Bull

Today I bought a two year old bull.  He seems gentle with a easy going disposition.  He has fathered several calves, which I've seen. He was mounting one of the owner's heifer who was in heat. The owner sold the bull because he has a small herd and he didn't want inbreeding.

He is a good bull, and one suited for my small operation, but not a great bull.  So I didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for him.  Great bulls are generally selling for $2000 to $3000 with some going for more.

This bull had a registered Angus father and a white faced black mother.  Dan thinks it is possible there may be a Holstein way back on he mother's side which may account for the bull's white face and belly.

I got the bull Sunday afternoon.  Their loading facility is a gate and a couple panels to funnel the animal to the gate and trailer.  Not an ideal loading facility if the animals do not want to load into a trailer.  And with a bull I had reservations on how easy this would be.

Francisco, the owner, had his kids helping.  Getting in the way were sheep they had wandering in their little corral.  The owner tried to entice the bull with a bucket of grain but the other cows and sheep were more interested.  After several requests by the owners the kids finally secured the sheep.

Good thing the bull was easy going because with this set up else someone could have gotten hurt.

Francisco eventually got the bull in the handheld gates by the trailer. One small calf also followed the bull in.  The bull turned around to look at everyone instead of going into the trailer.  Francisco put some grain on the trailer floor and got in the small area to encourage the bull to get in the trailer.  He did.  But so was the calf.  Francisco grabbed the calf.  The bull started to turn around.  Francisco drug the calf out of the trailer and I got the trailer door shut before the bull could get out.

Actually easier than I expected.

For now I am holding the bull in the loading corral so he can get used to the area and I can observe him to see if he remains gentle at a new place.  So far so good.  He does some mooing as he doesn't want to be alone, but he doesn't pace or toss his head.  The wind was from the north and I believe he smelled the cattle a half mile up the road.  My cattle are in the south pasture and the bull would moo when they came out from the river and trees and he could see them.

The horses hung around the corral so he had some company of livestock. I tried to get one or two steers away from the herd in order to keep the bull company.  I got only one steer through the gate before the cows and heifers crowded around the gate. I haven't upgraded this gate so it is a barb wire gate which makes for difficult handling when trying to move only a few animals through the gate.

I tried to herd the steer to the corral but he got more and more agitated the further I tried to herd him away from the herd.  So I gave up.  I left the gates between the corral and this pasture open in case he gets curious about the corral and bull.