Bull management at Marengo Pastoral and Parraweena Highlands Cattle companies takes on a different perspective when dealing with the scale of the vertically-integrated operation.
The enterprise works more than 10,000 hectares across four properties and employs some 68 sires at a ratio of five to every 100 breeders. The number is higher than most graziers might consider, but there is good reason for this: Allow your sires the opportunity to rest and recover after injury. Spare sires have proven their worth after two wet years dealing with bull breakdowns.
"Now more than ever we really need to get cows in calf," he says, defending a farmers' extra initial expense of buying more bulls than required in the cow paddock.
Only a few years ago the need for beef enterprise efficiency wasn't as acute but times have changed.
"You can't afford to keep replacing bulls that break down and right now weather is a big factor. With the wet comes lameness and managing that starts in the purchasing.
"We look for the right temperament. You need to be able to handle that bull if it's sore.
"Bulls need to be structurally sound and we look at estimated breeding values but temperament is important because if the animal is settled it will be less likely to have a scrap and end up injured."
Mr Kelsall says bulls at Marengo are managed carefully on their arrival. "We settle them at home. We don't put a new bull out with seasoned five-year-old. We give them an induction into the farm and keep them in a little holding paddock or laneway. Sometimes we put cows or steers with him to settle him and reduce the chance of injury or problems."
Mixing and matching bulls with cows is the next important step, particularly at Marengo where 40 bulls are in work.
"We put the new bulls with their same age group, or younger bulls or those who are not as dominant. We match with size and try to place them in the hierarchy.
Adequate nutrition, involving good pasture and dry lick for trace elements, is another important part of bull management, to ensure he is fighting fit when required.
All sires are vaccinated and semen tested every year.
"Testing should be a major part of every program, even on small herds. It is an underused tool," he says.
When bulls are with the cows they are checked three times a week.
"We visually lay eyes on them; get them up and move them," he says. "If we can't find a bull we make a note."
A lot of problems come from things that could have been treated if caught early.
If a bull is found to be lame he is taken out of that paddock before the other bulls bully him, to be treated, to rest and recuperate in a hospital paddocks - or "the bench".
At Marengo two spare bulls are factored in for every three - or five for every 100 cows. The reserve stays on the bench, not in the cow paddock where he might get injured. The data shows this design can pay for itself in short time. When treated with care bulls' longevity should extend out to five and six years and more.
"The counter argument says you can maintain high conception rates without spares, but it's the one year you don't that creates losses. If we didn't have spares we would have more cull cows," Mr Kelsall says. "Some joining seasons I have enough spares, while in other years, I do not have enough."
Spare bulls are inducted into the program the same as other sires. "The spares have to be part of the team," he says. But when they come out of play they are removed from the cow paddock. "We like the bulls around us ready to go. Better to have them and not need them," he says.
Mr Kelsall works on a 94.5 per cent fertility rate now but should a bad season pull that rate back to 80pc, the loss from 1000 cows would equal 145 calves, which at a $1500 average could pay for 10 bulls - at $21,000 each. And then there's the empty cows which would need to be replaced at a minimum of $3500.
"Suddenly a few percentage points matters a lot," he says. "It's not just the 2pc you might lose, it's also the 2pc you might gain in a good year. In today's environment you can't afford to have a drop in production."
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