bull leg structure

[alexfarms]

Here's an article on proper bull structure:

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/l ... -soundness
(If we all rode horses everyday, this is stuff we wouldn't forget!)

Here are a few excerpts:

Walk

Look for a free-moving gait, with the hind feet stepping into the footprints of the front feet (see Figure 6 right). Overstepping or understepping are indications of structural problems, as are uneven footprints from the claws.

"Straightness in the hind leg can be seen in the hock and pastern joints, and this indicates straightness in the stifle and hip. These cattle will wear the front of the claws, resulting in short upright hooves.

Straight-legged bulls are also much less athletic than the sound bull and appear to suffer a higher incidence of broken or damaged penises during serving.

A structurally correct bull, when walking, will place his hind foot in exactly the mark left by his front foot. If he is lame, or not moving freely, or if he is straight in his leg structure, he will short-step and not reach his mark. Likewise, if he is suffering arthritis in one leg he may tend to short-step or drag his leg on that side. Problems such as these will affect the serving ability of the bull."



"The straight-shouldered bull tends to walk with a short choppy gait. He will carry his head low and may have difficulty raising his head much above his backline. Quite often the tip of the shoulder blade is prominent above his backline.

Usually, a bull that is straight in the shoulder will also be straight in the hind leg. These bulls are particularly prone to early breakdown through the wearing of the leg joints, and the onset of arthritis. While many straight-shouldered bulls will break down in the hind leg, they are also more susceptible to arthritis in the pasterns and knees of the front leg. Straight-shouldered bulls may also be straight in the pasterns, causing rapid wearing of the front of the hooves."

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Nice publication alexfarms. Thanks for posting.

 

[glacierridge]

This was great, thanks for this gem!

 

[JWBrahman]

Thanks for sharing Alexfarms, good to see you posting on CT again.

Straight hocked rear legs usually have a poor fitting of the acetabulum into the femoral head. (hip ball and socket joint) It causes the rear of the animal to sway from side to side as it tries to get full movement through moving the hips instead of the free swinging leg. A lot of the time an overly straight rear leg will pop at the stifle at the point in the stride where the leg is almost at the full rear extension.

Movement is my pet peeve because of the size and shape of my property. Our cattle have to walk several miles a day to cover the place from the front to the back.

 

[Chuckie]

Alex, I have made that very same comment about horses and cattle. If you ever bought a horse with straight legs shoulders and hip and rode him for an hour, you would be looking to unload him quick. At one time or another, we might have been young and dumb, and didn't know about the mechanics of a horse had to learn by experience. I had one, and I couldn't figure out why it rode that way at the ripe age of 12. I thought if I just got it to slow down more it would get smoother. The poor horse couldn't get any slower, as it just didn't have any shock absorbers in it's body. Any movement over a walk would have removed dentures if you had them. She was a pretty mare, easy to over look the shoulder and hip; and when I sold her, the people were glad to get her. Me? :wave:

It is amazing how much of horse mechanics that can be used in cattle mechanics. Of course there are many differences.
How a bull walks is one of my biggest pet peeves, and it is almost impossible for me to find the perfect bull. But I have found the very longer bulls that are not the larger framed bulls, can't step in their front foot print.

It is very difficult to find a bull with the perfect set on his back legs, as many have a very slight bit of sickle hock, but not to a fault.
In some of the videos at the sales, I found out that when the bulls are taking shorter steps, it is from having trimmed the bulls short, and their feet hurt, and their toes are very sensitive, and they don't want to put any pressure on the toes.
I took a couple of cows to have their feet trimmed. As the man was trimming, the blood started running. I was concerned that he had her foot bleeding so badly like that. He squirted iodine all over it, and let her down. Then when they got home, their feet were really sore. It took a couple of months for her feet to return to normal. She was not limping before she went for the trim. She took very short steps like the bulls. She wasn't limping, just wouldn't put pressure on her toes.

So when we are seeing the short steps these sale animals are taking; are we seeing structure damage or are their feet hurting? That is just something we have to figure out. I guess go to the barn manager and find out when the bull was trimmed.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Why in the world did he trim the cow's hoofs so close?

 

[gizmom]

Great article, I think this is one I want to print and save for sure.

Thanks for sharing


Gizmom

 

[Beef Man]

Why in the world did he trim the cow's hoofs so close?

The foot trimer obvious'ly did'nt know any better. Long ago when we were led to beleive that all young bulls needed their feet trimed before they were sold , there were at least in this country travelling foot trimers, one of them a old herdsman always had a turpentine can and small paint brush before you set the animal down you painted the foot generous'ly and he claimed that it toughened or some how hardend the hoof. One of our young trainees,years ago, traveled with the inventor of a neat triming table all over Wi and Minn as a kid triming dairy cows. Still does that as his liveing and does well at it.

 

[Chuckie]

This was an experienced cow man with a large commercial facility where bulls are housed. Maybe his hoof trimmer walked out on him the day before or something. I wonder why he butchered their feet up so bad? That was the first time I had a cow trimmed, but I was shocked that they needed to be cut so close. I was not going to show them. Every foot bled on each cow. I should have asked here on the forum after it was done.
He used a hand grinder to do this.

I saw the article in the Angus Journal where the man uses a chisel and to trim the feet. It was pretty interesting to read. It looked really natural where as my cattle's feet looked pretty short.