Jumping Bull

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Fritz3410

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Jun 22, 2009
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Farmington, IL
Sunday was the big day. We were going to turn our bull (Bob) out with the cows. We moved it back this year for later calves. With roughly 1,000 acres of corn to plant each year, and a few hundred acres of beans behind that, April calves can be a struggle at times. Seems like I can never get off work in time to take care of things so Bill can keep planting and so forth. So, we moved our date out a little bit.
Before we turn him out we like to give him a few shots, lepto, pinkeye, and a vitamin. Bob is a very calm bull, very easy to work with for the most part. We currently do not have a good corral set up, so we have been using one of our open front sheds to act as a corral.
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Not a very good picture, but you get the idea, the alley and chute are on one side, and if need be, we can swing the gates inward forcing them up the chute.
We had no problem walking Bob right into the corral, but for some reason today he did not want to go right in the chute like normal. So Bill was in with him, ready to very calmly urge him into the alley. Bob had other ideas. He walked up to one of the windows, looked out, and jumped.
DSCF4703-1.jpg

The window is closed in this picture, but the 3x5 piece of wood slides open and lets a nice breeze blow through. For whatever reason, Bob just jumped, and made it through with ease. No scraps, no scratches, nothing. Landed fine on the other side, even though it drops off a good foot from the inside of the shed, calmly walked over to the shed in that lot and stood there. Bill and I looked at each other and laughed. We have been working cows, calves, bulls, everything in this set up with the window open all year. Never had one even look at the window. So we went over, closed the window, and walked Bob back in. He was calm as could be, checked the window again, and seeing it closed this time, walked into the chute like a good Bull should do. We gave him his shots, and sent him on his way.
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So, the lesson learned here is, never leave a window open, even if they do not pay attention to it, just to be safe, keep it closed. We really got off lucky I think. He could have really cut his belly or even worse his working tools. We laughed because we didn't know what else to do, but really a sigh of releif, another lesson learned, and job complete.
Fritz
 
Looks like Bob the bull learned a lesson too...and not good one. Hope he doesn't apply what he's learned to other situations like jumping fences. Maybe you will have better luck keeping him home than I've ever had with a bull that learns he can jump out/over. ;-)
 
We have sliding windows like that in our barn too, but they're about 2'X2'. One afternoon we were trying to ship a huge crazy cull cow about 1800 lbs. She wanted to go anywhere but the trailer and had crashed a couple of wood fences already. She ran in the barn, took one look at that itty bitty window and sat back on her heals and started to lift her front feet. We backed off her real good and thank heaven she didn't jump through the side of our barn. We called it a day and counted our blessings that no people or property were hurt. Called the butcher and had her dispatched on-site. Donated her meat. Cull cow prices were high at the time and she woulda brought a pretty penny at the sale. We made the right choice though. And now those barn windows are always closed when we work cattle there.
 
Great story/ replies. But I think we are missing the important question here;.....do I see gutters and downspouts on your cow shed???
 
My Dad had gutters on the cow shed. Went into a large tank for water. The pump was slow, so when it rained less pumping. :cowboy:
 

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