yet another bull attack..

[Alan]

Bulls don't bother me, horses, horses scare me to death. You never know what they are thinking.

I hear you on that Ollie. I have far more stories of horses hurting me than cows. I watch when I am around both but I will trust a bull before I will trust a stallion.

I agree, I trust a stallion less than a bull. A stallion will, without warning, reach out and take a good size chunk of flesh off you before you know whats happening.

Alan

 

[mdmdogs3]

I think there are signs of a herd bull say when it is time to send him packing, been there done that, several times. I do think a bull can be fine one day and the next just lose it.

can anyone elaborate on what those signs might be :?: :?:
our Char bull is huge and I know that he could crush me like a bug!

 

[Alice]

I think there are signs of a herd bull say when it is time to send him packing, been there done that, several times. I do think a bull can be fine one day and the next just lose it.

can anyone elaborate on what those signs might be :?: :?:
our Char bull is huge and I know that he could crush me like a bug!

If that bull starts making passes that seem calm, yet a bit too close, and your instincts say, hmmmm, wonder what that was about...it's time to start thinking gone.

Take that back...it's time to get him gone. Just my opinion, mind you...

Alice

 

[TnWI]

There have been several livestock accidents in my area. My uncle found out that a bull could come around a tree as fast as he could. My close it encounter with a bull happened several years ago. I had a crazy little red angus that I was breeding to some holstien heifers. I was loading in a trailer to move to another pasture. I was intending to load the bull first and shut the middle gate in the trailer. He was faster than I was and came after me. Our miniture snauzer that was the house dog always rode with me every where I went. She weighed about twenty pounds. She came under the fence and latched on to the bulls nose. The bull tried to shake her off and could not. If you ever had a snauzer you know they can ratchet the jaws down tighter and tighter. She held on and the bull finally bowed his head to the ground and she turned loose and the bull went in the trailer and stayed. I was sure glad the dog was along. I was by myself and if the bull had injured me I would had to wait until the wife returned from work. This was before the invention of the cell phone.

Kudos to your dog! I had 2 ACD's that had they not jumped in when they did - I wouldn't be sitting here typing at the moment.

 

[Cuz-Pat]

Caustic,
I tend to agree with you on the pet cow. We have a brangus cow that will be coming with her third calf this December. My two girls raised her on a bottle and taught her to lead with a halter and lead-line when she was a calf. They would get out on Sunday afternoon after church and lead her up and down the road.

She is grown now, will be 5 years old this May and she weighs about 1300 lbs. Just today she lowered her head at me when I got within 3 feet of her and then shook her head at me 3 or 4 times. Don't know what her problem was but for a minute I thought she was about to charge me. I don't trust her one bit. If she ever does come after me she will be gone.

Sure hate to hear about the bull getting on that fella. Will keep him and his family in our prayers.

 

[Limomike]

I agree.. dont load by yourself..
cows and bulls are always dangerous.. no matter how calm or tame you think they are. I have been chased by a "momma" cow around my truck a few times.. and my limosine bull, although quite tame in the field.. is a monster when penned up.. He just doesnt like being confined in a small area.
So, yes, stay clear, always have a hot shot available.. and remember to be quick on your feet!

 

[backhoeboogie]

There is some good advice in this thread. I build my holding pens and working chutes with all of this in mind.

 

[Carlos D.]

My nieghbour raises and sells brown swiss bulls---Never been any doubt in my mind how crazy those animals are --for a couple weeks I fed his yearling bulls round bales, they would attack the tractor or anything that moved--I never got out of the tractor to cut the strings off or anything.He;s had about 6 close calls with them--Amazeing how quiet the cows are ,and how stupid the bulls are

carl

 

[MikeC]

My nieghbour raises and sells brown swiss bulls---Never been any doubt in my mind how crazy those animals are --for a couple weeks I fed his yearling bulls round bales, they would attack the tractor or anything that moved--I never got out of the tractor to cut the strings off or anything.He;s had about 6 close calls with them--Amazeing how quiet the cows are ,and how stupid the bulls are

carl

Funny how most Dairy bulls are fools. :?: Wonder why?

 

[dun]

Funny how most Dairy bulls are fools. :?: Wonder why?

Although it's frequently laaid at them being bottle fed, I think there's a lot more to it then that. Out of 10 bull calves raised together one year (hoping for a replacement), when they hit about 8-9 months a couple of them turned into raving maniacs and would attack anything. By the time they turned yearlings, only 2 were still calm, easy to handle and not alwasy on the prod. Those 2 were kept and used as herd bulls. Now that they're 18 months, one has started to get beliigerant, i.e. snot slinging, head shaking, gorund pawing. After a thorough education with a pink sorting cane he now turns tail anytime he sees the pink cane. The other one is layed back and goes about his business of checking out the ladys and breeding. Turns out that the calm bull is the only one sired by there old herd bull Darrell. Darrell stuck around till he was 4-5 years old before he broke down in the legs and went to the sale barn.
The point of that whole babble was that although raising a bottle bull may contribute some, genetics still enters into the picture.

dun

 

[Alice]

Funny how most Dairy bulls are fools. :?: Wonder why?

Although it's frequently laaid at them being bottle fed, I think there's a lot more to it then that. Out of 10 bull calves raised together one year (hoping for a replacement), when they hit about 8-9 months a couple of them turned into raving maniacs and would attack anything. By the time they turned yearlings, only 2 were still calm, easy to handle and not alwasy on the prod. Those 2 were kept and used as herd bulls. Now that they're 18 months, one has started to get beliigerant, i.e. snot slinging, head shaking, gorund pawing. After a thorough education with a pink sorting cane he now turns tail anytime he sees the pink cane. The other one is layed back and goes about his business of checking out the ladys and breeding. Turns out that the calm bull is the only one sired by there old herd bull Darrell. Darrell stuck around till he was 4-5 years old before he broke down in the legs and went to the sale barn.
The point of that whole babble was that although raising a bottle bull may contribute some, genetics still enters into the picture.

dun

Jersey bulls...hateful little devils...kicked one in the nose after he made one too many curious type passes at me. Told my brother about it, got somewhat scoffed at, then the next day my brother told me he had the same thing happen to him...he worked him over with one of those rattle paddles. Next day the owner came and got him at my brother's request. We went thru that scenario with 3 out of the six that we were keeping there with the owner's heifers, only we didn't go with the 2 strikes you're out...they went after the first one. I was never so glad to see cows leave in my life.

Alice

 

[Victoria]

I think when dealing with cows and bulls people ignore their instincts. Body language speaks for a lot in cattle and if you have been around cattle for awhile you will know what they are saying but your mind may not be processing it. Take the head shake someone mentioned earlier. A head shake can be mean, sassy or a bug up the nose. Your instinct will usually tell you which. People have to quit ignoring them. We try to use nothing but logic but that is what makes people go in with animals they don't trust instead of shipping or shooting them. We are shipping out one second calver in a couple of weeks. She is beautiful and has done nothing wrong. I tagged her calf in front of her last year but she makes me nervous. I am always watching that one and my instinct says one day she'll snap so she is gone. Maybe she never would have and I am getting rid of a good cow for no reason but I would rather be wrong than dead.

I also find it sad that in this story it sounds like just because the bull was in the corral their guard might have been down a bit. There are very few corrals that can hold a bull or even a cow when they get ticked and want through. Don't feel safe just because you are on the other side of the fence.

Of course if you work with any kind of animal long enough you will get hurt. Still feel safer with my calm cows than driving into the city with the maniacs though. ;-)

 

[peg4x4]

Anything can hurt you--was attacked by a settin'hen,and a White Leghorn rooster(different times)..the hen lived over it,we had the rooster for supper--My son asked if that was that mean oi' rooster-"Yeah" I said "Oh good"said he,"Gimme 'nother peice,please"

 

[alabama]

One of these days I just know a bull is going to eat my lunch but I still keep working and loading them alone. What do y'all do when you got to get something done and you don't have any help? I often load cattle alone and have to get in the pin with them and some times, they want to put on a rodeo. I have been lucky so far but I don't have an alternative if I want to get some things done.
How many times have you caught a cow at 6:00 AM, worked her into the chute, and bred her with no help. You just got to do some things.
Lets see if we can come up with a list of helpful things and idea to make it safer to work and load cattle alone.

First on the list: I would say is to let someone know where you are and call them when you are finished or at least have someone check on you later.

 

[TnWI]

Anything can hurt you--was attacked by a settin'hen,and a White Leghorn rooster(different times)..the hen lived over it,we had the rooster for supper--My son asked if that was that mean oi' rooster-"Yeah" I said "Oh good"said he,"Gimme 'nother peice,please"

I had a Rhode Island Red rooster that provided more entertainment by chasing my son, then any program on TV. He would come running out of the coop, and if my son was within view he would chase him down. There were times I was laughing so hard, I couldn't yell for the rooster to stop. Taught the child a lesson tho - he hasn't teased another bird since.

 

[IluvABbeef]

About the dairy bulls: I believe that they're more dangerous than beef bulls, simply because that they haven't any herd experience, instead they're put in a pen right after birth by themselves or with another calf and like dun said, strictly bottle fed. You'd get to think that after having to be entirely dependent on people they'd be as docile as a lamb when their older. But no, instead they're really aggressive and dangerous.

I believe it;s because they haven't developed a fear/respect of people like most beef bulls have through being in a herd and watching their mommas, and that has to be knocked into the dairy bulls with a swat on the nose or a few shake of a sorting stick or paddle. Without that fear they get like those wild elk or bears you hear about that have been hand fed by tourists that start losing fear of humans and respect and thus start getting dangerous.

Just my two cents. And I also want to say that I had a great grandpa get killed by a bull. That was before I was born, so from stories from my great Uncle Bill and my dad the bull was probably a red angus. Something got into that bulls head when Pa (what we kin call great Grandpa) was in the barn with him.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Okay what I said before is just the AVERAGE thing that usually happens, don't mean to sound like a smartypants or anything.

 

[bwr1963]

A man a down the road a few miles got killed by a bull, he was 73 and the neighbor's kid had been shooting the bull with bb gun in testicles, when the man came to feed he pinned him and killed him. Also had a friend who's neighbor's bull (black angus) chased him and rolled him on the ground and tried to kill him, his dog saved him and the man was in ICU 3 weeks. We have a Charlois, we raised him from 550 lbs about 1400 lbs now still a baby but he can get testy too. Wife has all the cows like kids but keeps bull at a distance.

 

[Victoria]

One of these days I just know a bull is going to eat my lunch but I still keep working and loading them alone. What do y'all do when you got to get something done and you don't have any help? I often load cattle alone and have to get in the pin with them and some times, they want to put on a rodeo. I have been lucky so far but I don't have an alternative if I want to get some things done.
How many times have you caught a cow at 6:00 AM, worked her into the chute, and bred her with no help. You just got to do some things.
Lets see if we can come up with a list of helpful things and idea to make it safer to work and load cattle alone.

First on the list: I would say is to let someone know where you are and call them when you are finished or at least have someone check on you later.

I agree with you. We do often have to get things done and have no help. At our place there is just my mother and I. During calving she takes night shift, I take day shift. We are out there alone. She's often asleep when I am doing the regular day and I don't have anyone to call as a rule. That said I never work a wilder animal without either back up or someone knowing what I am doing and waitng for that call. Same with working with the bulls.

Number two on my list not having an animal on the place with a bad temperment. I am not going to bring the whole to pat a cow or to not pat a cow debate over here (different things work for different people) but I think everyone has to put in a no second chance policy. If a cow acts ornery in any way, shape or form she should go, same with bulls. It doesn't matter what kind of calf she has it isn't worth risking your life. Not all but most of the serious cattle accidents that I have heard or read about involve an animal that has shown their true colours to some degree before the incident.

 

[GMN]

I think there are signs of a herd bull say when it is time to send him packing, been there done that, several times. I do think a bull can be fine one day and the next just lose it.

can anyone elaborate on what those signs might be :?: :?:
our Char bull is huge and I know that he could crush me like a bug!

We usually nose ring and chain the herd bull. One time we rented a holstein bull, he did not like me from day one, his attitude was all wrong. He liked to play with the feeder, tip it over, move it, he liked to block the path where I got the cows up, and when he did go, he headed straight to the feeder. One night I made several mistakes. One I shut the gate so I was in the barnyard with the cows and the bull, I was in the process of moving the feeder, standing it up right, and he charged me, that fast, luckily I left the four wheeler running, and shot over to the closest gate I could, and he started lifting the 4 wheeler up in the back with me on it, and my Great Pyringes, came running, distracted him for a second, I was able to jump off, jump over the gate, and run for my life. he proceeded to rip the 4 wheeler fenders off, etc... That nite I called the guy we rented him from and he was gone. Lesson learned, never be in a enclosed space with a bull, carry a cell phone, and always have a way out if something does happen. Never go on foot.
Any reservations about the attitude of a bull, get rid of him, not worth the risk.

Gail

Usually the older they get the worse they become, if they start lunging at you, not backing down, the kick dirt routine, bellering, time for him to go. Sometimes also, if they get too big, you don't want them breeding your cows anyways. we've never kept a bull over 3 1/2 years.