I I thought it was calves stealing milk

[AdamsCreek]

I've been weaning this girls calf for 60 days and couldn't figure out why she wouldn't dry up. I just assumed she was letting the new calves steal off her. Today I caught my bull red handed. Anybody ever deal with this? My first thought was get rid of her but I hate to sell a good bred cow. I'd like to get some opinions about what to do if you got any.

 

[Nesikep]

I'd get rid of the bull... he's going to try it on other cows, and if he's persistent enough he'll succeed again..

Maybe a nose ring or weaning flap would work.. but if he's "on duty", I don't know how the weaning flap and his "inspections" will work

 

[Son of Butch]

I'd get rid of the bull... he's going to try it on other cows, and if he's persistent enough he'll succeed again..

Maybe a nose ring or weaning flap would work.. but if he's "on duty", I don't know how the weaning flap and his "inspections" will work

Yep, not her fault. Get them separated for now while you decide what to do. But he will be a repeat offender.

 

[AdamsCreek]

I only own half of him. When I'm sure he's done his job I'm gonna send him back to his other owner. My problem is if she's letting him steal who else is getting milk that ain't supposed to?

 

[Till-Hill]

I blamed a couple cows one summer. Brought him home for fall cows and I sat in the lot with a baseball bat for hours each day trying to "fix" my bull. If I was you I'd do the partner in him a favor to and haul him to market asap and find a new bull. To many good bulls in the world to put up with that.

 

[Muddy]

I would just send him back to his owner and not use him again or drop him off at a slaughter. I won't sell the cow....Not her fault.

 

[farmerjan]

I wouldn't sell the cow either. He shouldn't be doing it....No Excuses. He'd be out of my field and gone somewhere, and I 'd have a new/different bull in there yesterday.
The cow might have been letting another calf nurse and helped one get more size on it...Keeping a cow that is accommodating like that is a plus, not a bad thing.

 

[TCRanch]

When we first started our cow/calf operation we had a bull that would "rob" off one of our cows - she was the only one that let him. We also ended up with an "oops!" bred heifer. Since then we pull the bulls 4 - 6 weeks prior to weaning (and all heifer calves get a shot of Lute) and don't put them back with the herd until all the cows have dried up. Had that bull 5 years & still have the cow. BTW never saw that bull try to nurse while the cows still had the calves on them.

 

[Nesikep]

While I'd rather the cow not let anything other than her calf nurse.. it does come in handy sometimes... I've had a few that were very generous, they had lots of milk, so if their calf doesn't get ALL the milk, they probably really don't suffer at all from it, while the one that needs more milk probably gets a good little boost

 

[Son of Butch]

If I was you I'd do the partner a favor and haul him to market asap and find a new bull.

I sure wouldn't want you as a partner. Making decisions without consulting him and not even knowing how much money
is tied up in the bull or by who and the what the added replacement expense will be.

Do yourself a favor and talk with the partner first and agree on a plan before shipping him.
Otherwise you may create much bigger problems than a sucking bull.

 

[AdamsCreek]

If I was you I'd do the partner a favor and haul him to market asap and find a new bull.

I sure wouldn't want you as a partner. Making decisions without consulting him and not even knowing how much money
is tied up in the bull or by who and the what the added replacement expense will be.

Do yourself a favor and talk with the partner first and agree on a plan before shipping him.
Otherwise you may create much bigger problems than a sucking bull.

I hear you Butch. I'd pretty much figured on selling him before this happened just because I'm tired of feeding him. Been meaning to get with the partner and figure out if he's gonna buy my half or we're gonna peddle him and split the check. I'm gonna have to replace him or start leasing one from one of the neighbors. I do know for sure my days and headaches of splitting ownership are over.

 

[farmerjan]

Butch is right, I wouldn't do anything without a consult, but in the same vein, the bull would be going somewhere, so that you are not dealing with the milk stealing. If you don't have alot of cows, is leasing an option? There are pitfalls with that too, but may be a better way to go. Can you find the genetics you want? Are you trying to calve in a certain "window" of time? All those things will come into play...and maybe you will be able to get a bull to get the cows bred for when you want the calves...and not have to feed him but for 90 days or so.

 

[AdamsCreek]

Butch is right, I wouldn't do anything without a consult, but in the same vein, the bull would be going somewhere, so that you are not dealing with the milk stealing. If you don't have alot of cows, is leasing an option? There are pitfalls with that too, but may be a better way to go. Can you find the genetics you want? Are you trying to calve in a certain "window" of time? All those things will come into play...and maybe you will be able to get a bull to get the cows bred for when you want the calves...and not have to feed him but for 90 days or so.

My little 40 acre place will only hold 5 pairs and a bull so I'm kicking around the idea of running a bull 45 or 60 days out of the year and running a 6th or,if it will ever rain here again, 7th pair. I figure leasing one from a neighbor is the best idea. I got one on the other side of the fence, one on the other side of the creek and one more within a quarter mile of me. Got a pretty good relationship with two of them so I figure leasing one of them would be pretty easy. If that don't work out, mostly because i dont know if i can get one in the time window i want, i figure I could buy one and run him 60 days and sell him. my only problem there is I don't know if I can come out money ahead on that idea.

 

[dun]

I caught our bull doing it once back years ago. I loaded his butt with birdshot while he was doing it and never saw him try it again

 

[BRYANT]

I caught our bull doing it once back years ago. I loaded his butt with birdshot while he was doing it and never saw him try it again

That sure makes for a lot of extra work for the meat packer that buys him. I have seen them so bad with buck shot that the federal inspector made us throw the whole bull in the gut wagon, was a big waste of money. I never buck shoot them if they get on my nerves that bad I'm gone shoot them with my .270 or sell them and as soon as I think about what they are worth I sell them rather than shoot.

 

[Nesikep]

I caught our bull doing it once back years ago. I loaded his butt with birdshot while he was doing it and never saw him try it again

We had a cow that was always breaking fences... my dad shot her ear with the .22.. didn't learn anything from it though

 

[dun]

I caught our bull doing it once back years ago. I loaded his butt with birdshot while he was doing it and never saw him try it again

That sure makes for a lot of extra work for the meat packer that buys him. I have seen them so bad with buck shot that the federal inspector made us throw the whole bull in the gut wagon, was a big waste of money. I never buck shoot them if they get on my nerves that bad I'm gone shoot them with my .270 or sell them and as soon as I think about what they are worth I sell them rather than shoot.

Huge difference between buck and birdshot

 

[Stocker Steve]

A guy talked me into buying his heaviest weaning bull calf for a herd sire. Turned out he was an aggressive milk thief.

 

[SIMMGAL]

I'd get rid of the bull... he's going to try it on other cows, and if he's persistent enough he'll succeed again..

Maybe a nose ring or weaning flap would work.. but if he's "on duty", I don't know how the weaning flap and his "inspections" will work

Yep, not her fault. Get them separated for now while you decide what to do. But he will be a repeat offender.

Ouch. And ditto! He's the culprit!

 

[BRYANT]

Huge difference between buck and birdshot

no dun I did not mean buck shot like you would kill a deer with I mean bird shot like you shoot a bird with. I called it wrong, if it was buck shot it would not be as hard to remove, if it did not kill him.
Shooting them then selling them is a bad idea if you BIRD shoot them when you are ready to sell them take them out back and kill them and feed them to the coyotes !!!
when they have bird shoot in them and they are butchered you have to remove it. Any missed will go through the grinder and into the hamburger then ol miss sue happy bites down on one and it breaks her tooth and next thing you know the packer is in court getting sued. Its not a good deal and with the way they can track them back to where they came from today I don't that the person that shot the bull may not get in trouble also.