CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF BULLS AND BULLOCKS

CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF BULLS AND BULLOCKS Dr. R. Jayashree Veterinary College, Shimoga

Care and management of bull • Housed separately known as “Bull Shed” with sufficient area of floor and proper covering.

• Provide cool conditions and adequate drinking water.

• Balanced ration • Green fodder must be available both before and during breeding season. (Sufficient roughages and 1-2 kg of concentrates) • It is of great importance that males should be, fed regularly and not too much at one time, and too little at another.

Bull Shed • The covered area is 120-150 square feet and open area 200-300 square feet.

• Provisions for feeding and watering in the bull pen.

• Feeding space (manager length) is 60-75 cm.

Watering space is 60-75 cm. Bull sheds should have rough flooring.

Washing Shed • Here cleaning and washing of the bulls is done.

It may be asbestos roofed, double sloping and specious enough.

• Length should be 40-45 feet, • breadth 30-35 feet, • height in middle 10-15 feet and 10 feet in sides.

• Showers should be at the height of 8-19 feet.

There may be individual enclosures for the bulls.

Semen Collection Shed • Concrete Floor, Colour of the roof should of light colour • Length should be 40-50 feet, breadth 25-30 feet and height not less than 15 feet.

• There should be training area for young bulls which consist of 40’-30’ area in each side.

• From bull sheds to collection shed there should be iron railing of 4 1/2 feet breath and 3 1/2 feet height with gap between two railings of one foot.

• The location of bull exerciser should be between the bull shed and collection shed. A hay store for storing the feeds should also be present in between two bull sheds.

Collection on a Live Mount

Effect of Collection Frequency on Sperm Output Item

Dairy

Beef

Sheep

Swine

Horses

# of collections

1-6

1-6

7-25

2-5

2-6

Volume (ml)

5-8

3-6

0.8-1.2

150-300

30-100

1000-2000 800-1500 2000-3000 200-300

200-400

Concentration (million/ml) Total sperm/ejac. (billion)

7-15

5-10

1.6-3.6

30-60

5-10

Total sperm/wk (billion)

15-40

10-30

25-40

100-150

15-30

Motile sperm(%)

50-75

40-75

60-80

50-80

40-75

Normal sperm(%)

70-95

65-90

80-95

70-90

70-90

Laboratory Building / Office • The collection shed should be located adjoining the AV room, processing room so that one may get AV prepared from AV room and handover the collected semen to processing room through the counter provided. The entrance of the laboratory should never be direct to avoid contamination.

• Most of the bulls are ferocious and so control them properly using nose rings etc.

• For bulls two mating a day has been found to be openings.

• Moderate exercise should be provided to keep the breeding bull in active and non fatty conditions.

• Regular grooming of the breeding bull be practiced. In buffalo bulls regular shaving may be practiced

CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF BULLOCK • The hooves of the bullocks should be provided with metal shoes to protect the hooves from wear and tear.

• The working hours for bullocks are recommended as follows: Normal Work - 6 hours of carting or 4 hours of ploughing.

Heavy Work - 8 hours of carting or 6 hours of ploughing

Schedule of Day-to-day Operations on Dairy Farms (About 100 cows) Approximate tim e (hours) 03.00 - 03.30 03.30 - 05.00

S. No 1.

1.

2.

Farm operations Cleaning/brushing of milch animals Feeding half of the daily concentrate ration just before milking.

Milking cows.

05.00 - 05.30

05.30 - 08.00

1.

Delivery of raw milk (in cans) to the milk pickup van of dairy plants and receiving previous day's empty cans.

2.

Washing and disinfection of milking barns.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Cleaning of milk cow sheds.

Feeding of dry/green fodder to milch stock.

Cleaning farm premises.

Isolation of sick animals.

Isolation of "in-heat" cows for artificial insemination

5.

Note: Use milkers at the rate of one for every 12-14 cows, for all the above operations. Milkers go off duty by 8.00 a.m. and farm labour come on duty.

Approxim ate time (hours)

S. No 1.

2.

08.00 - 12.00

3.

4.

5.

6.

Farm operations Cleaning calf, maternity, dry-stock, bullock and bull sheds.

Feeding half of the daily concentrate ration to calves, pregnant cows and bulls.

Exercising and grooming of bulls.

Treating sick animals.

Breeding cows that are "in-heat".

Harvesting, chaffing and feeding of green fodder to all the stock. Mangers in all sheds should be filled with green fodder.

Note: Animals should be taken for grazing (if practiced ) between 09.00 a.m. and 02.00 p.m. in winter, and between 06.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m. and again between 05 .00 p.m. and 07.00 p.m. in summer.

Approximate ti S. No me (hours) 12.00 - 01.00

01.00 - 03.00

Farm operations

1.

Lunch-cum-rest period for labourers.

2.

Miscellaneous jobs for dairy farm stock identification; periodical vaccination; preparation of concentrate mixture; repair of farm fences, fittings and repair of equipments; rope and halter making; weekly scrubbing and white-washing of drinking water tanks; manure disposal/ conservation; hay and silage making; periodical spraying of animal houses with suitable pesticides; periodical deworming of stock; clipping hair from sides and hind-quarters of cows; grooming; toe trimming; dehorning of calves; attending to sale and purchase of livestock and their transportation; fitting and training of cows for show.

Note: • The dairy manager should plan the jobs well in advance in such a way that they are evenly distributed over the week. Some jobs may require longer time and the labour have to work extra time on such occasions. • Milkers come on duty by 2.30 hours and remain upto 5.30pm hours whereas general farm labour goes off duty by 5.00 hours.

02.30 - 03.00

l.

Approximate time (hours)

S.No l.

03.00 - 04.30

2.

3.

04.30 - 05.00

05.00-06.30

Washing, brushing of milch Cows by milkers.

Farm operations Feeding the other half of daily concentrate ration to milk cows just before milking.

Milking.

Cleaning calf, maternity, dry-stock and bull sheds and feeding the other half of concentrate ration to calves, pregnant cows and bulls.

1.

Delivery of milk (in cans) to milk pick-up vans of milk plants and collection of morning's empty cans.

2.

Washing and disinfection of milking barns.

3.

Feeding dry and green fodder to calves, dry-stock and bulls.

1.

Cleaning of milch cow shed.

2.

Feeding green / dry fodder to milch stock.

3.

Cleaning farm premises.