How many here keep a bull for breeding?

ozark_jewels · #41 01/20/08, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dosthouhavemilk

Our homegrown bulls (Jersey and Jersey/Norwegian Reds) are always hand raised. They are raised differently then the heifers, however. Not handled the same way.
They can be hand raised successfully, but they should definitely not be treated the same way heifers are. No cattle should be made into "pets" similar to cats ad dogs. They are much bigger and more likely to hurt you unintentionally if they think it's okay to play. Bulls are not scratched on the tops of their heads. They are not handled near as much.

Same here. We buy our bulls as bottle calves, so they are always hand raised.

DrippingSprings · #42 01/20/08, 02:46 PM

wow we must do things different in ALabama or something.

I have lived around people with cattle and been part of raising cattle a large part of my life. We always kept a bull(s) and never had them getting out like this. I dont recall any of the neighbors bulls getting out and into ours either. Im sure its happened once or twice in my life. But no more than calves or heifers occasionally getting loose.

Ive been around santa gertrudis, angus, herefords etc and currently started raising charolais and black angus. I have a charolais thats easily over 2000 lbs. Big ol teddy bear.

I agree any time you mess with large livestock injuries can and will occur if you dont take caution. I once had a 900 pound santa gertrudis "play" with me by gently pushing me with his head. Then he had me close to a wall and broke three ribs. But it wasnt aggression just play. My fault for letting it go on long as it did.

The only cattle I am leery of are Brahmans. Ive never been near a bull of those that didnt want to make a greasy spot out of me.

BeltieBandit · #43 01/22/08, 03:07 PM

We have a small herd of Belted Galloway cattle that we raise for breeding stock. We have always had a bull, which is the important gene pool is. We do not separate our bull. Cattle are herd creatures, and do not like to be alone. I am not partial to AI, because we are growing our animals "natural" and for AI to work, you really need to use hormones to have the cows heat cycles aligned. If you have a very small herd, you might consider asking a neighboring farmer to breed your cows, we did this the first time, when we only had one cow.