Holstein Bull Pet??

[Horticattleman]

When I read the thread heading, I laughed and thought it was a joke. An oxy moron. The more I read, the more concerned I got.

As nice as I can possibly be, I still feel its only fair that you know I think this is a trainwreck, no an utter disaster, waiting to happen. IF you are going to make these holstien bulls "pets" definitely castrate and dehorn as soon as possible. Believe me sugar with the uphill climb you have, you need all the help you can get.

If you plan on "taking this venture" please don't involve your nephew or anybody innocent for that matter. Don't get him killed in the name of ignorance or stupidity.

 

[Lammie]

He won't be so cute when he's 2000lbs+ and 6' tall. Dairy bulls are some of the meanest out there... and the more you try to make them into pets the more dangerous they are.

Maybe he should research the links folks have put on these boards about bulls that kill folks.

 

[kscowboy]

i raise some holsteins for beef and have about a dozen that were bottle babies which are now about 1100 lbs , they aren't cute anymore and can knock me into next tuesday by complete accident , their frigging huge , not pets anymore , not real cute anymore though still playful , and even though castrated , they are very mean towards anything small that gets in their way. They have tried to ground and gore some small calves over getting too close to their feed. cut em , feed em , and butcher them.

 

[backhoeboogie]

for lack of a better word that will count for our ag exemption and would enjoy the beautiful land we have.

Why not make a few nickels while you're at it?

 

[TheBullLady]

For the sake of stirring the pot, I have a pet steer. He's fifteen years old, horned and a fullblood Brahman. He has never tried to kill me, gouge me or tear my heart out. He's a big baby, he lets me lay on him and scratch his belly, and years ago he stood between me and an incredibly mean Brahman cow when I wasn't paying attention. Scoff all you want.. I've heard it all from people on this board over the years. Hasn't changed the fact that I doubt seriously he's going to kill me at this point.

Now just because I have had a good experience doesn't mean you necessarily will. I've also heard that Holstein bulls are the worse, but you have to remember they will react to how they are treated. And I will also tell you that cattle generally do not like small children, as they move fast and make a lot of noise which tends to make them go into flight mode. Taz tolerated them for years, but as he's gotten older he doesn't care for them to be around him unless I'm with them. It's been pretty easy over the years to "read" him.. there are times he doesn't want to be bothered, so I don't. They are large animals and can step on you and crack you with their heads without meaning to, so obviously you have to be careful.

Good luck and please be careful. If the Holsteins start getting ornery, do the right thing and get rid of them before someone gets hurt.

 

[hillrancher]

Any animal that is not afraid of you and is too big to take down and sit on it can kill you.

 

[CattleHand]

I know nothing of holsteins but I'd say no matter how gentle a bull is they can hurt you. We feed about 60 head down in the timber pasture and one bull is pretty gentle. I dont like him for that reason. He has no fear (or respect) for you and if you are feeding he will be right there frist to eat. I always watch my back in case he figures I'm slowing him down from some feed that is rightfully his.

But if everyone's posts about this idea isnt detoering you I'd at least castrate them, ahve fun raising them and sell them when they are ready to go to a feed lot and consider yourself done. Or get some nice cows to milk and make a hobby that way.

 

[msscamp]

Hello, I just stumbled upon this sight while trying to research Holstein Bulls as pets. There seem to be some very informed folks here so maybe I can get good advice. I have 2 bottle-fed Holstein bulls. They were born Jan 14, 08. One is a beautiful specimen and one is a, let's say, runt but adorable. I will be de-horning both but was only thinking of castrating the small one. Both are pets that get (hope I don't embarrass myself here) hugged and kissed daily and are use to being handled daily. I read horrible things about Holstein bulls being killers - right now I can't imagine my boys would ever behave that way. Call me naive - I can take it! If this is true, will castrating help at all or am I fooling myself in keeping them as pets at all? Thank you for any help I can get!

Nicky & Grissom Holstein's Mom

Ok, lets look at this from an objective standpoint - he outweighs you by anywhere from several hundred pounds to a 1000 lbs or more (depending on his age), his sole purpose is to protect his herd and breed them, he can kill or seriously maime without even trying (or knowing he did it, for that matter), and the bottle feeding/daily handling has removed any natural fear of humans. He now looks at you as part of his herd, or a playtoy (depending on how you have handled him). Sounds like the perfect pet to me, especially with children around! :roll: A little common sense, please!

 

[Ryder]

Female friend of mine had a very nice young Beefmaster bull. Practically a pet.
One day when he was behind her, he knocked her down and hurt her when he decided to breed her. Think about it.

 

[grannysoo]

You're either very bold or very naive. Trust and Bull should NEVER go together in the same sentence, much less in real life....

 

[pdfangus]

By all means have them castrated. the sooner the better. If they are still on a bottle they can easily be banded.
This will alleviate the meanenss and agression problems.
They still have the potential to grow to be huge animals. That being said folks deal with huge animals every day. People ride 16 hand horses every day.

It sounds as if you are very inexperienced with cattle so I also woudl recommend dehorning as soon as possible. this is a simple procedure on calves and a local dairy farmer should be able to assist you. Animals with horns soon learn that the horns are useful and they put them to use to their advantage. If you do not know how to deal with this it can be deadly. A ton of steer that does not respect you is deadly anyway but the same animal with horns is like a terrorist in your yard.

You can have your animals gentled and you can handle them but they must respect you as the boss. As has been suggested get some halters and teach them to stand quietly tied now and tie them regularly and often throughout their early lives. They need to be broke to lead and in so doing learn that the humans get to call the shots. They can be made pets just as a horse can be made a pet but they must repect the humans space.

Adding females will be of no benefit in handling.

I would go to the rural heritage web site and do some reading about handling oxen. If they are to be permanent residents then they should have a purpose and they can be useful, fucntional, recreational, educational and entertaining.

We have an ex dairy farmer around here who makes a living out of going to events to demonstrate his ox teams and giving ox cart rides.

 

[arkcowman]

Its a percentage matter of probability and risk. As stated before, if docile calm cattle can
accidentally cause you great injury or harm. Now when you start mixing in cattle with a
known aggressive nature and greater size along with someone who has limited experience
working cattle you SUBSTANTIALLY increase the prbability and risk of being injured or killed.
Why do that ?

I have very docile angus cattle and a few times over the years have recieved minor injuries
from accidental incidents. They were intendeding to hurt me but my pain and injury was just
as real. Now any bull can at any time simply decide he wants to raise some ruckus.

The responsible thing to do for the safety of the animal and ourselves is to (1) raise the right
type cattle for the proper reasons, (2) have the proper handling facilities, (3) obtain the proper
training and experience to work cattle safely, (4) and I also very much appreciate having some
good luck !

 

[texast]

As much as I don't want this to be a truth BULLS ARE NOT PETS!!!There are several threads on here telling of bulls that were pets hurting their owners. thats good you have 2 of them together they are herd animals.
As they get older they get larger and that goes back to all that has been mention on here.Good luck with all you do with the animals but naw don't play with them as you would a dog.

 

[CattleHand]

Okay here is a good one for why bulls are not good pets. We have a bull in the lot and he decided he didn't want to be in there. He was docile and not aggressive (though he wasnt a pet he spent his time in the pasture). All he did was put his head under the Iron gates that were chained together and hooked to wood posts. He just raised them up and walked on under. A dog couldnt do that : ) If you don't know too much about cattle I'd stay away from this venture. It also wont be cheap on you.

In india people own elephants. I'd never expect to raise one unless i had a death wish.

 

[Westabbey]

Ok, today is a new day and we have had time to reflect on everyone's expertise (which we are very grateful for) and have decided to keep the bulls. We will be de-horning and castrating in May (earliest appt we could get). We will begin haltering and lead training today. So here are my new questions: They currently sleep in the same barn as my 5 goats and the two calves eat out of the same trough and beside the goat trough. Do I need to better define an area that is their's and feed them in separte buckets? They are currently almost 4 months old.
At the end of May we are getting 15 laying hens that will be housed in a coop next to the barn. They will be partly free range hens. Do I need to keep the steers away from the chickens or can they co-habitate in the same pasture/barn area?
I really do appreciate all the help and very candid advice everyone is giving - this is a very helpful site!

Thank you

 

[bigbull338]

calves an chickens will be fine togather.just dont allow the calves into the henhouse.because they would tear it up inside.the chickens will scratch up the manure real good.

 

[circlet]

although i'm a day late on the holstein bulls for pets discussion, i'm still going to add my nickel's worth (used to be two cents but inflation has hit us hard )

although you said you've made up your mind, i'd suggest getting rid of the boys - castrated or not - and buying some mini herefords. they'll eat less, are less dangerous and if you're going for the cute factor they win that catagory in my opinion.

my guess is if you feed the goats with the (big) cattle, the cattle will push them around and try to bully them but the goats won't pay them any mind! lol as a side note, don't trust those goats either, some of them like to ram you! (several experiences taunting goats when i was a kid)

regarding the chickens, i don't know what your definition of "free range" is going to be, but if they'll be out wandering, expect lots of raids from everything from dogs to coyotes to whatever you have in your part of the country. not lecturing or trying to be a downer, but you might consider a nice chicken house with a fenced in coop around it. watch for spots around the house where something has been digging, we used to have varmints come and dig, but most of the time it seemed they never got in first try, and we'd notice where they'd try to get in and be able to trap them the next night.

 

[iowafarmer]

I know im late with the discussion. I would sell the holstien calves and get some miniature cattle like circlet suggested. Those holstien steers will eat you out of house and home and won't produce any income to help pay for themselves. The only thing they are good for is meat in the freezer. When they reach 1200lbs they will be eating somewhere around 20lbs of corn a day on full feed. Corn is at 5.47 lbs a bushel. Im not sure how many lbs. are in a bushel but your feed bill is going to add up so fast it will make your head spin. I would get some registered mini cows and bull and have some sort of income from them. Cattle are not pets and do not realize their size and can casue seriouse bodily injurie to you and your family with out even trying to. Sure they might be friendly when they are on the other side of the fence but when a 1200lb steer wants to play with you or push you out of their way you can seriousley be hurt. Miniature cattle are dangerouse also and have their place but not as pets either. They weigh more than you and still can be dangerous. Hope you realize that cattle aren't pets but can be appreciated and treated right.

 

[Lammie]

although i'm a day late on the holstein bulls for pets discussion, i'm still going to add my nickel's worth (used to be two cents but inflation has hit us hard )

although you said you've made up your mind, i'd suggest getting rid of the boys - castrated or not - and buying some mini herefords. they'll eat less, are less dangerous and if you're going for the cute factor they win that catagory in my opinion.

my guess is if you feed the goats with the (big) cattle, the cattle will push them around and try to bully them but the goats won't pay them any mind! lol as a side note, don't trust those goats either, some of them like to ram you! (several experiences taunting goats when i was a kid)

regarding the chickens, i don't know what your definition of "free range" is going to be, but if they'll be out wandering, expect lots of raids from everything from dogs to coyotes to whatever you have in your part of the country. not lecturing or trying to be a downer, but you might consider a nice chicken house with a fenced in coop around it. watch for spots around the house where something has been digging, we used to have varmints come and dig, but most of the time it seemed they never got in first try, and we'd notice where they'd try to get in and be able to trap them the next night.

Know, too that if you are going to let your chickens roam free they will nest everywhere, including under the bushes by the front door. I had to remove some yesterday and even though I was wearing welder's gloves, mama almost ate my lunch. They poop on the porch. They mess with the garden. They dig up the flowers.

Keep the chickens in a coop.

 

[msscamp]

They currently sleep in the same barn as my 5 goats and the two calves eat out of the same trough and beside the goat trough. Do I need to better define an area that is their's and feed them in separte buckets? They are currently almost 4 months old.

Yes. Your goats cannot compete with these calves for food.

At the end of May we are getting 15 laying hens that will be housed in a coop next to the barn. They will be partly free range hens. Do I need to keep the steers away from the chickens or can they co-habitate in the same pasture/barn area?

I would not allow my steers to co-habitate due to the animal protein in chicken litter. It is a potential source for BSE.

I really do appreciate all the help and very candid advice everyone is giving - this is a very helpful site!

Thank you