‘Who’ll give me thirty-five hundred, now four, now four, now four?”

The ringman is looking right at you. In three to five seconds, you’ll make a decision that will influence your herd for the next several years.

“Yep!”

It’s just another $500. It could be the best deal of the day, or it could be a hasty mistake.

“Sold to buyer number 92.”

If that’s all the time you had to weigh your bull-buying decisions, it would be stressful. But if you do your homework ahead of time, you can come well-prepared to every sale.

“If you haven’t done any preparation before you get there, it gets to be pretty overwhelming,” says Rod Geppert, regional manager for the American Angus Association. “You may or may not end up with a bull that is what you really wanted.”

The fast-paced nature of an auction allows for efficient business, but really emphasizes the need to study data and preview the animals prior to them entering the ring, he says.

“My recommendation is to have some sort of a priority list or a shopping list prior to getting there. Mark up your sale books,” Geppert says.

The long game

Each cow is important, but the bull is a long-term investment that shapes your ultimate profit potential.

“If you look at the last two or three bulls and the pedigree of our individual calves, nearly 90% of their genetics are the direct result of those bulls,” says Scott Greiner, Virginia Tech animal scientist. “So, our genetic selection decisions have implications when we keep heifers that will impact our enterprise, performance, the cost of production, and our revenue for many generations to come.”

Although producers may spend more on equipment, labor and feed resources in a year, writing a check on sale day feels big.

“We spend equal amounts of money in lots of other places in our enterprise, but maybe not at one time. That gets a little daunting and can be intimidating,” he says. “A $5- to $7,000 bull is not cheap. But in the grand scheme of our production system, it’s a very small cost relative to the grand total.”

Start with the ‘why’

“One of the really important questions to ask ourselves is: Why are you buying this bull? For lack of a better phrase, what is his job description?” he says.

Is the plan to use him on heifers or cows? What improvements do you expect him to bring to the herd? How will you market his calves? Consider your labor and feed resources.

“If we expect him to breed heifers, calving ease becomes a high priority,” Greiner says. “It also depends on who he is going to work for. If that cow herd is more adapted, you’re not going to have that as Number 1 on your list.”

Angus breeder Tim Schiefelbein, Schiefelbein Farms, Kimball, Minn., works with customers from across the country to help match one of their bulls to the customer’s goals and production system. When he consults with a new contact, Schiefelbein starts by asking them about their budget. Question No. 2 is always: “What is the breed makeup of your herd?”

“One thing Angus will do so well is they can take a mixture of breeds and shore them up quick,” he says. “Before you know it, the consistency is there with the gain, the grade and the females real quick.”

A mixed cow herd allows for a wider range of Angus bulls to fit the needs. If the cow herd is already uniform, the bull selection gets more targeted, Schiefelbein notes.

“What are your strengths, and where do you need help?” he asks producers.

Often those goals are determined by the marketing method, whether they sell at weaning or retain ownership, for example. Though Schiefelbein notes the difference between those two end goals has narrowed over time. Many of their bull buyers are part of their customer buy-back program, where the Schiefelbeins feed the calves out themselves and share that performance and carcass data back.

“It isn’t just weight, even if you’re at the sale barn. It’s the reputation,” he says. “Our customers are big enough that they do get a scorecard. Whether we buy them or someone else does, they track those animals.”

Once bull type is defined, it’s time to make some selections.

Do your research

“Let’s start our work with the [sale book] at the kitchen table and identify the bulls that meet our selection goals based on their genetics,” Greiner suggests. “I like to look at phenotype as much as the next guy, but I’m going to identify that subset on paper first. Just because you like him on paper does not obligate you to anything.”

It’s easier to count a bull out on pedigree and expected progeny differences (EPDs) than it is to choose him on phenotype and then realize his numbers don’t fit your goals, he says.

In the 2023 Industry Insights Powered by Angus Media and CattleFax survey, more than half (53.8%) of the commercial cow-calf producers said EPDs and profit indexes were the top influence on their bull purchases, followed by 17.5% saying visual appeal was No. 1 (see Fig. 1).

There are more options than ever to see bulls online with photos and videos, but Geppert says it’s even better when you can see the bulls in person or send someone you trust. For example, as a regional manager, he commonly gets asked to assess frame size and evaluate feet.

With all the data and tools available, it can be hard to sort through it all. Greiner recommends using the American Angus Association dollar value indexes ($values), such as dollar beef ($B) or maternal weaned calf value ($M; see “Sorting Gate”).

“We use those to identify our best candidates, and then we can dig into the details a little more,” he says.

Of course, the more traits, the slower the rate of progress. It also limits options, Greiner says.

“The more of those traits we feel are important and select on, the more difficult it becomes to find both in all those categories,” he warns.

Sometimes commercial producers can almost overstudy, Schiefelbein says.

“They’ll make it too complicated,” he says. “I just try to make it simple.”

A sire’s great-grandmother doesn’t matter as much as what the bull in front of them can do.

The purchase

When it comes time to buy the bull, the best advice is “stick to the script,” Greiner says. “Stick to your guns. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and maybe ignore or move away from the script you’ve put together.”

Schiefelbein often helps customers do the math of buying a superior bull, because moving the needle on genetics should come with payoffs.

“Let’s say you put a nickel [of added value] on the calves times six. That’s $30 a head, and usually a bull would sire at least 100 head in his lifetime, so that’s $3,000,” Schiefelbein calculates. A producer could spend another $1,000 and pocket the rest of that increase, and then compound that genetic improvement to make permanent herd changes by keeping the females.

“You get the daughters for free,” he says.

The relationships

When the bull has a chance to go do his job, then it’s time to measure and evaluate to help inform next year’s purchasing decisions.

“Common sense will tell you, if you’ve got better weaning weights, if the calves are a little fleshier looking, they just seem healthier and better consistency, then you want to buy the same kind of bull that you’ve been or go back to where you got that bull,” Geppert says.

As you look to make changes in future years, visit with that seedstock supplier.

“They want to build that relationship with you,” Geppert says. Breeders will help narrow their full offering to pedigrees and bull types to lead you in that direction. “It’s a relationship business. People buy from people.”

Finding those who want to help you succeed should make the rest of the process seem much easier.

“There has to be an availability of genetics that meet one’s goals; but then, beyond that, it’s the people and the program that you have to have comfort and trust in,” Greiner says.

With a raise of the hand or a nod of your head, you’ll simply close the deal. Your research and relationships will have already pointed you toward the right bulls for your operation, making you confident in the future when you hear, “Sold.”