Farmer Frank and the Tale of the Bull Calf Dilemma

Livestock Update, June 2006

Dr. John F. Currin, VA-MD Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, VA Tech

Farmer Frank was sitting at the market watching the cattle being sold.  He has always in the past bought steer calves, but he noticed that quite a few of the calves being sold were bull calves.  He saw quite a few bull calves that he would have been interested in buying if they were steers.  Frank wondered to himself if it would be worthwhile to start buying bull calves.  The main question he had was how much less a bull calf was worth in order for him to buy it.

Many stocker operators buy bull calves.  There are many reasons for them to do this and they include:

1. To get enough cattle to meet their needs, they must buy both steers and bulls.
2. They perceive the bull calves to be a better bargain than equivalent quality steer calves.

The real question is how much more a bull calf costs after you purchase him than an equivalent steer calf?  After calculating the additional “costs” associated with bull calves, you can then calculate how much you should initially pay for them at the market relative to the price of steer calves.  The extra costs associated with buying bull calves include:

1. The cost of castration
2. Decreased weight gain post castration
3. Increased likelihood of getting shipping fever (BRDC)
4. Increased likelihood of calf loss to death (from BRDC or castration complication)

The following tables compare the health and performance in steers versus bulls.  The bulls in this study are relatively lightweight (3 weights).  Since castration complications increase the heavier the weight of the bull calf, the differences seen in these experiments would likely be greater the heavier the weight of the bull calves purchased.

Effect of Castration on Health and Performance of Newly Received Stressed Feedlot Calves, B.A. Berry et al

Table 3. Health response of steers vs bulls (Experiment 2)
	Treatmentsa
Item	Steers	Cut bulls
Calves	24	81
Pullsb	.50	.93
1st Med. Ratec	.33	.59
Retreat rated	.00	.12
2nd Med. Ratee	.00	.11
% Treated
at least once	33.30	59.30
> 1 time	.00	23.50
aCalves entering the feedlot as steers; calves surgically castrated on d 1 bAverage number of times calves were removed from their pen for possible treatment cAverage number of calves which received Nuflor® dAverage number of calves that received first treatment followed by second treatment within 7 d eAverage number of calves that received a second treatment after recovery from initial sickness

Effect of Castration on Health and Performance of Newly Received Stressed Feedlot Calves, B.A. Berry et al

In one of the studies listed above, bull calves performed better when castrated instead of being banded.  Some larger stocker operators have moved away from the banding of large bull calves because of the effect on performance.  As can be seen from the above experiments, bull calves purchased as stockers are worth less than steers regardless of the method of castration.  A good rule of thumb is that bull calves are worth $1-$2 per hundred weight less than comparable steers (Table 4).

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