No Means No or Does it?

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robertwhite

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What do you do with a bull who won't stop turning a 10ft feed trough over? Rocket scientist has decided that once their grain is gone at feeding time, that it is fun to turn over the feed trough (metal frame with plastic lining type). In doing so, he pushes in the plastic and I have to pop it back out. Eventually it will stress and crack the plastic.

I have caught him doing it and gave him a whack with a sorting stick, but he just backs off and comes back in a few minutes. I can not put a cement feeder in as I need to be able to open/close a gate where the feeder is. I thought about chaining it to the gate, but I fear that it will make it easier to break or crush. Feeder is in the barn as I want to keep both the feeder and the grain dry.

Bull is gonna be a Big Mac if he doesn't cut it out.

Ideas?
 
Unless you bolt it to the ground he'll keep it up. One thing to realize about bulls is they wreck stuff. It is their hobby.

I remember when I was a kid the bulls wrecked a wooden feeder. Dad spent the better part of the afternoon fixing it. Picked up his hammer and as he was walking out of the pen he heard a loud crack. Bull was sitting on the splintered remains. End of bunk.
 
Bulls breaking stuff up is llike "why do dogs chase cars?" It's their nature!
 
Might try showing him the barn door when he gets finished eating. He might develop the habit of leaving after his feed in a week or two.
 
Angus Cowman":3j79fiz7 said:
those are aboutthe worst and cheapest made feeders there is get a concrete feeder and it will last forever and he will be less inclined to turn it over


They do serve a purpose and are easier to move. I have a few in a small pasture I feed calves out of, move em every few days to keep the mud pits down and the grass in good shape.
 
All bulls are also different. If that bull has picked this as a hobby, it's probably time to move on. I had a bull that would push the round bale feeders around the frozen pasture like he was playing hockey - another would push over water tanks as fast as I could fill them up - but I've had some that simply leave things be too.
 
angus9259":1qxl2xbc said:
All bulls are also different. If that bull has picked this as a hobby, it's probably time to move on. I had a bull that would push the round bale feeders around the frozen pasture like he was playing hockey - another would push over water tanks as fast as I could fill them up - but I've had some that simply leave things be too.
When we have just one bull and a steer in the area the feeders and everything are left alone. Add a second bull and everything becomes a toy, including the steer
 
Angus Cowman":1rv58dpm said:
those are aboutthe worst and cheapest made feeders there is get a concrete feeder and it will last forever and he will be less inclined to turn it over

Thanks, but as I stated in the original post, I can not use a cement feeder in this location.
 
Chain it to posts on each end?? I don't know.

The bull we have now thinks that anything in the fields and pastures that isn't "bolted" down is there for his head-butting pleasure. We have one of those solid type troughs, he bunts that thing all over the place. He 'roots' holes and rubs in them, he beats on electric poles, knocks over young cedars, its just his way. He won't bother people though. The bull we had before this one never did any of these shenannigans. They're all different. Some like to wreck stuff and others don't.

Katherine
 

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