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SCGranny------pet that bull all you want, but I remember what my dad told me as a kid------" the only tame bull is the one hanging in the locker plant"
Years back, the farmers who got mauled to death by a bull, got always killed by a " tame" bull that they trusted.
There is no thing as a tame bull and there is a reason why despite having every classification for cattle that are being showed and judged at county fairs, there is none ( and never will be one ) for---mature bulls.
Yes, please be careful!
A local farmer was seriously injured a couple days ago by a bull that had been raised as a pet. Farmer walked between the bull and a cow in heat & the bull attacked him. The farmer will pull thru, but things may never be the way they were.....5 broken ribs, 1 punctured lung, 1 collapsed lung, broken arm, cracked pelvis & shoulder blade, several damaged vertebrate. He's got a long row in front of him right now.
Last edited by 3-Oaks; 11-24-2009 at 08:27 AM..
Reason: typo
I just read in a farm magazine that--if--you have to keep a bull on your farm/ranch----you should never pet the bull anyplace ( especially near the head area )as he is growing up.
An adult bull will consider petting around the head area a challenge to him to engage in "rough house" .
A human always loses in bull vs man " rough housing"
And please, don't host any school kids to come to your "petting zoo" if the bull is not safely locked up.
hmmm... I was raised to understand that there is only one reason to keep an intact male animal on a farm. The reason is by definition in conflict with the idea the animal is going to be anything other than aggressive, highly territorial, and unpleasant to deal with. Not to mention that many of them have that musky smell. Good reason for test tube babies, or sending the girls for a sleepover when needed.
I keep a couple of intact bulls here but it is for a good reason. I have lots of sheep and on occassion actually free range them. The coyote is not really a huge issue because they are hunted aggressively here, but the sheep still need a bit of a guardian. I use a couple of bulls to do that. Instead of having a dog that does one job and one job only, the bulls thwart the coyotes and put can be sold for additional income, or my own meat needs.
I do burn their horns off as calves, but don't cut them, partly because they gain weight a lot faster, and because they aren't as docile.
Incidentally I never cut my ram-lambs. They gain 15% more then withers in the same amount of time, and currently the deduction at the slaughterhouse is $10 dollars for an intact ram-lamb. I gain 5-7 dollars by not having them cut...so it actually does make sense to keep intact males on the farm. But I will say, I grew up on on dairy farms and know how to handle them and to never trust them.
The bull stories made me think of a story my grandma used to tell of finding my mother, who would have been around five years old, outside the bull pen, with the enraged bull rolling his enormous head in the dust and shaking it furiously, admonishing the bull in a high-pitched little girl voice, "You shouldn't do that. You shouldn't do that."
Anyone who believes a cow is docile has never been kicked by one in a loading chute.
Yeas ago my firend Linc had an Angus bull he called Max that he used for breeding. He was large for his breed. Now Linc was bachelor and no one but Linc handled Max. Linc talked about Max like he was a child. I wanted to see the bull so I followed Linc home. He whistled and the bull came running and acted like a big dog. He licked, nudged and constantly pestered Linc for attention.
Linc had a small show ring with a wooden fence next to the regular area where Max stayed. He put him in the ring and came outside the ring and talked to me. I still don't what I did but Max put his nose to the ground and started pawing and snorting. Linc told me very calmly to walk back to my car, sit in it and lock the doors. After he put Max up he said the bull was jealous! I protested the bull was in the ring behind a fence Max couldn't jump. Surprise, surprise. Not only could Max jump the fence, he wouldn't have to. He would simply walk through it or kick it down. That was long ago. I assume Linc and Max are in Heaven and they are still doing the same things toether. I wouldn't have it any other way.
The ranchers I know don't have a bull with the cows. They bring a bull in to service the cows. .
I love reading stories by SC Granny about life in the Sandhills. We all know that people in most small towns actually enjoy having a few newbies move in who follow a different drummer in their ways. It gives the locals some new topics to discuss at the coffee shop or bar or around the dinner table. Entertainment options are limited out there in the wide open spaces, so SC Granny, you are doing your neighbors a great service by giving them all sorts of things to talk, laugh and think about!
We have too many cows, so they aren't brought in to service the cows, bulls are always present in the herd servicing the cows. After awhile the bulls know their roles, and the farmhands know their roles...cows are creatures of habit, once the routine is broken, there can be all of hades to pay. Keep to a routine and its not much of a problem.
When I was a kid, perhaps 2 my dad had me in the sheep stalls as he cleaned them out. Well our ram saw his chance and rammed me. Dad scooped me up and put me outside the sheep pen but as he did, the ram got him. So dad swung a shovel at him and cold-cocked him right in the skull. It dazed him I guess, but did not stop him. Twice more he rammed my dad before he could get out of the pen.
So he goes into the house and calls the cattle dealer up to take the ram to the slaughterhouse. Well this is dairy cow country and not sheep, so dad knew if he said Ram it would be days before the cattle guy showed up. So instead he just said, "I got one for you bunk, come on over and pick it up."
Well the next morning Bunk came over and was shocked to see it was a sheep. "I can't take him, I have half a load of cattle on." Dad said he did not care and that he wanted the ram gone. So Bunk said he would take it but would not be responsibly for its demise in the trailer. Dad said fair is fair and into the trailer it went...with some work apparently.
Halfway to the slaughterhouse Bunk hears this terrible commotion in the trailer and knows the ram got squished. But when he opened the trailer door at the slaughterhouse, that Ram had all the cows pinned up against the headboard in near suffocation state. They let him in the slaughterhouse and could not get the gate opened fast enough. It slammed its head against the gate over and over, so much that the butcher came out at hearing the loud ringing. Reaching into he pocket he pulled out his captive bolt gun and did the ram in right there. "That will stop you", he said and that was it.
In all the years we have raised sheep on this farm, there has only been two nasty rams on the farm...neither had long lives. :-)
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