Pulling Bulls

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randiliana

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It is that time of year again. The bulls have been out long enough, actually, they have been out longer than we normally leave them, but we've just been too busy to bring them in. Last night we went to bring the first of them home. Took our daughter (7 years old) with us, as we weren't expecting any problems. Just ride out, gather the cows and bull and bring them to the corral. She is up to that sort of riding.

Found the cows, they were about 1/2 mile south of the yard and corrals. All the cows were there, but........no bull.

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Now, where could he be??

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Ah, he must have went this way, no girls, you can't come with us.
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At this point, I had to take my daughter back to the yard. Those are some pretty big hills we would have to scale, and in a fairly big hurry, as the sun was starting to go down. So, DH went ahead, with his horse and the dogs, and I went back, with J. She did well, trotted back the whole 1/2 mile. The I tied her horse up, sent her to the house to visit with our landlord, sent my camera with her, just in case we had problems, so it wasn't bouncing around on me. Then I headed back out.

Finally spotted DH about 3 huge hills over and worked my way over to him. He still hadn't found the bull. But we soon did over the next hill. He was about a mile west from where our fenceline was. So, we picked him up, and headed him out, kinda heading him NE, toward a gate and the yard. He found a trail, and headed out nicely for us. After a while, the dogs started to get bored, after all there was no action for them, and then it took some convincing to keep them where they should be, beside us and behind mr Bull. Not that much was bothering him, he just kept trucking along. Was nice cause our horses aren't in any sort of shape, except round, and we'd already covered quite a bit of ground with them. He headed straight for the gate, no fussing at all. Got it open and headed him down the road to the yard. Then mentioned to DH, half joking, that I wondered if we just might be able to load him into the trailer where it was sitting in the middle of the yard. Just where we had unloaded the horses, with the door wide open (which is unusual for us, we usually shut it). Well, darn if he didn't head straight for that trailer, round the door and jump on!!! I think we need to buy a lottery ticket :nod: . All in all, we covered about 2 miles trailing that bull from where we found him back to the yard. It was almost dark when we got back.

The most trouble we had was loading the horses. Had to put one of them in the front with the bull (don't worry, he's polled). Almost lost him doing that, but once we got the middle gate shut, they settled pretty nicely. Then loaded the last 2 horses, they were the most trouble, one went on easy then kept trying to come back while we convinced my horse to get on.

Tonite, we head out for the next 2 bulls, hope they are where they belong!! And then about Aug 10 the bulls in the Community pasture come home.
 
Great story! Don't you wish you had kept the camera now and gotten pics of the self-loading bull? I bet it was a delicate dance getting the horse loaded in the compartment with him, well done.
 
Great story. Sounds like that old bull had his work done, off by himself and ready to go to the next adventure.
 
Yes, it was a pretty interesting thing getting them loaded together. We just put her in through the sliding door, but just about didn't get it closed in time to keep him on!! Closing the middle gate was interesting, but they were pretty good. The horse wasn't impressed, but she can be quite an air head anyways. By then, it was dark enough that I don't think the photos would have worked.

He certainly seemed to think he was done his job, and was off visiting the neighbour ladies.

Well, they are all home now, and I'm sure that there was a little fighting, but I don't know, it was 2 am when we got home this morning with the last 2. Nothing like blowing a tire on a Saturday evening when everyone in the nearest couple towns are gone to a wedding. We waited for 3 hours to get it repaired. DH had the spare for the trailer taken care of before we left, but didn't check on the one for the truck.
 
I don't think I've ever had a bull that wouldn't load into a trailer with it in the middle of a pasture. I either use a bucket of feed or a show stick. Alvin LOVES the show stick, and will follow me anywhere for a belly scratching. Sure beats the heck out of penning them and hot shotting them into a trailer. :banana:
 
Thanks for sharing Randiliana, between the pics and your story I felt like I was there. I am glad all turned out well. :)
 
Well, I'm back, took a week and went to the lake!!

Bulllady, we usually pen them, sort them off the cows and then load. Never have tried to load bulls out in the middle of the pasture before. Never have had to use a hot shot, most bulls load pretty good, they've been on and off trailers at least twice a year. Have had major problems trying to load bulls together though :banana: .

jcarkie, gotta ask you, what is a tree :mrgreen: :mrgreen: never seen such a thing around here :lol:
 
Looked at your photo's again when this got bumped up - LOVE that second one. Beautiful shot. The shadows of the hills, and the horizon looks 50 miles away. Makes you wish you were on a long-legged traveling kind of horse...........
 
MO_cows":2lw445sh said:
Looked at your photo's again when this got bumped up - LOVE that second one. Beautiful shot. The shadows of the hills, and the horizon looks 50 miles away. Makes you wish you were on a long-legged traveling kind of horse...........


Thank you. I kinda like that one too. The horizon very well could be 50 miles away, might be Montana hills in the distance. I was on that long legged horse, just that he's a little too fat to want to do a lot of travelling ;-) :nod:
 
Son and I are going to pull our bulls this next week. Going to bring the whole herd in because those ladies sure keep them boys calm.
Have a couple of bull calves that we couldn't band this spring, stags, so the vet is coming out to take care of that.
Hubby is going to be getting the winter wheat in so he won't be able to help.
 
I luv herfrds":147rcgkc said:
Son and I are going to pull our bulls this next week. Going to bring the whole herd in because those ladies sure keep them boys calm.
Have a couple of bull calves that we couldn't band this spring, stags, so the vet is coming out to take care of that.
Hubby is going to be getting the winter wheat in so he won't be able to help.

Good luck to you. We usually bring the whole herd in to pull bulls too. Saves a lot of grief, out of the herd and into the trailer, they can fight when they get home :nod: We've got a one nutter out there too, but he can keep them til fall, then we will decide what to do with him. Might just take him to the sale barn and take the dock on him as a bull. Yeah, it is that time of year. I just spent my day getting in a sick heifer by myself. DH was busy wrapping up the last of the hay, and now cleaning out our basement, the sewer backed up. Now, just gotta figure out what is wrong with her :???:
 
Randiliana family was all down for mom and dads 50th . The ones from Val Marie said they were at 25% of what they had last year. SHE said "I don't know what you guys are complaining about up here? It still looks better than we do on a good year." :roll:

You pasture looks really good as well as your cattle, you must have gotten all those showers that passed through.

ILH you have to take pics too. ;-)

My bulls are pulled and by my house, they are making a one way trip to the sale barn soon. I am going to miss Big Gun, he is a great bull and so easy to move around and work with I hope Maximus turns out to be as easy going as him next year.
 
hillsdown":asijedda said:
Randiliana family was all down for mom and dads 50th . The ones from Val Marie said they were at 25% of what they had last year. SHE said "I don't know what you guys are complaining about up here? It still looks better than we do on a good year." :roll:

You pasture looks really good as well as your cattle, you must have gotten all those showers that passed through.

ILH you have to take pics too. ;-)

My bulls are pulled and by my house, they are making a one way trip to the sale barn soon. I am going to miss Big Gun, he is a great bull and so easy to move around and work with I hope Maximus turns out to be as easy going as him next year.

Yes, we have done fairly well for rain this year. Pastures are great, crops are looking good. But the hay crop was pretty low. Too many frosts I think.
 
Sorry HD forgot the camera today. :cry2: :cry2:
Rather glad I did forget it, trying to get the pairs into the corral was a real rodeo. I stole the hubby's 4-wheeler and our son was on his. Between us we got them all in.
Going to have some real fun tomorrow. the vet is coming to cut a couple of stag's we have and de-horn a couple.
Hubby is running a grain truck so he can't do any of this.

Everything but the bulls, a steer and my milk cow are going out tomorrow. Hope I can remember the camera then.
 

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