At YellowTop Angus we feel that the best way to develop herd bulls is slowly, and with low stress. We choose to calve in May and June while the cows are out on grass. We feel calving at this time is the least stressful for the cows and calves, and those who work with them. We enjoy checking the calving cows on horseback. The calves are weighed with an electronic scale and tagged once a day. We feel there is less sickness, less disease, and overall healthier calves by calving later. We brand and work the calves when they are around a month old, and get to be developed on grass for the summer. They receive their booster shots and are evaluated for quality and disposition when we preg check the cows in October. We will determine our weaning date based on the weather and grazing conditions.

At weaning time, the bulls were fed a bull developer pellet and grass hay. We hand feed the calves and work them on foot, with a dog, and horseback to get them quieted down. We also ran the bulls through our alley and chute to get them used to the chute without having to catch them. We feel that working with the calves takes their mind off weaning. After weaning, the bulls also got another round of vaccines and pour on. Come wintertime, the bulls will continue to be fed the bull developer pellet and get free choice hay. The developer pellet is safe and has low starch levels to ensure sound development and to enhance longevity in our bulls. Come summertime the bulls were split and summered into pastures totaling around 300 acres. The bulls were supplemented with salt, loose mineral, and some cake. In September we brought the bulls home and ran them in our pastures around the place here and offered grass alfalfa hay and fed them the bull developer pellet.

I feel that the less confinement, and the less corn a breeding bull has the better chance they will have to stay in your herd for a long time. We feel that we are doing the best we possibly can to offer you sound bulls with good dispositions and developed in a way to make your investment last as long as it can. In doing so, we hope these bulls will sire you great calves for years to come. There are so many factors that we cannot control, on how long the bulls last, but the ones we can control we are striving to implement into our program.