REGINA – Cold January temperatures and unpredictable winds have hurt bull sales and purebred breeders this month.
“The problem is more than having a bunch of cattle running around with short ears next year,” said Jim Duke of Square D Herefords of Langbank, Sask.
“This hurts an operation when you can’t bring out some of your better bulls. We didn’t have the problem, but lots of guys here did.”
The problem that was the talk of the 98th annual Regina Bull Sale was the cold shock that lowered semen quality so dramatically that several purebred breeders had to substitute bulls for ones that failed the event’s mandatory semen test.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Barry Young of Young Dale Angus of Carievale, Sask., showed both of the winning Angus bulls at the show portion of the event, but these were not his best animals.
“I had four that I had counted on bringing that didn’t (meet the semen standard.) Folks had let me know they were coming to the sale to buy those animals. Not that the ones we did bring weren’t good, but these were going to bring a lot of money,” said Young.
He selected a string of 15 to bring to the show and sale and had to substitute some of his best yearling bulls.
“But to get those 15, I tested 25. Normally one or two might fail out of 25 and not from the very best of the herd.”
Bob Cormier of Environment Canada’s meteorological service in Saskatoon said January was warm early in the month but in the latter half “it was a lot colder. The cold peaked with Jan. 22 having a daytime high of -27.”
Robert Gollings, a Charolais breeder from Quill Lake, Sask., said the cold was bad.
“But those winds. South. Northwest. Southeast. West. You couldn’t keep the cattle out of the wind. Even when it was warmer, the wind chill was tremendous,” said Gollings, who also had to leave some bulls at home due to failing scores.
Lorne Pruden, also of Quill Lake, agreed.
“I don’t know if we haven’t had it this cold for a while and the stock aren’t well adapted to it, or if we have just had warmer Januarys since we started semen testing (in 1995 for the Regina Bull Sale),” he said.
The effect of the cold on the semen, other than frostbite, isn’t seen until 28 days after the incident. Semen becomes damaged, with poor tails or heads unable to navigate to the egg.
Carmen Millham, a veterinarian in Yorkton, Sask., said “the cold definitely did this to the bull sale. What made it worse was that testing was being done at the beginning of March for this sale, exactly 28 days after the January cold snap. To make it worse, tests were being done in colder weather than in January. That would have pushed counts even lower.”
Most of those bulls will bounce back, said Al Barth of the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine.
“Some won’t, but testing is the best way to be sure,” Barth said.
“Unfortunately the most reliable tests can’t be made until the weather warms up in April or May and the effect of the cold and the seasonality to the animals has been minimized. Yearlings will also be a little older and that will improve their sperm quality.”
Young said there may also be an effect of too much bedding even in the cold temperatures.
“When it’s cold we bed a lot more. The animals lay in that pack for long periods when the wind is up. We see some scalds on the testicles sometimes. So when they are up in the wind they get frozen. When they are down in the bedding they get cooked. Both are bad for semen production, bad for testicles,” he said.
Barth said producers should take “whatever steps are necessary to get the animals out of that wind if they can. Not every animal will come back.”
