Bull vs. Bull

[preston39]

You're so right. When a cow comes in estrus..get the cameras rolling you can catch some funny antics. A younger bull had accepted dominance by a much larger..domnant one. But...waiting his chance....standing by when the breeding started...he would run up and catch the mounted big guy in the side with a hard sling of the head..knocking the dominant bull off course....then retreat to see what was next...have seen the dominant bull get so worn out that the younger bull ended up breeding the cow. One would think the reverse would happen by the dominant bull...but when your'e defeated...your'e defeated..i guess.

 

[farm girl]

We had a red angus bull and kept a charolais bull calf to be the second herd bull. Things were fine until he was big enough to breed then they started fighting. It was a very evenly matched fight. One day one would win, the next the other would. After about 2 months of fighting we gave up and sold the charolais. We thought they would quit after a while but they didnt. We didnt want to take the chance of one getting hurt bad. We have about 60 head but the are scattered to calf throughout the year so the one bull is keeping up for now.

 

[stocky]

i have only been able to keep two evenly matched bulls together when they have been together since breeding age. still, they will fight a couple of times per year. normally if the bulls are different sizes the young one gives up after the first fight. the worst thing, though, is to have a big bull on one side of the fence and a small, young, black angus on the other. the young bull will fight the big bull through the fence and they can tear out a half a quarter in a day. once the big bull gets through, the fight is over. as long as the young bull can keep the fence between them, he will continue to fight---terrible on fencing, barbed wire or woven wire

 

[preston39]

I don't like the even matched bulls arrangement...usually they will spar and fight all the time. A temporary truce is the best you can expect...and it all begins again when estrus mom appears in the field.

It is an environment for someone to get hurt/broken foot/leg..torn hoof...dislocated hip.....that's not fun for them or me...and vet bills are not cheap.

 

[CattleAnnie]

Copeman,
Long story short on the # of bulls is that Honey and I used to have 230 cows in our individual herds until financial difficulty due to BSE here in Canada caused us to have to sell back a fair number of cows in order to purchase feed and pay bills.

Hung onto the bulls because it's always better to have some spares (footrot, etc.) than trying to find a decent bull part way through the breeding season. Plus this way we can sell the extra two privately to people that will use them, rather than sending a breeding bull in prime condition to the mart to be turned into balogna. Right now we're using them while they're here.

All the pairs were in the forty acre field because that's where we were feeding them until the grass came enough to push them out onto a few quarter sections of our hayfields (due to drought there's a feed shortage and due to BSE a money shortage to buy more feed, so have to feed the cattle this way till we can turn them out in the community pasture).

We personally haven't had any injured bulls, and our summer grass is shared with several other pasture members who run our individual herds together in the pasture. In my section of the pasture, we've enough grass for allotted 231 cow/calf pairs, even in dry years. Each producer figures on at least one bull per 33 head of cows. The pasture is divided into five seperate large areas, each with a similar allotment. Each section is crossfenced into grazing management units. Ends up being quite a few head, but have yet to here anyone complaining about bulls being crippled due to fighting over cows in heat.

I guess by the sounds of other folks posts that they haven't been as fortunate.

Anyway, off to bed. Early a.m. for this girl.

Take care.

 

[flaboy]

We had a red angus bull and kept a charolais bull calf to be the second herd bull. Things were fine until he was big enough to breed then they started fighting. It was a very evenly matched fight. One day one would win, the next the other would. After about 2 months of fighting we gave up and sold the charolais. We thought they would quit after a while but they didnt. We didnt want to take the chance of one getting hurt bad. We have about 60 head but the are scattered to calf throughout the year so the one bull is keeping up for now.

Aw ha, therein lies the problem (Angus). I have owned several (many) Angus bulls over the years and every single one would rather fight than eat. Lost a couple due to fights.

With that said there is a BIG commercial operation down the road and I see he has pulled his bulls into one small pasture to feed. About ten Angus and about the same number of Charlais and some xbreeds. I never see them fight but then again I only drive by every now and then.

I don't let my Angus run with any other bulls.

 

[TheBullLady]

I agree with CherokeeRuby.. the experience I've had with Brahman bulls is they are the less dominant bull, especially with a continental breed. It doesn't mean one of them can't get hurt, but I don't think they'll fight as readily as two of the same type.

 

[Craig-TX]

We have run bulls together off and on for years. There aren't too many options if you're keeping over 25 cows on one place. I've seen many fights but no injuries that were serious. Like CRR described, the time when they're most liable to get hurt is not necessarily during a fight, it can be when one is tending to business and the other T-bones him from the side. I'm not saying injuries don't happen, just that we haven't had bad problems. I'll also say that we don't run expensive bulls and we get them young. One other thing, if you or your neighbor has a bull who likes to call on cows across the fence, running two on one side can help everybody stay at home.

Craig-TX