05/23/12, 10:45 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: SE Ohio
Posts: 2,174
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I would like to point out something.
We have generally shipped our bulls by around 15-18 months old. They have done their job *and* we have over 40 fenceline neighbors and live in the village. The liability involved in keeping a mature bull around is not worth it. Especially with our fencing. There are some places where the fencing is one strand of barbed wire (if any wire at all). For that matter, until three years ago, we mostly AIed, and ran bulls for clean up purposes.
Not sure which bull we had at that time, though I would suspect it was Jason. He had twice shown a touch of aggression. The one time towards me when I was wearing a hood. I took the hood off and he was fine.
The night he was to be shipped? I walked right up to him, put the halter on his head and led him up to the barn. He was calm and fine. But, he had bred everyone and so it was time for him to go.
He had been hand raised, of course. We don't baby our hand raised bulls. They learn respect, but not through physical violence from humans.
Oscar's older maternal half brother is 3 or 4 this year. I don't recall which. He was exclusively dam raised. He'd be gone, but we can't hold him in a pen long enough to get him loaded (he has his daddy's issues). He hates being out of the fence, so so far is not much of an issue. Not aggressive at all. In fact, he "heads for the hills" when we walk towards him.
I'm trying to remember the last bull we had that was down and out mean...I just don't think we ever kept one long enough for that to be an issue.
Unmanageable in our fencing? Sure. Done with their job? Yup. Mean and a danger? Not really.
Even Mast was not showing serious signs of aggression. He was not purposely charging us or being threatening. He just finally realized we weren't bigger than him and that he could go where he wanted. Hence needing to ship him that night. He had become a large liability with so many neighbors so close by.
The farm used to keep the Jersey bulls for a long time. 6-8 years old. Until they needed new blood. The bulls tended to go on to other farms to be used.
Bulls definitely need to be respected and never be trusted. Period, but I just have to wonder how much the upbringing has on it. Our dam raised, but handled bull, acted the same as our hand raised bulls.
Ah well. If we had the proper fencing, we would have been able to keep Mast longer, but with our fencing what it is, it means keeping bulls around for less time.
I just wanted to make it clear we ship the bulls when we do due to liability of neighbor issues and not because the bulls have already turned.
Do they have that potential? Yup. Every male does.
You think bulls are bad? Hang out on the goat boards for awhile. Smaller animal means being raised even more improperly which leads to aggression issues.
We don't have aggressive bucks here either due to the way they are hand raised.
Last edited by dosthouhavemilk; 05/23/12 at 10:52 PM.
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