BULLS were meant to work at 12 months.
That's the belief of Ben Nevis Angus principals Erica and Stuart Halliday who, with Erica's parents, Bruce and Cherry Steel, run one of Australia's oldest performance recorded studs, at Walcha in NSW.
The stud, run alongside a 1000-cow commercial herd, switched from selling two-year-old bulls to yearlings 12 years ago and hasn't looked back.
"It happened quite by accident ... due to demand, we kept selling out of two-year-old bulls and so we asked our older clients if they'd mind trying yearlings. Now they don't want to use anything else," Erica said.
Yearling bulls suffered fewer breakdowns, cost less to produce, were cheaper at the point of sale and offered genetic gain a year earlier, she said.
"But the main reason people like them is that they are easy to use; bulls were meant to work at 12 months," Erica said.
"When bulls go out at two years, they are big and bulky when they're learning a new craft.
"Lighter bulls find it easier to learn and tend to maintain their agility right through their working life."
Bulls used as yearlings are less likely to bully and fight with their peers, she added.
"They get put with the cows before they get into that behavioural pattern, which usually starts at 14 to 16 months," she said.
The nutrition of the Ben Nevis sale bulls is closely monitored by Erica, who is also a veterinarian, to prepare them for sale at 12 to 14 months, weighing 500 to 550kg, in readiness for their first joining.
Trials have shown yearling bulls also have a longer working life with a significantly lower cost per-calf than bulls sold as two year olds.
"A bull sold at two years old has a three to four-year working life compared with a yearling that has a five to six-year working life," Erica said.
The stud has found a $3500 yearling bull with an average working life of five years compared favourably to a $4500 two-year-old bull with an average working life of three years.
The yearling returned 80 more calves at a cost of $15 a calf compared with $30 a calf for the two-year-old bull.
This comparison was based on 35 calves from the yearling's first joining and 50 thereafter.
"Yes, the salvage value will probably be greater in the two-year-old, but not enough to compensate the extra 80 calves," Erica said.
The Hallidays are the first to admit yearling bulls "are not going to look pretty" after their first joining and they shouldn't be expected to grow out to their full genetic potential.
"But we are more interested in the calves and so are most of our clients," she said.
Even so, some Ben Nevis clients report their yearling bulls have been used early and still grown out to 1100kg.
"It's a win-win," Erica said.
"For us, it's the same profit or a little more in producing yearling bulls as it was selling them at two years.
"And because it's meant we've been able to keep our prices down, we've kept and grown our client base."
Ben Nevis sells 50 to 60 yearling bulls each spring and has an embryo-transfer program to meet demand.
"We owe it to our clients to keep up-to-date with market requirements," Erica said.
