Page 6 - 313502 KANIMBLA FINAL PROOF

Buying and Caring for a New Bull

Before buying a bull, it is best to answer a couple of questions:

Price: Ideally you should spend around 8 to 10 times what your weaners average if you are to maintain
your current herd standard. If you want to lift performance, then you may need to spend more.

Selection: Arriving at the sale, it is best to walk through all the lots and cross off all the bulls that you
don’t like based on a visual inspection. After this elimination, do the same exercise and mark the bulls
that you like and note the reasons why. Try to mark more than you need. After this, look at the
selected bulls EBVs and Indices. There is a guide to these on page 5 of the catalogue. Your agent or
Kanimbla will also be happy to assist. At this stage you may be able to place the bulls in order of
desirability and put a price on them that you would be happy to pay.

Aims: Before you get to the sale, you will probably have a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses
in your herd. Therefore select the bulls that have strengths in the areas that you have weaknesses in.
Don’t forget that the bull is only half the answer so you may need to select an animal whose strengths
may be a bit higher than what you want to end up with. Where you are looking at fixing a number of
traits, one bull may not be the entire solution and it may take a couple of generations for you to get to
where you want to be.

Transit and Insurance: Delivery – we will deliver your
animal free of charge to major centres at the earliest
most mutually convenient time. Conditions apply –
discuss with us. We recommend that you insure your
purchases - an insurance agent will be in attendance on the
day. Transit insurance is not a replacement for more
comprehensive insurance.

At home: Once you have bought the bull, you will be taking
him away from his mates and placing him in a new
environment. This can be stressful for the bull. To minimise
this stress, the following could be done:

Ø Try to have delivery occur during daylight. This is not
always achievable.
Ø It is best that the bull be unloaded into a small
paddock with some older cows which ideally should
be pregnant. These cows could also be in an
adjacent paddock.
Ø Food and water should be available.
Ø For biosecurity reasons, you may wish to keep the
bull isolated from the rest of the farm for several
days.

The sale agents shall ensure that the bull’s NLIS is
transferred to your PIC.

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4 - ANNUAL BULL AND FEMALE SALE