At the American Gelbvieh Association we like to stress the importance of “family” to our members and customers. Whether you run five cows or five thousand cows, we appreciate and value the relationships built within this breed. Back in the day, appreciation and kindness were shown in many ways but the age-old saying was relative to borrowing a cup sugar from your neighbor. Well, what happens when your neighbors wants to borrow more than a cup of sugar, say a bull perhaps? Utilizing the Natural Breeding Agreement option in the AGA Online Registry Service allows active members of the AGA to register progeny out of sires meeting the requirements of a natural service herd sire even if they don’t own the animal.

1. Log into the AGA Online Registry Service

2. From the left hand menu select, “Herd Mgmt”

3. From that dropdown provided, select, “Breeding”

4. Choose the option “Bull Agreements” from the list below.

Once the new screen comes up, you’ll notice three tabs located at the top, “Add New”, “Bulls I have Lent”, and “Bulls I have Borrowed”. The convenience of these tabs are self-explanatory but they help not only the AGA, but you, to keep track of the agreements that you’ve placed on bulls you’ve lent as well as the bulls you’ve borrowed from other members.

To add a new bull agreement select the “Add New” and type in the member’s AGA number in the box beside the agreement statement at the top of the screen, just below the tabs. If you’ve lent more than one bull during the same time period, you can enter the date range the other member’s females were exposed to your sire at the top. Be sure to enter the date as MM/DD/YYYY for the start and end dates both. If multiple bulls were lent to the same member but during different periods of time you will need to enter those specific dates beside the appropriate bull but doing so can be done at the same time for your convenience.

Once you’ve entered the member’s number at the top and entered the beginning date of exposure (end date is optional), be sure to select the box to the left of the beginning date. If all of the above instructions have been taken care of, simply select the “Record Agreements” button at the bottom of

the screen. Once you see a little green checkmark beside the data entered, the agreement has been placed.

To ensure your agreement has been properly added to the bull’s records simply click on the “Bulls I have Lent” tab and locate the newly added agreement there. If it does not appear, try refreshing your page and looking under the same tab again. If the agreement still does not appear, please contact the AGA office.

It’s important to remember that Natural Breeding Agreements (NBAs) can only be put on by the owner of the sire. Additionally, calves can only be registered from the sire used by a non-owner that would have been conceived during the date entered as exposed. If a bull is borrowed by the same individual/ranch in multiple years you will want to be sure to enter an agreement for each time period their females were exposed to your sire.

For more information or clarification on submitting a natural breeding agreement please contact the AGA office at (303)465-2333 or email [email protected].