or smart a$$ed. ANY BULL can be a problem, especially in an unfamiliar field/pasture/pen. A dairy bull is even worse. Yes jersey's have a bad reputation and they can be mean. The fact of the matter is they are UNPREDICTABLE. A mild mellow bull today could just turn on you tomorrow.

I respect that you don't want anything un-natural, but I think you are going to be very disappointed in trying to find a Jersey bull to use. And if you buy one, unless it is off a dairy that has registered purebred jerseys, how can you be sure it is purebred and not have something else in it. I have a couple of half jersey - half holstein cows. The one I breed jersey and she has had 3 jersey bull calves that look EXACTLY like a jersey. But they are 1/4 holstein from the dam.

99% of the dairies do not keep a bull for the fact of someone getting hurt. Or they will keep a young bull, say, to use on their heifers, then ship him; or to use as a clean up for a specific period of time and then ship him.

A yearling jersey bull is well mature enough to breed a heifer. They also can start to get aggressive at that age. Especially if he has only 1 heifer to keep him occupied.

Perhaps you can find a jersey dairy that has a bull for cleanup and would let you bring her to be bred, but honestly, your chances are slim.

 

[farmerjan]

One other thing that I wanted to comment on. You say you only want a jersey. The offer of a possible Dexter bull was posted. Dexters are a good dual purpose small breed. They make pretty decent beef, yet they also make enough milk to make milking them worthwhile. You might be wise to keep that as a possible back-up plan.