Walked into the bull lot today to check on our 2 year old Hereford bull. He bellowed,blew snot and charged. I was close enough to the gate to get out safely.
Up until today he was always gentile. He has been alone in this lot most of the winter as the other bulls have been breeding the fall calvers and the cow we put with him we took out to calve over a month ago.He is fed hay by tractor once per week and hand fed a protein supplement every other day in a fenceline feeder, so he has had constant human interaction and has never been handled roughly, hot shotted, hit, or abused in any way.
We chose Herefords because of their calm temperment.
There are cattle across the fenceline, bulls and cows, and a neice's show heifer and it's mother is penned in the barn about 30 feet away. The bulls to bellow and growl at each other across the electric fence but he was never aggressive to humans before.
What do I do? :???:
Will he calm down if put in with cows?
Do I ship him or put him on feed and butcher him?
No bull is worth getting hurt/killed or someone else hurt/killed but if he will rehabilitate it would save me from finding a new bull to use starting in 10 days until the end of April.
Our facilities for loading out of the breeding pastures are portable corral gates so to load/unload there is considerable contact with the cattle. So if he is mean there is a considerable opportunity for getting injured.
Up until today he was always gentile. He has been alone in this lot most of the winter as the other bulls have been breeding the fall calvers and the cow we put with him we took out to calve over a month ago.He is fed hay by tractor once per week and hand fed a protein supplement every other day in a fenceline feeder, so he has had constant human interaction and has never been handled roughly, hot shotted, hit, or abused in any way.
We chose Herefords because of their calm temperment.
There are cattle across the fenceline, bulls and cows, and a neice's show heifer and it's mother is penned in the barn about 30 feet away. The bulls to bellow and growl at each other across the electric fence but he was never aggressive to humans before.
What do I do? :???:
Will he calm down if put in with cows?
Do I ship him or put him on feed and butcher him?
No bull is worth getting hurt/killed or someone else hurt/killed but if he will rehabilitate it would save me from finding a new bull to use starting in 10 days until the end of April.
Our facilities for loading out of the breeding pastures are portable corral gates so to load/unload there is considerable contact with the cattle. So if he is mean there is a considerable opportunity for getting injured.