Wouldn't be able to keep beef

[midlf]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

From what I have heard about bulls, having one as a "pet" is a high risk. Is this correct???????

 

[hudr]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

Trust me, spend a wet cold winter sloshing feed into the muddy lot with thousand pound animals pushing on you. Haul water and feed to a down cow who's first thought after you bring it from the brink of death is to try to kill you.
You won't mind one bit knocking one in the head and stuffing it in the freezer. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Highbeam]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

The bull as a pet is far riskier than a black lab. Proper precautions can lead to a mutually beneficial relationship where you get bred cows and he gets, well, er, uh, a free lunch.

I would generally not trust a bull or get in with him. They are a necessary evil though unless you intend to AI your cows. You can also rent bulls.

Owning a bull is when you need to consider breeds. A black angus bull may be a little or a lot meaner than a scottish highland bull. You can keep angus cows and breed off to a smaller and more docile breed of bull for easier calving.

 

[nobull1]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( From what I have heard about bulls, having one as a "pet" is a high risk. Is this correct??????? )</font>

Now that's a understatement as they can be outright dangerous. I could tell a few stories and go on and on but. I had a yearling one year get loose in the barn. Now this guy was easy going no real problem. I went up to him to get him back in a stall and all h-ll broke loose. He let a bellow out of him and put his head down and pinned my legs to a wooden gate. If you can imagine me screaming and hammering with my fists on his neck as well as him bellowing the war cry pawing the ground to get better traction to flatten me. This was not a good scene /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif. Do to pure luck he decided to back up a couple of feet to get a run on and finish me off and I was able to dive over the gate before he smashed his head into it. Needless to say I didn't do great in the battle but I won the war /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
As Highbeam said they are a necessary evil but the alternative is AI and that has it's own problems(been there done that). Now I use 15 month old bulls for one season. When they go into the barn in the fall they come out in the Spring as steak at 24 months /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.
Small scale farming is a labour of love as there is no real money in it if your time is worth anything. IMO the potential problems and amount of work is not something to be taken lightly.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

Dad bought a registered Boer goat for his herd from a socalled friend. He was out of the goat business and told dad that the goat was bread to aregistered Boer billy. On game day we had a yellow spotted something and a brown spotted some thing. about 2 months go by and dad has them banded. well it got to bothering dad that he had 2 off beat goats and these 2 Mexican friends of ours came over on day wanting a meat goat to raise. My brothers girl friend didnt belive me about it so she asked Juan and Javy about it. She asked then about what they were named Juan said Taco and Burrito.

 

[Egon]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

Bulls are just plain no fun to be around or keep inside a pasture fence.

They also seem to get meaner as they age and get bigger.

From 40 or so years ago: The bulls were carefully picked from registered stock but only lasted maybe three or four years before going down the road. This was because of the mean/size factor and wanting to keep some young hefeirs for breeding stock.

Best way to handle them was a ring through the nose, a good dog and someone else hanging on to the rope. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Think of an old cowboy song "Windy Bill"

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RidgeRunnerWVa]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

<font color="blue"> Still, I've lost that farmer's practical attitude toward animals. </font>

Thats the problem with these animal rights activists,they are out of touch with reality.

If you are serious about raising cattle, I would just start with one or 2 and that way you will get an idea of what you are getting into. Get yourself a calf and raise it.Chances are they won't stand there and let you scratch there heads unless you really spend a lot of time with them and a bull especially does not like for his head to be messed with,thats what he fights with. Some cattle can be real docile and some not.

 

[nobull1]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Bulls are just plain no fun to be around or keep inside a pasture fence.

They also seem to get meaner as they age and get bigger.

From 40 or so years ago: The bulls were carefully picked from registered stock but only lasted maybe three or four years before going down the road. This was because of the mean/size factor and wanting to keep some young heifers for breeding stock.

Best way to handle them was a ring through the nose, a good dog and someone else hanging on to the rope. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Think of an old cowboy song "Windy Bill"

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>


I keep my cattle in tie stalls for the winter so you get close and personal with them. A bad attitude and size make trouble for me. I had my first bull,(avatar pic) after breeding AI for many years and learnt a lot. First of all at 3 he was around 2000 lbs and could tear the wall down just by lifting his head. Second he could have destroyed my barn just by getting loose and walking around. Third when I realized I could not touch my fingers together when putting his halter back on it was just too big. The game he used to play was to lean on you and pin you to the stall, just to see what you would do, after you started breathing again /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif His pa was a AI bull that was known for being docile so that wasn't a problem but size sure was.

I was out about a month ago in the barn to feed the cattle and bull( pic on entrance page on my web site)and he had the snap from the wall, to his tag end of the neck chain snapped into his nose ring /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif. At this point he had little mobility but was not in trouble. So if you can imagine here I am in a stall with this bull trying to unsnap the hook from his now super tender nose ring /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif. I'm sure it looked like calf roping but using a thousand pound bull as the calf /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif. In the end I had to remove the halter and release the wall chain to be able to get enough slack to unhook. Of course this gave another problem "loose bull". So as I said young, good temperment are a must for me. IMO Up until 2 years they have some natural fear of you, as they get older they get more dominate. Also I find graining a(18Month old) bull for the last 6 months in a stall makes good beef as well. If you keep them another season they are only good for burger.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Best way to handle them was a ring through the nose, a good dog and someone else hanging on to the rope. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>

I remember that when the bull got out the first thing my father would do is send all the kids into the house.

Then they would try to get a rope through the nose ring -- which I guess was a pretty scary thing, even though our bulls were not, for the most part, especially nasty.

They each had their own pen, with pasture and building. One got mad one day and tore the whole roof off the pen by standing on its hind legs and banging on the roof with its head. Quite a feat for an animal that big.

This is why very large spikes are called bull pen spikes, well at least we always called them that.

We had holstiens, not beef cattle, so that may affect the nature and size quite a bit, but to a kid those bulls were huge.

Cliff

 

[MotorSeven]

Re: Wouldn\'t be able to keep beef

The wife has written instructions:
If i EVER even mildly entertain the thought of getting a couple of cows, she is to back up, then slap me with a side arm haymaker /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif.
My folks had 'em and to me they are just too much work for a hobby. I plan on several horses, and those are enough!

Rd