Case Study: Bannitup Angus reducing bull breakdown by vaccination

Image: Bannitup Angus cattle.

Andrew Johnson is the owner of Bannitup Angus, a cattle enterprise in Merivale (east of Esperance on the south coast of Western Australia). Andrew has been a core producer in ASHEEP & BEEF’s ‘Preventing Bull Preputial Breakdown by Vaccination’, a Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) project funded by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and facilitated by Dr Enoch Bergman (Swans Veterinary Services).

As the project draws to a close, we caught up with Andrew to get his thoughts on the PDS and the value of using vaccination as a tool to reduce bull preputial breakdown.

PDS background

The ‘Preventing Bull Preputial Breakdown by Vaccination’ PDS ran over three breeding seasons (2023–2025) and aimed to demonstrate that the use of a commercial bovine herpesvirus vaccine (either Rhinogard® or Bovilis MH + IBR®) prior to mating can reduce the incidence and severity of bovine balanoposthitis, and hence reduce bull wastage, in virgin British‑bred bulls. During the PDS, more than 150 producer survey datasets covering approximately 3,500 bulls were collected. Results consistently showed a lower proportion of vaccinated virgin bulls breaking down due to penile or preputial injury during joining compared with unvaccinated bulls. Virgin bulls were more likely to break down during joining with penile issues whilst older bulls were more likely to break down during joining due to lameness. Find out more about the PDS results via this link.

What is balanoposthitis?

Infectious Balanoposthitis (IBP) is a condition caused by herpesvirus in cattle. The disease results in ulcerative inflammation of the penis and prepuce in bulls, and can also affect the vulva of cows. As with other herpesviruses, infection is permanent. The virus may remain dormant and reactivate during periods of stress. Virgin bulls can become infected during joining through sexual activity, contact with older infected bulls, or exposure to infected cows.

Q&A with Andrew Johnson, Bannitup Angus

Farm overview

I bought my first cattle around 25 years ago and built up the Bannitup Angus business through leasing and agistment.

My wife Khumo and I have been running an Angus stud, but moving forward we will look to focus on our self‑replacing commercial herd, selling weaners to feedlots. I also have some off-farm income to smooth out the drier years by working for another local cattle producer.

The farms are located along the coast, with deep sands through to more marginal coastal swamp areas. Our feedbase is kikuyu pastures, with serradella on the sandier country, and some good ryegrass and clover in the heavier soils.

We have a later calving than most; we don’t crop so we don’t need to take that into account when we set dates. We start calving heifers on 1 April and cows on 1 May, generally weaning around the Christmas to New Year period. Depending on feed, we will offload them shortly after weaning or hang on for a while before selling to a feedlot.

Heifer joining is on 1 June and cows on 1 July. The bulls are in for 7 weeks. In the past with the stud, the joining program was 100% artificial insemination (AI) plus backup bulls. As the business shifts towards a commercial herd, only heifers (both stud and commercial) will be AI-joined. We’ll continue to breed our own bulls.

Our herd uses a lot of Rennylea bloodlines, a very performance-based stud in NSW. We have also used American bloodlines but have found them to be more inconsistent than Australian genetics. I rely on both genotype and phenotype when selecting bulls. I don’t like extremes and work for balanced EBV profiles. I put greater emphasis on carcase quality than most WA breeders who tend to prioritise weight. I believe that we have to look after the end consumer. If people don’t like the steak they’re eating, they won’t come back for more and will buy another form of protein. There is a lot of evidence that higher levels of intramuscular fat deliver a better eating experience.

Bull breakdown experience

I became aware of the connection between balanoposthitis and bull breakdown early on. I had our local cattle vet, Enoch, talking about issues he was seeing in the region and some of our clients who had purchased from the stud were also reporting breakdowns to us.

I was vaccinating, so I never really had a huge problem with balanoposthitis in my own bulls, but we have lost bulls to it. When you lose an expensive bull, you tend to be more cautious.

I currently use Rhinogard, which is a single intranasal dose, and I have used Bovilis MH + IBR in the past. I don’t just vaccinate once. The first vaccination is given to sale bulls and any bulls I am keeping around February, then I give another dose around June or July, a couple of weeks before joining. If I have vaccine left over at other times, I use it up on my bulls, so they could receive up to three doses prior to mating.

If you have paid a lot of money for a bull, it’s about $5 a shot, so it is a pretty easy calculation to save a $20,000— $30,000 animal. I’ve never had any bulls show adverse reactions.

The vaccines are not 100% foolproof. Immunity drops over time, and I don’t think these vaccines were originally developed specifically for this problem. I still get the odd case, I’ve had about three over the years. The herpesvirus that causes balanoposthitis is sexually transmitted. While running the stud we were AI-joining all females, which reduced sexual activity. As we move forward with a more commercial herd, I’ll be interested to see whether increased natural mating leads to higher incidence.

The biggest issues I’ve seen have actually been in bulls sold to clients. Even though they were vaccinated prior to sale, it’s a long time before they are joined and the immunity drops off. That caused a lot of difficulties when those bulls were exposed to the virus for the first time in a new herd.

Before Enoch figured out that a herpesvirus was causing issues, people thought that bulls were physically injuring or breaking their penises. Now we know that it’s really important to give bulls a shot a couple of weeks before joining, even if they are already vaccinated.

As soon as I spot a bull I think has a problem, I remove him from the cows and rest him. Picking up issues early and treating with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories makes a big difference in how severe the damage becomes and how well they recover.

Has the PDS been useful?

The PDS has definitely raised awareness of the issue in this region and that you can vaccinate for it. I’m not sure how prevalent the problem is in other areas, but I’d assume it’s country-wide. We are lucky to have Enoch around to pick these things up. Maybe there needs to be more focus on the issue, beyond this PDS, such as research into vaccines that are specifically targeted at the herpesvirus we’re dealing with, to give producers a better solution.

The PDS has reinforced that we will keep vaccinating. We will never cut corners on this one.”

Top tip for producers

Vaccinating a couple of weeks pre-joining is very worthwhile. Even if you buy bulls that have already been vaccinated, that pre-joining shot is pretty important.

Moving on from bulls, how is the season going so far?

Excellent – I hope it continues. We’ve had rain, not a false break, the kikuyu is away big time and the clovers have germinated. Markets are great. We’ll take the glass-half-full view at the moment! As a farmer, I’m finding it hard to find something to whinge about.

What are your current focuses for on-farm improvement?

We either agist or lease, so we look to invest in our genetics. Our aim is to bend the growth curve, breeding animals with a lower birth rate (but not unreasonably low), very fast early growth, and a moderate mature weight. The cows that we keep are not big, the last thing we want is big-framed cows. They are expensive to keep alive and tend not to get in calf in tough years. We like to have a good carcase on a moderate mature animal.

Where do you see key opportunities to strengthen profitability and sustainability in the beef industry?

I would love to see some more diversity in our markets in WA, we are really beholden to supermarkets. It would be great to see more export markets open up.

Another area I see as needing to change is the breeding direction in WA, I think we need to focus more on eating quality. People just breed the heaviest stuff, it’s a rational short-term decision but in the long-term we need people to keep buying beef. It’s an expensive form of protein, so if you come out of the supermarket with a tough steak, next time you come down that meat aisle you’ll pick something else. There are plenty of other proteins. Chicken is cheap and easy to cook. The majority of bulls recently sold in WA over $40,000 have had negative intramuscular fat (IMF), that is not the case in the Eastern States. The more IMF the better the eating experience. If we don’t address that, in the long-term we could be doing ourselves an injustice and turning people away.

Many thanks to Andrew for his time giving this interview. Find out more about the PDS at asheepbeef.org.au/bullbreakdown.