Life among the Tall Pines: Cows meet bull

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Cows meet bull

After a couple days cooling his heels in the corral it was time for the bull to meet the cows. He has been moaning off and on the past couple days since he was lonely without company.    First he needed to get an ear tag as he has no brand on him. No one else around here has a black white faced bull but it is good to have some sort of identifier in case he gets off the property.

Late afternoon I took a break from loading Tammy's stuff into a u-haul trailer. Tammy has no interest in cattle and ranch work so my friend Donna came over to watch in case something happened and I got hurt handling the bull.   Donna has had many years experience with cattle.

The bull's neck was so thick, that while he could get his head and neck through the head gate he couldn't cause the head gate to catch and lock. Fortunately he was calm even after I lightly grabbed his ear. I quickly tagged his ear. I was so quick he could hardly react.

I also sprayed Ivermectin on his back to control parasites.

Then it was time to release him to go meet the cows. The corral gate was wide open but he was more interested in checking the full corral out. He would go around the corral but not through the gate. I am really cautious around a bull so I didn't press him like I would a cow.   Still Donna and I tried to encourage him to go out of the gate. A few times he appeared to start getting agitated so we backed off. Then Daisy appeared. As Daisy crossed the corral to me the bull saw her and ran and jumped after her. Daisy quickly found shelter in the loading ramp area. Finally the bull went through the open gate and left the corral.

The cattle were visible in the south pasture and while I am sure the bull has seen them, there were also cattle a quarter mile to the north, and there was a light breeze from that direction. The bull looks like he could easily go through many of my fences and I didn't want him to get any ideas about going in that direction.

I had the middle pasture gate open and Donna and I gently herded the bull towards the gate while he just wanted to eat grass.

Once the bull entered the middle pasture he ambled straight towards the south pasture gate, which was closed. When the bull stopped to scratch his head on a downed tree I went ahead and opened the gate. Then Donna gently herded the bull. Then he saw the cows and trotted to the fence. The cows who has been taking a siesta all stood up and intently watched us. Once the bull came through the gate the cows came to the bull. Immediately the bull started sniffing around Momma. Hmmm... I wonder who might be in heat.

I went back to loading the u-haul trailer. From a distance it appears the bull and cattle were getting along.

I think I have a name for the bull. When trying to entice the bull to come out of the loading corral, then the corral, I kept calling him "Buddy". "Hey Buddy. Come on Buddy. Over here Buddy."    Buddy sounds right for him.

Buddy the Bull.