WA cattle vet Dr Enoch Bergman carrying out a bull breakdown investigation

WITH this year’s winter-spring bull sales getting underway in coming months, as with any investment, it’s important to consider how to best protect assets and maximise productivity.

When it comes to bulls, particularly virgin bulls, one of the largest threats is balanoposthitis – or inflammation of the penis and prepuce.

Affected bulls often progress to catastrophic preputial and penile injury if they aren’t removed from the mating group.

The potential cost to a beef business if bulls are affected by balanoposthitis depends on:

• The time of onset of the syndrome
• The amount of time until producer recognises it and takes action
• Access to replacement bulls
• Sale and salvage value of affected bulls.

At best, a producer may have time to replace an affected bull during the joining season if the bull is identified early.

This will come with the added expense of acquiring a new bull and disruption to joining.

However, if the bull’s condition is identified late in the season, producers will likely see a higher proportion of animals tested empty at pregnancy testing time which will disrupt the breeding rate and more calves will be born late in the calving season.

What’s the solution?

A three-year MLA-backed Producer Demonstration Site project is aimed at preventing bull preputial breakdown.

In partnership with the WA-based producer group, ASheep & Beef, the aim of the project is to demonstrate the success of prevention of balanoposthitis by vaccination in the South Coast region of WA.

The project’s lead producer Simon Fowler said prior to the research, producers were already using vaccination to diminish the risk.

“Local producers have been vaccinating bulls for over ten years and have anecdotally seen a large reduction in balanoposthitis,” Mr Fowler said.

“I certainly expect the PDS to show a more significant reduction in injuries to vaccinated bulls.”

Surveys were conducted across 48 properties, with survey participants giving an average score of 9.5 out of 10 when asked if they believe vaccination helps in the prevention of bull preputial breakdown.

On properties where bulls were unvaccinated, 20.5pc of the virgin bulls broke down during joining, with 17.4pc being due to balanoposthitis.

Where vaccination had occurred on properties, 13.4pc of the virgin bulls broke down, 12.9pc of which was attributed to balanoposthitis.

Throughout the research process, the following observations were made:

Exposing virgin bulls to sexual experience (commingling with cull cows) prior to joining may help reduce the incidence of balanoposthitis.

Wet conditions may contribute to the incidence and severity – 45pc of producers who reported no virgin bull breakdowns reported wet conditions while 64.7pc of those who reported virgin bull breakdowns reported wet conditions.

MLA is continuing the research with aims to increase the sample size though more properties and collect data from producers following pregnancy testing and the calving season.

This should offer more thorough data on the impact of balanoposthitis and methods of prevention.

Three tools to get more bang for your buck this bull sale season

• BULLCHECK: Ensure potential bull purchases are healthy and fertile. Click here for more details
• Bull buying guide: MLA’s How to shop for high-performing sire guide provides step-by-step advice on setting breeding objectives, selecting EBVs, navigating sale day and keeping your new sire performing at his best.
• MLA’s genetics hub: Watch a series of short ‘how-to’ animations demystify breeding values and show how to select desired traits, navigate BREEDPLAN and purchase high-performing bulls.

Source: MLA