Yearling Bull on the Run

[LM Farm]

Transported a Scottish Highland yearling bull to a holding farm to be halter broke and handled. Bought him to be my "bull in waiting". After spending hours getting him settled at my sisters farm we departed only to be called back after dark. He jumped the enclosure (4ft high tensil w/electric) and is now roaming thousands of acres of very wooded pulp&paper property. I had a pattern on his movements (no sighting) and was bringing him to a grain pile nightly. A week of rain and alot of flooding kept us out of the wilderness for a week (roads closed). Any ideas on re capturing this bull? I have no experience, did not even know he was capable of launching 550lbs over a fence without a running start.

 

[Rustler9]

My Longhorns as a rule aren't wild and unruly but I haven't seen one yet that couldn't get out if they wanted to. I've had them jump a 5 or 6 foot fence when they wanted to. You may have to track him down and shoot him with a tranquilizer gun to get him. Good luck.

 

[sidney411]

Can you hire some "cowboys" to rope him from horseback? Wha have had to do this before with cattle that have gotten out.

Could you set up a temporary pen out of panels and feed him in that pen? You could set it up with some sort of a trip wire like a hog trap?

Will he come within eye shot if you call him to feed?

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Sorry to hear about your bull...

When you can, try baiting him with range cubes or something he likes and herd him into a temporary corral (i.e. portable corral panels). However, this may well not work!

The tranquilizer approach seems the most realistic due to the vastness of the area he is in.

2020 Hindsight: Any new animal (especially a bull) brought into a new place should be contained in a 5-6' high sturdy corral or pen area for a few days until he/she gets adjusted to new surroundings. A yearling or older bull especially would be best contained in a 5-6' high pipe fenced area A 4' high fence and/or an electric fence for such initial containment is just not adequate...you know the rest of the story....

 

[Bez]

Oh-oh!

I have this t-shirt. Been there / done that!

You have options - but the best way to bring an animal home is to bring him home and place him in a HARD WALLED solid pen - very high. And I do mean high - ours is heavy boards - 3" x 8" to 5 feet and rails to 7 feet - boards break when they get weighted down from the top - rails mostly do not.

High tensile? Powered? Well, it works in a lot of cases, but they will jump and they will go through - if they are determined, they WILL get out. Electricity will not always stop them.

They are a herd animal and companions in a pen are one of the best ways to ensure they stick around.

If this guy is coming to grain - well build a pen around the grain site - then trap him.

Or find someone who can ride and rope.

Or gather a bunch of folks who know cattle and go for a brushy round up. That's a tough one but can be done.

Hate to say it - worst case scenario - it can be hunting time - tranq or real bullet. Liability can be an issue depending upon where you live. Car / truck / persons collision / hurt can cause you some big troubles. Gotta' solve this one in a bit of a hurry.

Best of luck,

Bez

 

[Tod Dague]

If you do catch him you need to sell him or move him to an area with better fences. Once an animal finds out that they can get out they will tend to continue getting out.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

1. Rope him and drag him home or trailer.
2. Rompum or equivelant sedative- load on trailer.
3. Centerfire rifle- eat better than venison?
4. If you can get him on feed, try to lure him back towards your farm.
5. horses and drive him back towards your farm. From there I'd trap him and move him somewhere else. 4' fence obviously won't keep him.

Option 3 could be best. If he won't stay in a 4' fence how you gonna get a herd bred? Hope he wasn't too expensive.

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

I had a Highland Bull a few years ago. They are quite strong with those short little legs. I saw the one I had go 8' straight up the side of a bank just like a billy goat. He was only about 1200 lbs and he lifted up my brothers' 2000 lb angus bull and threw him over a 4 strand barbed wire fence and ripped the other bull's sheath pretty much right off. As far as herding him, we were trying to separate him from the cows one time and he came back between us, we were standing about five feet apart (when I slaughtered his horns spanned 42"). They are pretty athletic. If you have the opportunity to get a cowboy with a horse, I'd do that. I think you may have trouble bringing him in otherwise.

 

[Dave]

If you have a tame, I repeat really really tame, dead halter broke tame, cow. One that you can stake out that will stay put. You can put this cow in a pen where you are feeding the bull grain. Beings as cows are herd animals they will often stay around with another cow. I have done this to catch one that was out in the timber. If you were real lucky this cow would be in heat which would keep him there. It depends on what your timber country is like. Around here the horse back option just wouldn't work. There is always D.R.'s option #3. You can look at as an extension on to hunting season.
Once when I was elk hunting in the timber I ran into a angus cow with a big old steer and what were appearantly her last two calves (the oldest was a bull). They were at least 15 miles from the nearest farm in some of the thickest steepest timber country western Washington has to offer. They were wilder than the elk I was hunting. One way or the other I would get him soon before he goes too native on you.

Dave

 

[milkmaid]

Sounds familar. I had one nurse cow last spring that ran home not once, but twice. Talk about embarrassing. LOL! Luckily, her home was less than a mile down the road and she ended up deciding to stay at our place after being brought home the second time.

Then I almost lost this year's 4H project, an 800lb red angus steer the same day I brought him home. He jumped our barbed wire fence and headed for the wildlife management area. Once he turned around and saw the cow and calves he'd somehow missed seeing before, he jumped the fence again, I repaired it, and he's been quite content now. Whew.

I'm just used to bringing home little calves that don't try to run away...but I'm learning! :lol: Just had never occurred to me the older stock might not want to stay around.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

If you consider how much liability you have with a car collision on your bull, option 3 sounds better all the time. Of course that's if it's in an area where he could get into traffic. Otherwise I'd give it a good go, and then if he was just too dang honery to be caught then I'd take the 7MM option.

 

[CowCop]

If you have a tame, I repeat really really tame, dead halter broke tame, cow. One that you can stake out that will stay put. You can put this cow in a pen where you are feeding the bull grain. Beings as cows are herd animals they will often stay around with another cow.

This is the method I have used on "escapees" ( usually in the spring ).
I usually use the mother of the yearling that has runaway OR one of my halter trained show calves as the "bait". The escapee usually shows up within 60 minutes of me leading the "bait" cow to the woods, and then I walk them back all the way to the farm and into the corral. This is usually when I am wishing for a horse to quicken the process.....

Method 2:
I have put the non-halter trained mothers in a stock trailer and driven it to the area where the runaway was last seen--open the back door, let them hollar for awhile and usually the missing cows/calves/steer/bull shows up and jumps in the trailer to be with his friends/mom etc

Last fall I had to drive the trailer home with the steer chasing it cause he wouldn't get IN it and it was getting dark.

Every escapee heads for the golf course that is 4 miles away--usually in April when THEIR grass is greening up and ours is still mud.

Do what you can--and GOOD LUCK~!!

CowCop

 

[LM Farm]

Thank You everyone,

Tranquilizer gun? can not find one, located the load for it! The people who have it opted for a round between the eyes on their cows.

Cowboy? I wish!

I do not know if my husband will ever forgive me....I did not tell you that we found him once the Thursday before New Years. I had him about 1 1/2 feet in front of me, head down eating grain, and I MISSED. Rope on one horn which did not last long. I watched to much of the PBR finals (busted faces and such) to just jump on him Anyway he ran away like the gazell that he seems to be!

I was hoping for some majic! He sure was beautiful, that is why I bought him. Coal Black, black tip horns and if he was lucky to be anything like his sire....... Thank you again for all of the info, I have just been feeling a little helpless.

 

[Campground Cattle]

Good stock dog put him back to the house. Find someone that has some good catch dogs.

 

[Rustler9]

Well, here's a new little story about a run away heifer-we have leased several acres that is great pasture land with some woods in the rear of the property. This land is about 20 minutes from where I live-I check the cows about every other day. Ususally put out a couple rolls of hay and see if there's any new calves, try to check various sections of fence to see how many strands are down due to the deer who are all over the place.

Last Wednesday the people who own the land called me at work and told me that a couple of heifers have been slipping out into the woods in back which is owned by an a**hole who lives about 45 minutes away. He deer hunts, he has these cute little plots sowed which he calls his green space. I went down the following morning at 6:30 am and checked the cows, thought that I had every body accounted for and saw a small hole in the fence which I promptly fixed.

Saturday I find out that a yearling heifer that a friend brought down to put with my young bull had been fenced out-she's still in the woods. A nice neighbor showed me where she was-actually in his woods bordering part of the property. He even tried to help us get her back through the fence but she got away from us. I walked through this guy's green space but did not see any damage.

Last night I call the guy who owns the green space to tell him that I will get the heifer out asap and he tells me that he wants her off his property-he does not want us on the property to get the heifer and that if she isn't gone by today he will shoot her on Wednesday. He also tells me that I have already ruined his weekend last weekend due to my cows running all over his property (which is not true-three heifers got out, or so I was told by another neighbor, they were in my pasture when I checked on them and as soon as I found out about this I tried to remedy the situation by fixing the fence-I did make a mistake and leave this one heifer out. The owner was no where to be seen on Saturday when we were trying to round up this one heifer so I don't know how I ruined his deer hunting weekend?) I who have a very quick temper was very nice to this guy and tried to reason with him. I finally told him that it would not be in his best interest to shoot this heifer-that she belonged to someone else and that I would do my best to get her rounded up quickly. I told him that I do not make a habit of letting my cows run on other folks. He still argued that my whole herd has been on his place-which I don't believe as they were in the pasture every time I checked them (there's fifty head in this pasture right now-mostly yearling heifers, a few cows with small calves, this pasture had been empty for two years, very good grass, lots of it and I've just started feeding hay in the last two weeks).

I decided to go ahead and call my friend and tell him that we really need to get her out today if possible-I had to go in to work so couldn't help him today. He called the sheriff and filed a formal complaint and relayed the whole story. The sheriff called the guy and reminded him that we are attempting to get the heifer up and that to shoot her would be a felony. Seems the guy channged his attitude a bit after this, he even offered to help us. So, anyway Monty (friend who actually owns the heifer) is out there right now with a halter broke heifer in the woods trying to lure her back. I'm here at work taking a lunch break-has anyone ever had to deal with some one this impossible?

 

[Hawk]

Yep, I have a neighbor like that right now. Solved the problem when I built a new fence a couple of years ago. Neighbor on the other side is wintering a punch of feeder steers. One of them got into another neighbor's yard last week and wound up on the road in front of our place. Our hay guy was delivering a load of hay at the time so he and my wife got the steer into our pasture (I was out of town). My wife penned the steer and called the owner, and then helped him load it into his trailer. That what good neighbors do. And the old saying "Good fences make good neighbors" is probably truer today than ever before. Good luck.

 

[Dave]

Two years ago my neighbor (A) asked me to graze off a field which his cows can't get to. This little field is across a deep creek from his main pasture and only accessable through either my place or his other neighbor (B). He was't using it and just wanted me to keep the grass down. So I ran a few cows in for a week or so. Well 5 or 6 cows somehow managed to get into the other neighbors (B) pasture. This was the first time any of my cows ever got into B's pasture. He threw a fit. Neighbor A called me and I was on my way out there with a bucket of grain to get them back where they belonged. When I got there B was trying to herd the cows out on to the county road. He had a gate open and A stood in the gate and wouldn't let to cows out on the road. B cussed me for never building fence even though my fences are 100 times better than his. He was cussing me for my cows being out even though his cows have been on my place a number of times. His cows had been on the road so many times that the Deputy Sheriff threatened to impound them. He cussed me to the point where I had to explain to him that, although I was doing my level best to get the cows off his place, any further cussing and I would have to stop see how his 5'6" 130 pound would stand up to my 6'2" 230 pounds. That ended the cussing and he just walked off.
Good old A and I managed to get the cows off B's property in a few minutes. However by this time I had cows and calves seperated by the creek and several fences which made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be. If he had left them alone I would have had them back where they belonged in a couple of minutes instead of the hour or two it took.
I haven't talked to B since then. He sold all his cows last year and his pasture is empty. I could use the pasture and I am sure he could use the rent money but I will haul my cows to the next county before I would rent pasture from him.
It is great to have neighbors like A but there is always some B's out there.
Dave

 

[jasonnododge]

I'm glad to see that a large percentage of you have had trouble with cattle escaping. I know there is nothing worse than hearing my cell phone ring, looking at the caller ID and seeing Incoming call, I've seen this message so many times I know its usually the State police telling me my cows are out playing on the interstate. It has been about two years since we had any out but the local officer who patrols this area has my number in his phone.

We have a healthy deer population and an equally healthy drunk driving problem on the highway that lies next to my pasture. The cars will drive through the fence during the night and before I can patch the hole, I get the call that two of my 150lb hereford calves are playing in the median of the Interstate. Has anyone else had to carry their calves across a three lane highway? It's not that much fun.

Several years back the pasture behind our house was rented by a man who ran Holstein dry cows and a bull on the 30 acres of woods and grass. They all got out one night, we managed to round up about 10 of the 18. Over the next four weeks we caught three more, by October 1 (opening day of bow season) I had been given the go ahead to whack any of them given the chance. I had one dance around in the cornfield at about fifty yards but never got a shot off. We managed to catch the rest of the group about a week later, four miles from their pasture.

Keeping cattle near highways and suburbia is a challenging thing.

Jason

 

[Rustler9]

Well, Monty the friend who actually owns the escaped heifer just called me and told me that he lured her up to his trailer with the halter broke heifer that he brought down but as soon as she got up to the trailer she bolted and took off. So, it looks like I will have to take the day off tomorrow and help him. He's going take the haltered heifer back down and try to lure her close enough to shoot her with a tranquilizer gun. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a halter back on this one then and lead her butt back into the trailer and off she'll go back to his place.

The funny thing is that the heifer is not on the guy's place that's raising so much hell. She's exactly where we saw her Saturday which is in the woods up behind a nice neighbor who will actually help you catch her and has no problem whatsoever with her being out on his land (woods). But the a**hole has raised so much of a stink I guess I need to go back and try to reinforce the fences even though I don't believe that any more of my cows are getting out on him.

He has actually ruined my upcoming weekend-I was planning on being in Ft. Worth on Friday night. We are getting an award for one of our cows from the Texas Longhorn Association. Placed fourth in the top ten non-haltered mature cows for 2004. I kind of wanted to be there to get the award and it is some nice publicity for our farm as well. Oh well, maybe we'll get there again some time. It still just utterly amazes me how some folks can be such total jerks.

 

[Angus Cattle Shower]

Well, Monty the friend who actually owns the escaped heifer just called me and told me that he lured her up to his trailer with the halter broke heifer that he brought down but as soon as she got up to the trailer she bolted and took off. So, it looks like I will have to take the day off tomorrow and help him. He's going take the haltered heifer back down and try to lure her close enough to shoot her with a tranquilizer gun. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a halter back on this one then and lead her butt back into the trailer and off she'll go back to his place.

The funny thing is that the heifer is not on the guy's place that's raising so much hell. She's exactly where we saw her Saturday which is in the woods up behind a nice neighbor who will actually help you catch her and has no problem whatsoever with her being out on his land (woods). But the a**hole has raised so much of a stink I guess I need to go back and try to reinforce the fences even though I don't believe that any more of my cows are getting out on him.

He has actually ruined my upcoming weekend-I was planning on being in Ft. Worth on Friday night. We are getting an award for one of our cows from the Texas Longhorn Association. Placed fourth in the top ten non-haltered mature cows for 2004. I kind of wanted to be there to get the award and it is some nice publicity for our farm as well. Oh well, maybe we'll get there again some time. It still just utterly amazes me how some folks can be such total jerks.

Bravo!!!!
Too bad you cant be there
Noone deserves a neighbour like that. Did you tell him that oyu won that award? Why cant oyu still go?