How much do you charge to breed a bull?

[twentynine]

They are gonna bring the cow to your place, place it with the bull, and he is going to do his "thing", right?

Unless you have a highly bred bull or expect some risk to the bull from the breeding, I would extend the service of the bull as a favor. It ain't like he can't give an extra --- nevermind.

Have them bring the cow down to your place, put her in a small pasture with Sir Bull, leave'm alone, let him work his romance on her.

The bull won't mind

 

[Riocotesei]

Well the reason they were wondering is because he is for sale, and then she asked if we'd breed. I don't know much about it, but he made my heifer pregnant so...meh. Her heifer wasn't in heat anymore by the time we called her back I believe, but she's thinking about buying him now.
I've learned how to AI a heifer and all, but letting the bull do his thing is a different story, and a different money thing. I didn't know it'd be so cheap to breed them the natural way.
Anyways, thanks for all the replies and comments it has helped a lot.

 

[Riven]

$50 sounds really cheap to me. Usually it is a set fee, and would depend on the animal and what is desired. Usually for dogs since one is not a litter the fee is about 1/2 of the cost of the puppy, for example if a puppy would be worth $400 the fee is $150-200.

If it's an unregistered, unshown bull out of "unknown" quality ( parents who aren't registered or shown ) then I think $50 would be a good price. If it's registered and shown or either out of good lines, then I'd guess at least $100. Especially considering a jersey springer sells easily for $1000.

 

[Knight Hawk Ranch]

My bull is on a date right now for 'free'. However, he went to her house and is bring grained/hayed as needed.
We will probably go pick him up this weekend. He is almost pure polled Herford bull, not registered.

 

[greathorse]

That right there is the perfect deal. Good neighbor and good on ya.

these aint puppies folks theys steaks

 

[herfrds]

Greathorse had 4 cows AI'd this year and 2 caught. The semen I used for them was $100 a straw from a Hereford bull.

Just a thought on this bull have him fertility tested. That will tell you if he is good for breeding. Also a BSE (Body Score Exam) done won't hurt and you know you are selling her a good bull.

 

[greathorse]

I would venture a guess that a 100 dollar straw bought semen from one very good probably deceased bull? Unless something very dramatic has occurred in recent years, semen from very good commercial bulls is 20 bucks or so. I recall semen from a well known angus bull was about 20 to 30 bucks and then it became a bit rare (he died) and his back stock was sold down, then he became pretty darn pricey. There is not enough margin in the beef business to spend a bunch of money on steaks and hamburger, show stock is likely another story.

 

[Teach97]

show stock is a very different matter as is really high end cattle....

when you are talking about show calves selling in the 10's of thousands couple hundred for semen isn't bad...

stud fees on bulls ranges the spectrum...way too many variables to give numbers inmy opinion...but having said that...for a neighbor i would do it for free. For a stranger....$50 or so sounds like a good way to buy a little feed....as long as you aren't pasturing it and such..then i would charge more..

 

[melody123]

Quote:
I've also seen plenty of Jersey bull calves not even get a $1.00 bid price at my local auction. Today the seller got lucky, there were some 'crazy' first time cow buyers who paid $15. The sad part is that if the calf goes for less than $5, then the seller has to pay the auction.

If the cow has a heifer, then they can sell a heifer for more than enough to pay for the breeding. But if she has a bull calf, then sometimes they can't even give him away. It's only beef and very expensive pedigreed breeding stock that has male calves worth anything. (Sorry guys.)

The question shoud be, what is the bull worth? If he's pedigreed out of good stock, then he's worth more than the bull raised as a bottle calf out of unknown parents.

Also, who is the heifer's owner? Do you need to stay on her good side? Does she have anything to trade? Perhaps she can give you a certain number of gallons of jersey milk. (mmmmm - jersey milk.)

 

[twentynine]

If I understand what's going on, this is a nieghbor deal.

Treat it just like that. They are not in the business of breeding, they got a bull that can do the job for the nieghbor's cow. The bull won't mind, and as long as they don't have a dozen cows waiting on Mr Bull, it won't cost them anything anyway.

Around here the older folks who run a few head of cattle, most of them don't even own a bull, the service of a bull is traded for with a nieghbor, maybe help with fence repair, hay, whatever. Then again most of the bulls being used are only qualified for the job because they are in pocession of horns and balls. Scrub bulls. The guy that used to have my place leased, didn't own a bull, when it came time for something to "happen" the fence would "break" and the angus bull from the next property down came over for a visit. Seen it time and again.