It will soon be too late to vasectomise a bull for the breeding season

Veterinary advice for farmers

Tue, 09 Mar, 2021 - 08:54

Paul Redmond

Electric cars are all the rage now.

They are like the in-thing to have.

I think about this from time to time and wonder, if at some time in the future, will we all have to change to an electric vehicle.

What will happen if I am out on a call, and I run out of charge?

I am reminded of this when I think of the upcoming breeding season.

What happens if the bull runs out of charge before the impending day?

Recently, we have been running the rule over bulls to check that they are up to the mark.

It is important to have your bull examined, even if he performed well last year.

A lot of bulls have been left out on their own, away from daily supervision, over the winter, and nobody knows if they have had any problem that might have run a temperature for a few days.

I have written here in the past about such bulls, detailing how all the sperm in the bull’s body would die if the bull suffers a fever.

The literature will tell us that it takes at least ten weeks for new sperm to regenerate.

This is two and a half months at a minimum, which from today will bring us up to the end of May.

A very good friend of mine once told me that he had a bull in such a predicament, and he decided to regularly test this bull whenever he was in the vicinity.

It surprised him to find that he couldn’t pass the bull as being fit for breeding for the best part of nine months.

This is frightening, and really underlines the need to have your bull examined, prior to the start of the breeding season.

Don’t leave it too late and find out in the month of June that you have a lot more cows repeating than you expected.

I listened to a webinar recently in which a colleague stressed the importance of heat detection aids.

I think that we have progressed from relying on simply watching and observing as, today, with the lack of manpower, farmers just cannot give the time needed to this pursuit.

Most farmers now avail of tail painting or scratch cards to let them know when the cow or heifer is on heat.

Sometimes, with the modern cow, that is only on heat for a couple of hours, and may not show a lot of intensity, they can be missed.

This is where the vasectomised bull comes into his own.

This guy is on the job 24/7, and will not miss a beat.

However, the time is fast approaching when it will be too late to vasectomise a bull for this year.

There is no point in thinking that you can get this done next month.

First of all, you have to let the wound heal, but most importantly, this bull still has sperm in his pipes, and these need to be emptied out of the system, or else he will still put females in calf.

Assuming that you have had the job done in time for the breeding season, you should be making sure that you have a chin ball that fits your vasectomised bull properly without cutting into him.

An ill-fitting head collar will cut in, especially around the back of the ears.

What is recommended is to apply some extra padding in this area of the head collar, making it easier on the skin.

The next thing to check is that you have a good supply of ink, as it needs to be filled, on average, every two to three days, depending on the activity.

A first-year vasectomised bull will do a lot more marking and wasting of ink than a second season bull.

Finally, you should check that the marking mechanism is actually working.