The lure of an increase in liveweight gain, improved feed efficiency and a higher killout percentage has resulted in a growing number of farmers now grazing bulls as opposed to steers. While the bull beef does have the potential to significantly boost margins, grazing bulls is a highly specialised system.

Can you graze bulls at grass?

The first question you should ask yourself is – are you in a position to graze bulls at grass? Putting bulls out to grass is simply not an option on many farms due the fragmented nature of the grazing block. You cannot allow bulls to graze in fields adjacent to cows and calves or heifers – no matter how good you think the fences are. Even if they don’t manage to get through the fence, they will still become unsettled when female stock are in an adjacent field. Therefore it is extremely difficult to graze bulls in boundary fields as you will have not control over the type of stock grazed in the adjacent fields. Also, bulls don’t like stress. Therefore if you are in a position where you have to move stock during the summer to different grazing blocks, using a trailer then bulls are not an option for you. Even where your grazing block is suited to grazing bulls you need to take into consideration other animals on the farm. You will need to plan you grazing rotation extremely carefully if you are also grazing cows and calves or heifers on the same farm.

Stress must be minimised

Just about all of the management tips in this article will be focused on reducing stress. Bulls are fragile animals. They have a much lighter bone structure than steers yet are much heavier and stronger. Dislocated shoulders and broken bones are a real problem on farms where bulls are not managed correctly. Even where management is of a very high standard, there is still a risk of bulls getting injured. The key to reducing the risk is keeping the stress levels down and preventing bulls from getting excited. Everything you do with bulls, from letting them out to grass to bringing them in for dosing, must be carried out in such a way that stress levels are minimised. You cannot handle a bull in the same way as you do a steer.

Fields must have mains fencing

There is no exception to this rule. When bulls get strong they will use your five strands of barb wire as a scratching pole. Mains electric fencing is a must have”when grazing bulls. If bulls get into a habit of breaking through fences early in the grazing season, it will become very hard to get them settle. You need to get your fencing right from the start.

Group size must be kept small

The number of bulls in a group should not exceed 25-30. The smaller you can keep the groups, the better. Smaller groups tend to be more settled and you’re less likely to have fighting bulls. You should also try and keep the age and weight range of the bulls in the group as tight as possible. This will help avoid bullying and aggressive behaviour. Where there is a significant variation in age/weight the lighter bulls tend to get picked on, especially during periods when the group become unsettled.

Never let bulls go hungry

The best way to keep a bull settled is to keep his belly full. Therefore it is essential that you never let bulls go hungry. To achieve your target of 1.4-1.6kg of liveweight gain per day you need to keep a supply of good quality grass underfoot at all times. If you let them get hungry they will become unsettled and start to get aggressive. Where you can force steers, cows or heifers to graze fields out completely (sward height 4-5cm), you cannot do this with bulls. Therefore during the summer you will have to top the paddocks that are being grazed by the bulls. Using dry cows to graze paddocks down is difficult as they cannot be allowed to graze paddocks adjacent to the bulls.

Never allow bulls to mix

You must take what ever action is necessary to ensure that bulls are not allowed to mix. Never let groups of bulls graze in paddocks adjacent to each other. Even two or three strands of mains electric fencing will not keep them apart. Where you have more than one group of bulls on the same grazing block, always keep at least one paddock between them. If bulls do mix it is simply a case of damage limitation. Even bulls that were originally in the same group will get aggressive towards each other. The only advice is to try and pick out the bulls that are doing the most fighting and remove them from the group. Don’t bring the entire group into the yard as this will only increase the chance of injury. At least when out in the field they have noting to hit up against.

Handle with care

At various stages during the grazing season you will have to bring bulls into the yard, either for dosing or TB testing. This is one of the high risk periods in terms of bulls getting injured. To avoid injury you must insure that you have good handling facilities that will allow you to keep control over stock at all times. Gates bursting open or animals jumping out of crushes is a recipe for disaster. The secret to avoiding injury is minimising the length of time that bulls are stressed. Therefore you need to get them back out to grass as soon as possible.

Before gathering bulls make sure you have everything you require to treat the animals. Don’t bring them into the yard and then go off and get your worm dose. When they come into the yard your aim is to get them back out as quickly as possible. In the event of TB testing don’t be tempted to bring them in the night before. Bring them into the yard just before the vet arrives, test them first, and them get them back out immediately.

It is important to realise that a bull similar size to a steer could weight up to 100kg more. This is important when it comes to setting the dosing gun, etc. Make sure that you judge the weight accurately when treating animals.

Treatment of sick animals

The treatment of sick animals it’s a problem when grazing bulls. When a bull is removed from the group it can be difficult to re-introduce him. Where possible you should bring the entire group into the yard, treat the sick animal and then let the entire group back out to grass. There will be situations where you will have no choice but to remove a sick animal from the group. In this situation it will be difficult to re-introduce him.

It is often the case that this bull will have to be grazed separately for the remainder of the grazing season. Some farmers do try and re-introduce then. If you are going to do this move him back into the group at the same time as you are moving them into fresh grass. Some farmers also put vinegar down the spine of the bull that they are re-introducing into the group. The smell of the vinegar tends to keep the other animals away.

Bulls don’t like hardship

Bulls simply don’t do hardship. During periods of wet weather, bulls can fail quickly unless in a sheltered paddock. Wet weather in the spring is not as severe as bulls are younger and tend to be a little hardier; nonetheless performance is still adversely affected. The problem is when a bull gets “hard” of himself it takes a lot of meal to get them going again. Therefore you are better to house 16-18 month bulls as soon as weather conditions deteriorate in the autumn.

House early

Even where weather conditions remain fair, you should still house forward bulls early in the autumn. Generally the power has gone out of the grass by mid-September and in order to keep performance levels high bulls that are 16 months plus should be housed. Younger bulls that are not going to be slaughtered until after Christmas can be held out until early October. The fact that bulls are housed early tends to suit farmers that are operating a weanling to bull beef system. Housing the bulls early allows a grass wedge to build up. This can then be used to graze the light bull weanlings into November. On some dry farms weanlings are held out on grass until the forward bulls are slaughtered out of the shed.

Always treat with respect

You must always treat bulls with respect. While bulls can often appear sluggish and docile they can turn aggressive extremely quickly. It is often the quiet bulls that are most dangerous. Never go into herd of bulls without a stick in your hand and always treat them with respect. Never let children go near fields where bulls are grazing.