Pinning a young bull

[jallen]

I finally got my pen finished today and put my 11 month old bull in it. I'm planning on keeping him in it for a couple months and continuing to feed him. He is not liking it one bit and is pacing, anxious and riled up etc. He has been very calm and easy to feed to date. I've been luring him into a makeshift pen every day and letting him out when he is done eating. He is a bit submissive towards the other cows as well. I had him fed and needed to get his feed pail today, the first day alone in the pen. No trough in there yet and I have to keep the feed more towards the center of the pen or the cows start trying to get to it. Knowing he is on edge I have an axe handle with me. He tries to bust out the gate a few times when he sees me open it. I get him backed up without much problem. Go in and grab the pail and he is walking at me pretty fast. Not charging trying to mow me over but he was coming to get too close for comfort. I drill him with the axe handle on top of his head until he is backed off. That changes his tune big time while I was in there. I hung around in there with him for a bit while he was calmed down. I think he learned a lesson anyway. I exit the pen and he is trotting from corner to corner as before.

My question is this: this bull has been as cool as a cucumber to date. I'm worried putting him under this stress is going to bring out a wild side in him. I know from my experience with dogs that it's much better to prevent a problem in their behavior than to solve one. The best was to make a quiet dog a barker is to put him in a kennel with barking dogs. I feel like I'm dealing with the same principle hear with pinning this bull. Any advice?

 

[dun]

Give him a companion

 

[jallen]

Thanks dun, that's probably the only option.