Let me start out by saying that I do not own "our" cattle. All of the cattle we have, as well as the property they are on belongs to my elderly grandfather (this is where a lot of our issue comes in as we cannot personally start trouble with the neighbor). My husband and I take care of the herd and make all of the decisions, and he gives us part of the money when it comes time to sell calves. Of course the amount of money the calves brings determines the amount of money we get when they are sold. So it is important to us to make decisions that are profitable to everyone involved.
We have always kept a bull, but I am getting to where I can't move like I used to, so I have gotten less and less comfortable doing anything with the herd because you can never trust a bull. I had gotten to where I did not even like going for a walk back to the pond at the back of the property because of our bull. He was a show bull and so he was not at all afraid and people, and while he was not aggressive, he always wanted to be scratched or to play. I knew if he ever came up to me out in the middle of the pasture and tried to head butt me (even playfully), I would be in trouble because there would be no way to get away from him. And so we recently decided to no longer own a bull, but instead switch over to 100% artificial insemination. Not to mention we had kept back a hand full of heifers from our bull, so it was really time for him to move on anyway.
Apparently our bull was keeping our neighbors bull in his place because ever since we have sold our bull we have had an issue with the neighbors bull coming into our pasture. That would not be an issue except that we sell our calves as show calves whenever possible (because they bring a considerable amount more than at the sale barn) and his bull is not of good quality. In the past week and a half he has visited four times. The first time he came over was not a big deal. None of our cows were in season, but he did come over with one of the neighbors cows that was in heat. We penned the bull and cow up and drove over and told the neighbor they were there, and explained to him that it was not a big deal except that we did not want him to breed any of our cows. He did not understand how we could possibly not want calves from his bull because as he described him, he is an excellent registered high quality Angus bull. I have been around cattle my entire life and I can tell you that without a doubt in this world, this bull is a low-average quality Brangus bull. I tried to tell him that any calf that came of his bull mated to our cows would not be registerable and therefore would have to go to the sale barn to where they would sell for a lot less money. He never did seem to understand what I was trying to tell him.
Well since that first encounter about a week and a half ago the bull has been back three more times. The second time he came back I witnessed him breeding our best cow who has our top selling calf each year who always goes to the same family who loves the calves off that particular cow. They would not be at all interested in a calf off the neighbor's bull. The third time he came back he was after one of our cows whom I could not determine for sure which one it was as it was getting dark and I was here alone and afraid to go out into the pasture with a bull I do not know by myself. Tonight he is back and after one of our cows. I am not sure if it is the same cow he was after yesterday, or a different one.
Now, I do not want to be unreasonable, but this is all became a really big issue for us. Unfortunately my grandfather does not find it to be that big of a deal. He does not depend on the calf money like we do, so a calf is a calf is a calf to him. He does not want us to start any conflict with the neighbor, but something has to be done. We are already planning on taking the cows we know he was after to the vet to get a shot to keep them from becoming pregnant from these matings, but that cannot be good for the cows and it does not solve the problem of the bull most likely coming back next time they are in heat anyway. Not to mention the cost will start to add up if we have to keep doing this.
We have asked for advise elsewhere on what to do, and the suggestions have been to 1.) Shoot the bull. 2.) Haul the bull to the sale barn. 3.) Catch the bull and run him out of our pasture and let the neighbor collect him out of the road.
Obviously we do not want to do anything illegal (I am sure hauling him to the sale barn would qualify as illegal....possibly shooting him too), and I do not want to be the cause of any damage to anyone else's property if we were to let him out of our pasture and he went into the road and got hit or into a neighbors yard, but I really need to find some sort of solution.
I am pretty sure he is just flat out jumping the fence, so I do not believe it is anything that can we fix through fence repair. Not to mention the neighbor had told us that if we provided the barbwire he would put up a new fence...two years ago. We got him the barbwire as soon as he mentioned it but two years later no fence has been built. He says it is too dry and the ground is too hard so he cannot drive new T Posts.
What would ya'll do in this situation?
We have always kept a bull, but I am getting to where I can't move like I used to, so I have gotten less and less comfortable doing anything with the herd because you can never trust a bull. I had gotten to where I did not even like going for a walk back to the pond at the back of the property because of our bull. He was a show bull and so he was not at all afraid and people, and while he was not aggressive, he always wanted to be scratched or to play. I knew if he ever came up to me out in the middle of the pasture and tried to head butt me (even playfully), I would be in trouble because there would be no way to get away from him. And so we recently decided to no longer own a bull, but instead switch over to 100% artificial insemination. Not to mention we had kept back a hand full of heifers from our bull, so it was really time for him to move on anyway.
Apparently our bull was keeping our neighbors bull in his place because ever since we have sold our bull we have had an issue with the neighbors bull coming into our pasture. That would not be an issue except that we sell our calves as show calves whenever possible (because they bring a considerable amount more than at the sale barn) and his bull is not of good quality. In the past week and a half he has visited four times. The first time he came over was not a big deal. None of our cows were in season, but he did come over with one of the neighbors cows that was in heat. We penned the bull and cow up and drove over and told the neighbor they were there, and explained to him that it was not a big deal except that we did not want him to breed any of our cows. He did not understand how we could possibly not want calves from his bull because as he described him, he is an excellent registered high quality Angus bull. I have been around cattle my entire life and I can tell you that without a doubt in this world, this bull is a low-average quality Brangus bull. I tried to tell him that any calf that came of his bull mated to our cows would not be registerable and therefore would have to go to the sale barn to where they would sell for a lot less money. He never did seem to understand what I was trying to tell him.
Well since that first encounter about a week and a half ago the bull has been back three more times. The second time he came back I witnessed him breeding our best cow who has our top selling calf each year who always goes to the same family who loves the calves off that particular cow. They would not be at all interested in a calf off the neighbor's bull. The third time he came back he was after one of our cows whom I could not determine for sure which one it was as it was getting dark and I was here alone and afraid to go out into the pasture with a bull I do not know by myself. Tonight he is back and after one of our cows. I am not sure if it is the same cow he was after yesterday, or a different one.
Now, I do not want to be unreasonable, but this is all became a really big issue for us. Unfortunately my grandfather does not find it to be that big of a deal. He does not depend on the calf money like we do, so a calf is a calf is a calf to him. He does not want us to start any conflict with the neighbor, but something has to be done. We are already planning on taking the cows we know he was after to the vet to get a shot to keep them from becoming pregnant from these matings, but that cannot be good for the cows and it does not solve the problem of the bull most likely coming back next time they are in heat anyway. Not to mention the cost will start to add up if we have to keep doing this.
We have asked for advise elsewhere on what to do, and the suggestions have been to 1.) Shoot the bull. 2.) Haul the bull to the sale barn. 3.) Catch the bull and run him out of our pasture and let the neighbor collect him out of the road.
Obviously we do not want to do anything illegal (I am sure hauling him to the sale barn would qualify as illegal....possibly shooting him too), and I do not want to be the cause of any damage to anyone else's property if we were to let him out of our pasture and he went into the road and got hit or into a neighbors yard, but I really need to find some sort of solution.
I am pretty sure he is just flat out jumping the fence, so I do not believe it is anything that can we fix through fence repair. Not to mention the neighbor had told us that if we provided the barbwire he would put up a new fence...two years ago. We got him the barbwire as soon as he mentioned it but two years later no fence has been built. He says it is too dry and the ground is too hard so he cannot drive new T Posts.
What would ya'll do in this situation?
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