My BWF Bull has turned mean.

[john in wa]

I bottle raised this little guy. but he has started acting aggressive towards me and others. i will have him castrated and butchered. i was wanting to use him this summer for breeding but his attitude has changed my mind. I don't feel safe having him in my pasture and worry about him getting out and hurting or killing some one. i used to be able to walk up to him and give him a light scratching. but now if i even try to approach him he lowers his head and tosses it from side to side. i tell ya it will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I found a paper about this behavior on line and will try to post a link. this is a great article about behavior and i have seen all three from this bull.. my other option is to load him up and haul him to the sale yard. I already have a freezer full of beef and don't know what to do with the extra beef. we have a slaughter sale on thursday and a general sale on saturdays. all i know is it is time for this guy to go.

http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7article/article29.htm

 

[amysflock]

How old is he? If I remember, he's still pretty young (around a year?). Unfortunately, he's testing you. And he's winning, by the sounds of it.

Bottle raised bulls are the most dangerous (especially dairy, which you don't have, thankfully), but they get so accustomed to people, and also to bunting the bottle or bucket for milk (getting what they want) AND often being scratched on the head and loved on (and God forbid pushed on and played with by the head as little ones)...all of this encourages bad behavior. ALL bulls will test, it's what they do. (Heck, a lot of young "teenager" heifers will, too.) If you don't need him, I'd send him on his way now. If you don't have to work around him frequently, maybe keep him until he's bred your cows and then send him on his way, but do not be afraid to bop him on the nose with an axe handle, etc.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Life is too short to own mean bulls, rams, bucks, etc. I worked at a dairy that used Holstein bulls as clean up bulls, and my first day on the job my boss told me to tell him if a bull EVER so much as looked at me cross-ways. They'd ship him immediately. They don't mess around at all.

There are PLENTY of good, calm bulls to use for breeding. You should never trust any bull, but there are plenty out there who are calm and don't test you. It's not worth it to take the chance!

 

[herfrds]

Bulls are not pets no matter if you raise them by a bottle or not.
We have a bull that I can scratch, but I don't trust him any farther then I can throw him.

We had a bull that liked to shake his head and blow snot at us. He did bluff charge at me and got the business end of a 4 tine pitch fork. He stayed that last year and hit the road.

 

[jhm47]

Bulls are best left unscratched, dehorned, and kept only till their jobs are done. Especially for those of you who are not highly experienced with cattle. Those of us who have raised cattle commercially for decades have handling facilities that are designed to handle the biggest, meanest, strongest bulls, but those of you who are raising just a few cattle for your family's meat, milk, or as pets, usually do not have the incentive to invest in such expensive facilities. This is why I'm so insistent on having people dehorn their calves. A human life is far more valuable than a few minutes of pain for these calves.

 

[john in wa]

I gave him a good rocking with the heaviest rocks i could toss hope i cracked his skull he has left me alone the last 2 days. i had to work out in the pasture all day today and he never came close. i will keep him for now. I am going to buy more electric fence supplies and run another hot wire just to be safe. i am also going to cross fence with electric and see if i can keep him to the south west side of the pasture. then he will not be close to neighbors heifers. maybe that will keep him from walking the fence all day. but on a good note i think my Jersey cow is about to calf. i went out tonight to check on her and she had about a foot of mucus hanging from her rear. so we will see if i don't have a another calf tomorrow.

 

[Gregg]

Only mean bull is a stockyard bull. Never put up with a mean bull. I have raised cattle for over 40 yrs had my share of bulls like that, got my $ form the stockyard to take care of mean bull's

 

[herfrds]

A stockyard employee in Miles City, Montana was killed by a bull trying to load him into a trailer.

 

[john in wa]

well i got him loaded. he is on his way to the sale in just a few. feeder bulls are up in my area so now is the time to sale.

 

[john in wa]

He brought 61 cents a pound and was top selling bull today. it also helped he was the only black bull. people love black bulls. anyway he is long gone and i will sleep like a baby tonight. first thing i done when i got home was take a walk around the pasture and felt like a was king of the pasture again.