COARSE AND STRAIGHT HAIR
  Coarse, straight hair about the face, head and neck of any breed of bull is a desirable trait to have and denotes a high degree of fertility. However a slight degree less than the two above mentioned bulls. This bull should have semen in the 70-80 percent live range. This bull should get 70-80 percent of his cows pregnant in the first 21 days of the breeding season. Using frozen semen from this bull will result in a 10-15 percent less conception than natural service because of the stress in the freezing process.

< Coarse and Straight Hair

DOWNWARD FOLDS IN THE NECK SKIN
   The skin covering the head, neck, and shoulders of the high fertile bull will be thicker and will have deep crevices or folds running vertical from top of neck downward to bottom of neck. The skin should be loose, thick and movable.

< Downward Folds In Neck Skin

FINE THICK AND SILKY HAIR
   If something has happened to decrease the fertility (reduction in testosterone (reduction in sperm production) of the bull, within a short period of time (10-14 days) the hair on the poll will began to stand erect. For a bull to advance from the coarse curly, coarse wavy or coarse straight hair to the thick silky feminine hair, can take as much as 6 months. However one should be aware of the fertility problems that are present in the bull and take action. If this condition persist the hair on the poll will get long enough to lay down and look like the lady from the beauty shop that has her hair designed for the long bang look. Most cows have long hair on the poll or the bang look. (A feminine trait). As the condition progresses the coarse hair will give way to finer, thicker, silky hair as the cow possesses. A close look at the hair may indicate the hair is flowing in many directions and long hair on top of neck. A bull should never have long or silky hair on top of the neck as the steer does. Yearling bulls that have not reached sexual maturity will exhibit the finer silky hair. Most yearling bulls that have not advanced beyond that point will probably never become a great breeding bull.

POLL HAIR COVERING
   The poll hair covering of the bull should be observed on a regular basis as you walk through your cattle. The hair on the poll should be coarse and curly, coarse and wavy or coarse and straight. Never standing erect. The poll area will be the first hair area to change if a fertility problem (reduction in testosterone and sperm cells) should arise in the bull. The hair will began to stand erect (vertical) on top of the poll. After the hair has grown to a length of 1 inch or more the hair will look finer and began to lay down with the bang look. The hair will begin to change from the poll downward and back to the fine and silky look.

Image on left shows the start of standing poll hair.

Image on left shows standing poll hair.

SHOULDERS
   The shoulder blades (scapula bone) of the bull should be loose and movable to the point of seeing the blade rotate above the spine bone by as much as .5 inch as he walks. If the spine bone rises above the shoulder blades when the bull is standing he would be classified as a low fertile bull. If you lay a straight edge across the bull’s shoulders the straight edge should touch the two shoulder blades and the spine bone at the same time. The same is true in the cow.

If you lay a straight edge across the bull’s shoulders the straight edge should touch the two shoulder blades and the spine bone at the same time.