Bull Behavior

[sidney411]

This weekend I noticed our bull guarding one cow. He stayed within 10 ft of her all day Sunday. He kept her at a distance from the rest of the herd. Any time she tried to get close to any other cow he would for lack of better term bulldog her and keep her away. When her calf tried to come up to nurse he would bellow at it and push it away with his head. He wouldn't let it stay by her or nurse. The calf would just stand several yards off and cry. The bull would kind of jump her and put his head over her back every one in a while. He seemed quite agressive with her but I never saw him mount her. She would rebuff his attempts and move away from him, but he kept with her. He was still doing all of this when we left Sun evening. I am assuming she was or will be in heat. I did not see her stand. How long after this behavior starts will she stand? I have never seen our bull do this before, will the calf be ok not nursing for a day? Thanks all

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

IF the calf is also eating and drinking water as well as nursing (assuming calv is between about 1 and 3 months old) will possibly be ok (?) to miss a day of milk. On other hand, if calf is under 30 days old, may be a problem here.

Bulls shouldn't keep a calf from nursing (except when actively trying to breed). If the bull is continually guarding the cow and not letting her nurse or be with other cows for hours on end, you may have a problem bull...calf health more important in THAT bull breeding your cow NOW.

 

[dun]

Would this be a young bull or an experienced bull? Some bulls will, for a better expression, "Fall in love" with one particular cow. If she hasn't stood for him in 24 hours or so, she most likely isn't coming into heat. The neighbor had a bull that no matter what cow was in heat he tried mounting the same cow over and over. He only got one calf that year and the bull killed it.

dun

 

[TheBullLady]

Dun,

That's a new one! How awful for the calf!

We borrowed a bull a year ago that was really agressive towards the calves.. couldn't figure out why until he wasn't getting the cows bred. When we hauled him to the vet's to be tested, he couldn't "get the job done" because of an overly tight sheath.. some sort of scar tissue from a previous injury. Anyway.. I guess he was just crabby. But he was tough on the calves.. would slam them into the fences if they were between him and a fence. I was glad to see him go!

 

[dun]

Dun,

That's a new one! How awful for the calf!

We borrowed a bull a year ago that was really agressive towards the calves.. couldn't figure out why until he wasn't getting the cows bred. When we hauled him to the vet's to be tested, he couldn't "get the job done" because of an overly tight sheath.. some sort of scar tissue from a previous injury. Anyway.. I guess he was just crabby. But he was tough on the calves.. would slam them into the fences if they were between him and a fence. I was glad to see him go!

They good part was that it was the last straw and he sold out. He was one of those folks that believes that if it isn't bare dirt they don't need any feed, never vaccinate. Just run a bull with the cows and seperate calves every once in a while and sell them off.

dun

 

[sidney411]

He is going on 4 now, we have had him since he was 18 mts old. These are the same cows he had been with every since he set foot on our place. We have had 100% of the cows bred every year so far. I haven't ever seen him act like this before, granted we are only on the farm on the weekend due to our full time jobs to support our farming habit :lol: The cow calved between 5/17/04 and 5/21/04.

 

[dun]

He is going on 4 now, we have had him since he was 18 mts old. These are the same cows he had been with every since he set foot on our place. We have had 100% of the cows bred every year so far. I haven't ever seen him act like this before, granted we are only on the farm on the weekend due to our full time jobs to support our farming habit :lol: The cow calved between 5/17/04 and 5/21/04.

Probably by now he's lost interest in her. Sometimes the early heats after calving don't seem to be really conception types of heats. They have the smell but that's about it.

dun