boothcreek
Loving the herd life
We did a good pick of bulls every time we got one by the sounds of it when I read all these posts :/
I think key is really to look at even the most miniscule behaviours when picking a bull or bull calf at a breeder. We don't have handling facilities for our current herd of 5 so a mellow, easy to work with bull is a must.
Breeding poultry I am very familiar with hand raised males being a pain so first thought when we got the idea to get cows "NO BOTTLE RAISED BULLS"(a gander is a pain in the rear, what will a giant bull be when he is hormonal right?).
At the breeders we looked at several bull calves and adult bulls. In those calves even the slightest thing like when approaching it first has to shake its head at you(at about a month old) and snort and really think about the moving away from you is a big NO for us.
Ended up bringing home a 3 yr old super mellow bull(that was 4 yrs ago now i think) that looks like a tank.
You can mess with his cows/calves and he minds his own business. Has never given us the stink eye, or any sort of threat display.
Our first bull we had 8 yrs ago was great too, but he struck me as one that if he had one bad experience that he would go bad, had him for 2 yrs never had an issue. Halter broken, taught to stand perfectly still for shots, worming and brushing, he had horns so I made sure to train him to not use his head.
Until another ranchers cows broke in and that rancher tried to sort them out of our herd and kicked our bull because he wasn't moving fast enough(we never physically had to punish him, first time he was ever hit)....... and that did it, he was not trustable(as much as you can trust a large animal anyways) with people other then myself and my family(he stayed great with us, but strangers...RUN).
Those neighbour cows broke in again a couple weeks later, and that farmer that time decided to go and take all the cows and herd them to their handling facilities 2 mountains over to sort his and ours that way(we weren't home, or we would have done it). Our bull kept charging the fence of the paddocks so the Rancher(had Angus cattle for 30+ years) decided to shoot our bull(without our consent).
Now on one hand I found that to be comical because we have Dexters and he raises angus and his bulls are nasty as all get out. You meet his range herd out in the mountains you better find a tree you can climb cause those giant angus bulls of his "kill" on sight. And the guy couldn't deal with a pissed mini bull.
Also he never compensated us for neither the bull or the 4 months of herding his cows and fixing the fences his cows broke....
.
I think key is really to look at even the most miniscule behaviours when picking a bull or bull calf at a breeder. We don't have handling facilities for our current herd of 5 so a mellow, easy to work with bull is a must.
Breeding poultry I am very familiar with hand raised males being a pain so first thought when we got the idea to get cows "NO BOTTLE RAISED BULLS"(a gander is a pain in the rear, what will a giant bull be when he is hormonal right?).
At the breeders we looked at several bull calves and adult bulls. In those calves even the slightest thing like when approaching it first has to shake its head at you(at about a month old) and snort and really think about the moving away from you is a big NO for us.
Ended up bringing home a 3 yr old super mellow bull(that was 4 yrs ago now i think) that looks like a tank.
You can mess with his cows/calves and he minds his own business. Has never given us the stink eye, or any sort of threat display. Our first bull we had 8 yrs ago was great too, but he struck me as one that if he had one bad experience that he would go bad, had him for 2 yrs never had an issue. Halter broken, taught to stand perfectly still for shots, worming and brushing, he had horns so I made sure to train him to not use his head.
Until another ranchers cows broke in and that rancher tried to sort them out of our herd and kicked our bull because he wasn't moving fast enough(we never physically had to punish him, first time he was ever hit)....... and that did it, he was not trustable(as much as you can trust a large animal anyways) with people other then myself and my family(he stayed great with us, but strangers...RUN).
Those neighbour cows broke in again a couple weeks later, and that farmer that time decided to go and take all the cows and herd them to their handling facilities 2 mountains over to sort his and ours that way(we weren't home, or we would have done it). Our bull kept charging the fence of the paddocks so the Rancher(had Angus cattle for 30+ years) decided to shoot our bull(without our consent).
Now on one hand I found that to be comical because we have Dexters and he raises angus and his bulls are nasty as all get out. You meet his range herd out in the mountains you better find a tree you can climb cause those giant angus bulls of his "kill" on sight. And the guy couldn't deal with a pissed mini bull.
Also he never compensated us for neither the bull or the 4 months of herding his cows and fixing the fences his cows broke....
.
