Mystery of the Flying Walenda/Houdini Bull

[Soundguy]

I heard that.. even with well trained / well behaved animals like horses. If you are standing next to a 1000# animal and a car backfires.. or a bee stings it.. well.. you can get stomped or pushed down fast..

soundguy

 

[RadarTech]

I heard that.. even with well trained / well behaved animals like horses. If you are standing next to a 1000# animal and a car backfires.. or a bee stings it.. well.. you can get stomped or pushed down fast..

soundguy

the bee reminds me of a Jerry Clower joke.....

:laughing::laughing:


It's all about size--- a 1/2 inch long little bee can make a 2000 lb brahma bull jump an 8 strand barbed wire fence.....
So does size really matter???:laughing::laughing::laughing:



Sorry I thought that fit in here!!!

J

 

[McSummation]

All bulls need to be respected. But, for a few reasons, dairy bulls in general can be the worst. Many are bottle fed and don't have respect for human authority, and many get extremely large. That being said, even a mini bull will hurt you.

Again, I'm late to the party.

When I was little, my grandparents ran a Holstein dairy farm. They had a small barn with a heavy pen (welded steel pipe) on each side where the bulls lived. Stuck into the corner of the barn was a five tine pitch fork with half the handle cut off. Before my anyone went into the bull pens, the pitch fork was in one hand. Grandpa told me that the only thing those bulls respected was those sharp tines, and then only after they had been poked really hard a couple of times.

 

[Bird]

A few years ago, a neighbor had a really bad accident and was in the hospital in very serious condition. He had some cattle he wanted sold, including a little bad tempered bull. I went with a couple of other guys to load those animals and take them to the auction, and one of the guys didn't seem a bit scared of that bull; just went right in with that bull and jabbed him with a sharp pitch fork every time the bull approached him. So, yep, that really works.

 

[MMagis]

just went right in with that bull and jabbed him with a sharp pitch fork every time the bull approached him. So, yep, that really works.

It works.... until it doesnt.

 

[Bird]

It works.... until it doesnt.

I reckon that's a possibility, too.:laughing: My dad would not allow me to be afraid of animals on the farm, except for bulls. He said if a rooster attacks, catch his feet and dip him in the water trough to break him of it, if the horse throws you, get right back on, if a milk cow wants to fight, she'll come at you with her head down and if you just kick her as hard as you can on the nose, she'll stop and jerk that head up, but a bull will run right through you. Well, it always worked, although I'm not confident you could stop a range cow like we did milk cows.:laughing: And I always have bulls a wide berth.

 

[Soundguy]

it works untill they get into a frenzy... Once like that they will run thru anything.. gates, fences, people with pitchforks.. etc.

I have one run thru a tube gate that had been reinforced with 2x4 woven no climb fence, and I had chained the corners as safeties. the bovine bowed the gate out, broke both latch and corner posts and all but took the gate down. it stayed up enough to contain the animals.. and the offender had a grid pattern on it's nose.. but the amounbt of force it put out was tremendous. I would not want to have been in front of that with a sharp stick..

soundguy

 

[texasjohn]

Been around cattle and other livestock all my life. "reading" the animal is key. IMHO, doesn't matter as to gender. Bulls just generally weigh more and have a reputation. Watch out for a range cow with new born calf!

Most cattle will always give you respect without you doing anything. Others, given pause in the form of a stick or pitchfork, will give you respect and accede to your directives. This assumes you know how to work cattle.

Very, very occasionally one will have a certain look in the eye, I can't define it but I know it when I see it, and is willing to run over you regardless of what kind of persuasive tool you may be wielding. Some of it has to do with running at you with speed, ignoring the stick/pitchfork until hit and by then momentum is sufficient to carry thru/over you even if the animal wanted to stop and the animal continues on because you are now not in its way. In these animals, the flight/fight response has somehow merged into a response that has no "run away" component but is all "run over/fight thru to get away." I can detect this in a weaned calf....best to sell it immediately and not let it get larger than your fences and pens can hold.

 

[bcarwell]

Wow, looks like I created the thread that wouldn't die.

Just thought I'd update you. After my neighbor helped run his retired 3 rodeo bulls back onto his side of the fence (took 4 hours) I had him look at my cattle guard and cross fence where my Houdini Bull was getting over/through. He said to (1) add a single strand of barbed wire on top of the high tensile fence I already have to discourage jumping and (2) that my cattle guard wasn't deep enough. I told him I was concerned about it being so deep (if the bull is getting over by walking through the cattle guard) that he might break a foreleg. He assures me that if they can't see the bottom they won't even venture into it. I'm pretty convinced now he hasn't been jumping the fence because I completely blocked off the cattle guard and haven't had a single new incident of him getting on the other side.

So.... I'm going to pull up the cattle guard and dig it deeper and then unblock it, and we shall see.

All these cattle stories reminds me of the time my brother visited from New Hampshire. He was insistent upon roping a steer, so I pointed him to our longhorn and said "Have at it" and went inside for a cold one. When I came out sure enough he had one roped and tied to a tree but hadn't thought ahead how he'd get the rope off, and was fiddling with it with a seven iron. After about an hour he finally got the rope off the horns of a pretty angry longhorn with his 7 iron and his promising roping career came to an abrupt halt. Personally I think he was mis-clubed as it looked more like he needed a 2 iron....

 

[czechsonofagun]

if a rooster attacks....

Reminds me of the movie Cold Mountain:


I despise a flogging rooster. :thumbsup: