What to do with Bull

[Stepper]

After reading the post about "bull starting to challange me" I am having to rethink my plan's with my bull.

I have him in a dry lot right next to my heifer's right now. He dont seem agressive or anything like that. He kind of run's up to me when i go in the pen to feed him everyday. Sometime's i will kick at him if he get's closer than i feel comfrontable with. But as soon as his feed hit's the feeder he is pretty content. He is a black angus by the way.

Now i am a hobby farmer. I have 9 heifer's that weigh i guess about 700 lb's average weight right now. I am planing on moving them to pasture sometime in April. I am not going to put my bull with them until at least May, perferriably June. I had planned on keeping him where he is until then. But now after hearing about Alan's bull getting agressive by taking his ladie's away from him. I am afraid that might happen to my bull.

My neighbor just bought 11 heifer's that are calfving right now and he does not have a bull at this time. And i think he might let me put my bull with them for a few week's. He has kind of hinted at that. But i really did not want to do that for various reasons. The main reason being from what i have read about a bull getting some type of desease. Any good opinion's or advice as to what i should do would be greatly apprechaited.

 

[MikeC]

I wouldn't loan a bull out if I intended to use him again.

 

[msscamp]

But now after hearing about Alan's bull getting agressive by taking his ladie's away from him. I am afraid that might happen to my bull.

I personally wouldn't worry about it. I imagine Alan's bull getting aggressive has to do with the bull, not the fact that he has been pulled from the ladies. We've got 5 bulls in a pen across the alley from cycling heifer calves and none of them are aggressive, nor were they aggressive when they were removed from the herd post breeding. Might want to consider a stout stick come feeding time to reinforce good manners and proper respect from your bull, though. Just my thoughts.

 

[Stepper]

I have horse's in pen's on both side's of my bull's pen and he seems to be content with them there. I may go ahead and move them as planned and see how he does. I am like MikeC i am not crazy about putting my bull with someone else's cattle. I plan on keeping him for allot of year's to come as long as he does not get aggressive or steril.

 

[cypressfarms]

I would worry more about loaning a bull to someone with cows, not as much with heifers. But I don't think you should be overly worried about the bull. People pull bulls all the time and take them from the cows to have their calves within a certain time frame. There are plenty of big time ranchers over here that pull all the bulls and put them all together in one pasture.
Were you might find trouble, however, is if your bull is close to cows that may be coming in heat. If, for example, an adjacent pasture has cows/heifers that are cycling, then he will definitely try to get to them.

By the way, I put a bull with my horses every summer and fall, the horses kind of keep him in check. They won't take any of the bull stuff, they'll just spin around and pop him.

 

[Stepper]

Thanks cypressfarms,

I had thought about maybe putting a hot wire arround the inside of his pen. These heifer's of my neighbor's are right next to my pasture and pen's. Two of them have already calfved and will probably be coming back in soon. (before i am ready to move my bull) So i dont know what kind of problem i will have with him when that happen's. One of my heifer's came in since i got him. And he tried getting with her. I had to do a little work on his pen to keep him in. But finally over came any problem's that time.

cypressfarm's, I dont know if you got my pm but i got your's and sent you a reply about a week ago. I dont know if my pm's are getting out ? So if you did not get it. I was not tring to be rude or anything. And just want you to know i did try and send you a reply.

 

[lakading]

There's already a fence separating them, so I don't think taking them away will make him more aggressive. If anything I would say that he will get more aggressive if you leave them there as they start to cycle (if they haven't already).

 

[cypressfarms]

Thanks cypressfarms,

I had thought about maybe putting a hot wire arround the inside of his pen. These heifer's of my neighbor's are right next to my pasture and pen's. Two of them have already calfved and will probably be coming back in soon. (before i am ready to move my bull) So i dont know what kind of problem i will have with him when that happen's. One of my heifer's came in since i got him. And he tried getting with her. I had to do a little work on his pen to keep him in. But finally over came any problem's that time.

cypressfarm's, I dont know if you got my pm but i got your's and sent you a reply about a week ago. I dont know if my pm's are getting out ? So if you did not get it. I was not tring to be rude or anything. And just want you to know i did try and send you a reply.

Stepper,

I had a yearling brangus last year (a.k.a. hatchett butt) that I had in a small 2 acre pasture. He decided to clear the five strands of barbed wire and visit the ladies next door. He broke the top wire and almost got killed by the 4 and 5 year old angus bulls he was "treading" on. Put up two strands of poly wire with a solar powered box, and the first time he walked up to it, it popped the mess out of his nose. He never tried it again.

Didn't get your pm's but I'll test it now. Make sure your pm's have a subject line or they wont go through.

 

[jgn]

The reason he's running up to you is because he knows it's feeding time and your the one with the feed. I wouldn't worry about moving the heifers causing any sort of problem. This is a natural reaction and would be the same if it was another bull or heifer waiting to be fed.

 

[shutskytj]

I agree with jgn you can tell in his eyes if he is excited to see you with the food or if he wants to nail you sounds like he is excited about the food

 

[cypressfarms]

The reason he's running up to you is because he knows it's feeding time and your the one with the feed. I wouldn't worry about moving the heifers causing any sort of problem. This is a natural reaction and would be the same if it was another bull or heifer waiting to be fed.

Funny how a 1,500 lb (or more) animal can get so excited with a few pounds of feed.

Stepper, you may be glad one day that the bull comes up to you. The bull I was referring to earlier that got out, followed my mule back to his original pasture - with me only showing him a bag of feed. No one excited, didn't have to get the horse out, everyone was fine.

 

[Alan]

After reading the post about "bull starting to challange me" I am having to rethink my plan's with my bull.

I have him in a dry lot right next to my heifer's right now. He dont seem agressive or anything like that. He kind of run's up to me when i go in the pen to feed him everyday. Sometime's i will kick at him if he get's closer than i feel comfrontable with. But as soon as his feed hit's the feeder he is pretty content. He is a black angus by the way.

Now i am a hobby farmer. I have 9 heifer's that weigh i guess about 700 lb's average weight right now. I am planing on moving them to pasture sometime in April. I am not going to put my bull with them until at least May, perferriably June. I had planned on keeping him where he is until then. But now after hearing about Alan's bull getting agressive by taking his ladie's away from him. I am afraid that might happen to my bull.

My neighbor just bought 11 heifer's that are calfving right now and he does not have a bull at this time. And i think he might let me put my bull with them for a few week's. He has kind of hinted at that. But i really did not want to do that for various reasons. The main reason being from what i have read about a bull getting some type of desease. Any good opinion's or advice as to what i should do would be greatly apprechaited.

Stepper,

I just posted on my thread this morning that my bull has gone back to being himself again. I still give him all kinds of respect and, like you, don't let him get too close. My post was to get response if folks felt he was getting aggressive because I pulled his ladies, or because he was now a mature bull. I think it is mostly I pulled his ladies. At any rate he'll cover the ladies this may and be gone in Aug. I wouldn't worry too much about your bull but always watch him.

Alan

 

[jgn]

Main thing is never trust him, always respect him, and never turn your back on him. This applies to cows as well. You may never have a problem but then again it only takes one time to learn the hard way.

 

[Susie David]

Funny how they all develop personality traits that define how we react with them even when we know the old addages of "never trust a cow...especially a bull". How many folks get hurt every year walking in the cow/bull pen with a arm load of groceries and get stepped on or run over and the animal doesn't even notice them until the feed is gone.
Remember that the rumen is thirty times the size of the brain...
figure out which one governs their behavior.

Some bulls get territorial and gather their cows and stand guard over them, some couldn't care less, when the cows are out of season they don't exist for another twenty one days.
I wouldn't worry about having your bull cover your neighbor's cows, but I'd have a good contract in place to cover your animal and your self. DMc