Not if but when

[SBMF 2015]

I have always said that with the number of cattle I handle each year it's not a matter of if I get hurt, it's when and how bad.
Well this morning was about as close as I've been in a long time to what could have been a really bad wreck.

Our vet is a little over an hour away. So once a year I turn my place into a stockyard for the neighbors and we all get our bulls BSE done. A couple neighbors bring cows to preg check. This morning we did 9 bulls and 60 cows for five neighbors.
It was bull number 6 that I had a run in with. He's a mature 3-4 year old angus that I would guess is around that 2,000 lbs.
He came in with a group of cows. We didn't want to switch back and forth between bse's and ultrasound so we sorted the Bull away from his cows. Ran him through the chute ( he passed his BSE) and turned him out in a mud lot / holding pen. I went to put him away and he had had enough. I thought he was just turning. He did and took about three quick steps towards me. I carry a heavy 5' x 5/8" sorting stick. I cracked him as hard as I could swing. It turned his head but didn't slow him down. I sidestepped. He hit me in the right hip and threw me onto the block wall. He kept going by, circled the pen and found the exit. I scrambled and fallowed him to his pen.

He sent my glasses flying, and twisted my left knee in the mud.
My knee is sore, my hip is sore but it's all along way from my heart.
It was a good reminder how fast things can change while working cattle.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

our cattle are not pets and we are cautious around them. in fact I like them a little rank so they don't end up in a trailer from the questionable neighborhood to the southwest of this place if you know what I mean. if you are gonna steal from me you need to be a hand and work for that beef.

anyway, just bought a couple new young bulls and it was kind of funny how I hesitated to get in a pen with them at first. they are pretty gentle and can even be touched but the instinct around here is hug a fence you can climb or don't go in unless you really know them. and of course any intact male of any species warrants even more caution.

 

[coachg]

Always watchful but it doesn't take but a second to get hurt . Son had borrowed a mature bull . Well the guy asked if he could bring a yearling Hereford bull he wanted to keep . So of course to get the mature bull my son said yes . A year later we caught the mature bull and carried him home . A couple of weeks later we decided the Hereford needed to go . Sucker didn't weigh 8-900 lbs . We caught him late one afternoon and left him in the lot to the next morning. Backed the trailer up and I went in the lot to run him in the lane to load . Didn't have a stick or anything because he had always been pretty cool . Next thing I know here he comes. I couldn't react fast enough to get out of his way . He sent me flying in the air . I hit the ground and climbed the fence . Then he went after my man that helps me on the farm . He got a couple of head butts to the seat of his pants before he climbed the fence . Sucker then ran and jumped on the trailer with a grin on his face . Called the owner and told him I'd be glad to haul him to the sale barn . He said no , put him in the pasture . Never again !

 

[Spot & Bubby]

and of course any intact male of any species warrants even more caution.

 

[wbvs58]

Thanks for posting these stories, doesn't hurt to get a bit of a reminder now and then. Glad no one was seriously hurt.

Ken

 

[SmokinM]

of course any intact male of any species warrants even more caution.

A 750#ish heifer will scramble your eggs 20-1 over a bull. For that matter the only serious attempts on my life from humans came from women too. Just saying.

 

[SBMF 2015]

A 750#ish heifer will scramble your eggs 20-1 over a bull.

Yep. Used to load pots of mrkt bulls at the sale barn. They would fight and shove and knock you around if you were in the wrong place. But you were just collateral damage. They weren't out to get you.
I've been chased by lots of fats and cows that were like heat seeking missiles.

 

[Dave]

Worse hooking I ever got was from a 550 lb Charolais steer. Working at the sale barn 50+ years ago. I had my back turned. Sneak attack from the rear. On concrete covered with fresh manure. He knocked me down and set camp on my back. I couldn't get up and he wasn't leaving. Seemed like it took for ever for help to arrive.

 

[Spot & Bubby]

There's a gentle bull on the ranch who likes to have his neck scratched. He approaches directly and with his head down, which looks aggressive as hell. Intimidates me every time. But he's sweet.

 

[SBMF 2015]

There's a gentle bull on the ranch who likes to have his neck scratched. He approaches directly and with his head down, which looks aggressive as hell. Intimidates me every time. But he's sweet.

The first bull that I put a ring in his nose, wasn't that he was aggressive. You couldn't keep his head out of the bucket when you were feeding cows. 30 lbs of corn and 2,000lbs of bull are a lot to carry across a pasture.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I have plenty of friendly cows and bulls but at the end of the day they are animals and I don't trust them. As I've said before I don't fully trust any animal, never know when your dog or house cat may turn on you.

 

[Warren Allison]

I have always said that with the number of cattle I handle each year it's not a matter of if I get hurt, it's when and how bad.
Well this morning was about as close as I've been in a long time to what could have been a really bad wreck.

Our vet is a little over an hour away. So once a year I turn my place into a stockyard for the neighbors and we all get our bulls BSE done. A couple neighbors bring cows to preg check. This morning we did 9 bulls and 60 cows for five neighbors.
It was bull number 6 that I had a run in with. He's a mature 3-4 year old angus that I would guess is around that 2,000 lbs.
He came in with a group of cows. We didn't want to switch back and forth between bse's and ultrasound so we sorted the Bull away from his cows. Ran him through the chute ( he passed his BSE) and turned him out in a mud lot / holding pen. I went to put him away and he had had enough. I thought he was just turning. He did and took about three quick steps towards me. I carry a heavy 5' x 5/8" sorting stick. I cracked him as hard as I could swing. It turned his head but didn't slow him down. I sidestepped. He hit me in the right hip and threw me onto the block wall. He kept going by, circled the pen and found the exit. I scrambled and fallowed him to his pen.

He sent my glasses flying, and twisted my left knee in the mud.
My knee is sore, my hip is sore but it's all along way from my heart.
It was a good reminder how fast things can change while working cattle.

Glad you didn't get hurt any worse than you did. This is why I never fool with cattle on foot. I even take my horse with me when I go to someone's place to look at cattle for sale. Excpet maybe in the case of a momma with a brand new calf, most times they aren't really trying to kill you...they are just wanting to get by you or away from you. But even a 300-400lb calf id twice your weight, with twice the strength and double the amount of legs that you have!

 

[SBMF 2015]

Glad you didn't get hurt any worse than you did. This is why I never fool with cattle on foot. I even take my horse with me when I go to someone's place to look at cattle for sale. Excpet maybe in the case of a momma with a brand new calf, most times they aren't really trying to kill you...they are just wanting to get by you or away from you. But even a 300-400lb calf id twice your weight, with twice the strength and double the amount of legs that you have!

They can all really hurt you.
A horse would be great but they don't fit in the kind of environment that I work cattle in most of the time. The holding lot after my chute is mud/dirt. Everything else is concrete yards. Small pens and low bow gates or barn roofs.
And on top of that 98% of cattle here have never seen a horse let alone been pushed or sorted with one.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

A horse can hurt or kill you just as fast as a cow.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

The first bull that I put a ring in his nose, wasn't that he was aggressive. You couldn't keep his head out of the bucket when you were feeding cows. 30 lbs of corn and 2,000lbs of bull are a lot to carry across a pasture.

yeah, thinking on it sometimes gentle cattle can be more "dangerous" than the wild ones

 

[Brute 23]

A horse can hurt or kill you just as fast as a cow.

A horse landing on top you will definitely help the situation.

 

[Brute 23]

Glad it wasn't worse.

Separating bulls is always dicey and then adding mud to it doesn't help.

I know most people will say... we couldn't ever work cows if we waiting for no mud... but I quit that deal a few years back. It never use to matter but I had a bull slide and almost take me out. It scared both of us, I think, so I just said no more, not worth it.

 

[SBMF 2015]

yeah, thinking on it sometimes gentle cattle can be more "dangerous" than the wild ones

ABSOLUTELY!

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

A horse landing on top you will definitely help the situation.

Just adding another 1200lb of weigh to a situation.

There isn't real great statistics on human death by horse or cow. But what I could gather from a quick Google search is as a horse rider you have a .01% chance of being killed by a horse, as a cattlemen it's .000027%. That's something like 99% better odds of the horseman being killed by his horse than a cattlemen killed by his cows.

Don't quote those numbers its my quick Google math because I was curious. Ha

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

yeah, thinking on it sometimes gentle cattle can be more "dangerous" than the wild ones

Depends which kind of wild they are. Flight wild? Or fight wild? Ha