4.20.25
It is always interesting when we get a new bull. When you have not raised him up yourself there are always so many questions such as is he a fence jumper or a gate pusher? Is he relatively quiet or rather vocal? However, the most important question of all is how his temperament is. Unless we go to a livestock auction or take the time to travel to see a bull in person before we purchase him, quite often of late we have taken a chance and bought a bull just from seeing him in pictures. Thankfully I ask a lot of questions and like to see plenty of pictures, but it is still a gamble, although one that has paid off the past few years.
Our previous bull Yoda – so named because he was born on the fourth of July and sort of looked like Yoda – did a grand job breeding our girls. We ended up with some dandy heifers that we kept back as replacement breeding stock. Of course, that meant Yoda had to find a new home and the search for a replacement bull began.
The past couple of years we had noticed some nice-looking young Hereford bullocks a rancher was running on our neighbour’s land during the summer. Since we are rather partial to Herefords, we got in touch with him on the off chance he had any prospects for sale. Unfortunately, the youngsters we had seen were already sold, but he did have a mature fellow, just turned four years old, that was available. After much back-and-forth discussion, including numerous pictures and even a video sent to us of the bull, we made the decision to purchase him. To tell you the truth, I had pretty much fallen in love with him and before he even arrived, I named him Monty. He just looked like a Monty!
In asking about the bull, we were told he was respectful of fences and easy to work with but by no means a pet! Well, most bulls coming from big ranches are not. As part of the deal, his previous owner delivered him to us and Monty was unloaded down at the milk cow paddock to visit Heidi and Lass until it was time for him to go out with the beef girls. This would also give me a chance to work with him a bit as I do like our bulls to have good manners. Asking if he had ever had grain, the answer was in the negative. Well, I thought, we had our work cut out for us as I like all our bovines to know what a grain bucket is. Not to fatten them up I might add, but rather as a handy means of getting an animal to follow you from one pasture to the next. Or occasionally, to coax an errant beast back into a paddock when it has strolled through an open gate!
It did not take long for Monty to discover that our fences, if he touched them, would give him a nasty surprise. Not having been around hot-wire before it was indeed a “shocking” moment! Since that one bite from the fence, however, he now has great respect for paddock boundaries. The next lesson for him to learn was that he must never eat out of our hay trailer but rather wait until the fodder is forked into the feeder. The first few days I did allow a mouthful to be snatched without discouraging him since I wanted him to get used to me. Then, a couple of days later, before he could get to the hay trailer, I would grab a chunk of alfalfa and walk slightly towards him, tempting him with the tasty treat but not allowing him to eat anything else. Finally, he came close enough to stretch his tongue to the limit and wrap it around the hay stalks.
Day by day a routine was established. If he went to swipe a mouthful of hay from the trailer, I reprimanded him with a loud shout of “Oy!” – my universal word for “Stop what you are doing this instant or else!”. Monty now knows to walk calmly up to me, stand quietly until I hold out a chunk of hay and take it politely out of my hand before walking to the feeder to get the rest of his breakfast. He has finally figured out grain is good too! As he watches me coming to the milk house each morning to relieve Heidi of milk, he realizes while Heidi is in the milk house, Lass will get a well-deserved measure of grain also. Tentatively at first, he would wander over to investigate what old Lass was munching on, sampling the grain but not really that interested in it. Now, however, he knows as soon as Heidi is ensconced in the stantion and the milker ticking away, I will come into the paddock with two buckets of grain. One for Lass and one for him. He has his own grain tub and must wait patiently until I pour out the tasty morsels and give the command “Okay!”, which means now you can eat!
I really do like this fellow. He is stout, very self-assured but has a kind eye and a lovely disposition. Do I ever forget he is a bull? No, not at all. For as much as I feel we have gained a mutual trust, a bull is still a bull, and one must never forget that! However, he was quick to learn his manners, is gentle around Lass and Heidi’s youngsters and I think will be a grand sire to some dandy calves next year. I have an idea Monty will join the ranks of some of our more memorable bulls such as Tank, Jerry, Murray, Henry and others. He has settled in nicely and hopefully our Heidi girl is already carrying his calf. Soon he will move into the green fields with our beef girls, getting fat and sleek on the rapidly growing grass. Occasionally I will go out there with a bucket of grain and have no doubt he will stroll over with the rest of the cows, waiting patiently for me to dump the kernels on the ground and say the magic word before lowering his big head to sample the tasty treat.
