Keeping a miniature jersey bull

[darbyfamily]

how would you recommend that one contain a mini jersey bull. he is 3 yrs old and 40" at the hip. He's not real heavy yet Will cattle panels.. 5x16ft .... 5 or 6 of them, keep him contained? if we tpost every 4 ft?

We have four Dexters and one midsize jersey *his mom* and then him and a banded bull calf.....

well, we have the Dexters so far, we are going friday to pick up the bull and jersey cow and calf and bring them home.

I need to have a pen or area to contain him set up by then so that he doesn't get to his mom and breed her She just calved a week ago and will be coming into heat again soon I am sure.

another question. I know that breeding a goat back to his mother is called line breeding, IF it works and if it doesn't its called inbreeding *lol* Is it the same thing in cows?

[darbyfamily]

nobody has any ideas here?

[linn]

Same thing with cows, if it works it is line breeding, if the results are bad it is inbreeding. I would suggest a strong hog wire fence or a pen built with cattle panels. I would also run a hot wire on the inside of either fence. I don't know about mini Jerseys, but our Angus bulls are just like a bulldozer. They will go under, over or through a fence to get to a cow in heat. A hot wire is the only thing they learn to respect.

[dairymon]

You can also ring him and put a chain on the ring. The chain should be long enough so he can not lower his head and run. He may be small but treat him like any other bull.

[jerzeygurl]

i would recomend NOONE keep a jersey bull after 18 months, def not a 3 year old, they are plain wicked when they turn, and they will, they always do.

[darbyfamily]

well, obviously SOMEBODY has to keep them! right? or we wouldn't have bulls to breed with... don't worry, we'll be careful!

[Callieslamb]

I would AI my cows to a mini jersery rather than feeding one year in and out for a few minutes' work a year. Just my opinion. Unless, of course, you plan to sell his services to others that want mini jersery ancestry.

[gone-a-milkin]

Originally Posted by darbyfamily

well, obviously SOMEBODY has to keep them! right? or we wouldn't have bulls to breed with... don't worry, we'll be careful!

To be fair to jurzeygurl, you came here asking about how to contain a 3 y/o bull and she just pointed out that they are dangerous.
Have you seen the facilities they keep bulls in at Select Sires or anything like that?
If you haven't been around a full-grown mature bull when there are cows in heat,
just saying "dont worry, we'll be careful" while asking how to contain this animal is ALARMING to folks who have.

You need really serious stout fencing.
It is not like keeping a steer.
Not. At. All.
If you have little kids, you SPANK them for going anywhere near the bull.
That is how careful you have to be.

I am just saying.

[darbyfamily]

really guys.. I GET IT.. really! I don't say we'll be careful lightly.. I SERIOUSLY get it! I was asking advice on fencing and we plan to do everything we can to contain him AND protect our children...

sheesh, ya'll get a bit uptight sometimes.. besides, I wasn't giving Jerzeygurl a hard time.. so there wasn't any reason to 'be fair' to her.. I was just commenting that some people do obviously keep them around, right?

[gone-a-milkin]

Not for long, they dont get to stick around. Seriously. This bull you are buying and bringing home this weekend, how are they currently containing him?

[darbyfamily]

I'll make sure to take notes... he's 40" tall though, so I cant imagine it would be too hard to keep him behind fences??? a 5 ft cattle panel with enough tposts to keep it strong should be plenty...

I'll see what they're using.

I appreciate your concern. You may be right, we may find that once he's done his job this summer, we're ready to move him along... time will tell I suppose.

[gone-a-milkin]

I am not trying to be hard on you.

Keep in mind that any cows this bull can smell will be fair game to this guy.
Keeping your bull off of your neighbors cows is also your responsibility.
I know that most beef cattle breeders dont appreciate Jersey genetics hopping the fence.

I grew up with Jerseys and we never kept a bull past 2 y/o. Never.
Our clean-up bulls were usually gone by 2 and a half, and they were Angus.

You are taking on a whole new thing, keeping a bull.
If he can go under, over, or through the fence, he will.
He will keep on trying any percieved weak spot in the fence, day and night.
If he decides in his small hormone addled brain that you are a threat,
or your dog, children, truck, tractor is, you will see serious damage done.
It is not like a dog on a chain, where they give up and quit pulling against it.

They keep bashing relentlessly until they get out.

I have watched Jersey bulls beat themselves bloody climbing cattle panels.
Anything for love, I guess.

Good luck. It CAN be done. Just not easily. and WHY?

[francismilker]

Jennifer,
If you're asking about facilities to contain him, I'll add my two cents.

I sold a jersey bull to a dairyman last year to use on his heifers. I agreed to deliver the bull and showed up to a pen that looked like Ft. Knox. It was 6' high with 2-7/8 steel posts every 6' with a top rail and two horizontal middle rails. It had 7/8" sucker rod in between that every 8".

I asked the dairyman if thought his pen was strong enough to contain him in a joking kind of way and he said, "not really, a bull can smell a cow in heat for miles and will do whatever it takes to get to her." He said he has to have a pen that's stouter than the bull's head's ability to push.

With Jerseys, the problem is that they do have a natural mean streak that cause people to be more leery of pasturing them. (which is a good practice to keep them out of open range.) If you put them in what looks like something that's strong enough to contain them they always test it. It's not the feed and hay that keeps them in the pen. It's the non-existant smell of a cow in heat for miles. As soon as the aroma of a cow in heat comes knocking, they bull turns into another critter. ...............Just my two cents......

[DJ in WA]

Yeah, he's going to go crazy with a cow in heat just across the fence. Poor guy.

Fortunately, I've got no other cows within miles. Had a bull a couple of times and could leave them with the cows. Even then they like to beat everything up they can see. Forgot and left a wheelbarrow in the field and found it bent in two. Boys will be boys. Just got tired of them, and AI is the only way to go for me now. Less feed and better quality of bulls. Not to mention less risk of getting killed, as a yearling Jersey bull I sold almost did to the buyer's dad.

But then, maybe this guy you're getting is just a lap dog, who knows.

[Cliff]

Our mild mannered Dexter bull can jump 6 foot corral panels if he gets a mind to. He's a little shorter than your Jersey. Only difference is he's not shown himself to be dangerous, Dexters very rarely are. OTOH Jerseys very rarely aren't dangerous at some point.

[MARYDVM]

I had a 3 yr old mid-mini Jersey bull that I was able to contain with field fencing with two strands of hot wire on the inside. He learned what hot wire was as a calf, and respected it. He did continuously trash whatever watering system I tried, and even tried pushing down the 3 sided shelter they had. 2 weeks ago the fence was off and he managed to get out into a larger fenced area around the house. After destroying fruit trees, grain storage, and other equipment he went for me in a serious way as I was herding him back to his 2 cows in their paddock. He was scheduled to go that weekend to breed a friends cow, but went straight into the freezer instead.

[darbyfamily]

Well, to be honest, the deal I got on this cow/banded bull calf/bull trio is such a deal that if I were to just keep him long enough to breed the five girls, well, four, since one is already pg.... I could send him to the freezer and still have an amazing deal on the cow (even if I gave all the meat away ) so maybe we'll try out his temprament, let him breed the girls and then make our long term choices then.

For now, he's coming home with us and we'll figure out what his fate is over time.

is the meat still any good if he's been a bull vs a steer?

here is a picture of him...

[glenn amolenaar]

Darbyfamily,
DO NOT be fooled a Jersey bull is not to be trusted as well as any other bull in this area over the years the jersey bull has hurt/killed many people. Remember all bulls only have one job. Dairy breeds tend to do more harm to people because the people forget the bulls main/only job. We stopped pasture breeding our dairy cows after a handfed Brown Swiss bull put me in a tree. AI is best way to go.
Glenn

[MARYDVM]

We've tried a package of steaks from the bull so far, and they were very flavorful, lean and tender. We did have the rounds made into hamburger since those cuts tend to be tougher anyway. We really didn't need the beef right now, but he'll keep better in the freezer than he would've on the homestead.

[jerzeygurl]

Originally Posted by darbyfamily

well, obviously SOMEBODY has to keep them! right? or we wouldn't have bulls to breed with... don't worry, we'll be careful!

we raise jerseys, we eat the males at 18 months, never keep past 2 years, they turn mean usually at 18months


deadly mean, and they are small and fast