Post by JT on Oct 15, 2020 17:34:29 GMT -5
Hey everyone, we are in a bull dilemma to get our Dexter milk cow bred. She is open right now, and we had to dry her off because we couldn’t get someone to milk her when we went on a trip for a family wedding.
BLUF: Should we get a 4-year-old proven, great looking bull (with a bull attitude) or should we stick with the bull yearling we already have and hope he is capable of doing the job?
And
Is it an issue if you bring a bull from a herd of 40 cows into a herd of 2 cows? I am worried that since he won’t have as many cows to breed that he might be more aggressive and perhaps injure one of our cows.
Here are the details:
We purchased a Dexter bull yearling (about 1.5 years old), hoping he would be able to do the job. He arrived in much poorer condition than we would have liked, but has already made drastic improvements in the month we have had him. He is very calm (for a bull) and is handled enough so you can give him a rub down. He hasn’t shown any interest in the cow at all, it could be that he is just adjusting to our herd, and maybe he needs more time but I am worried he went sterile during his time of not being fed properly (the farmer we got him from was down all summer from a medical emergency and the animals suffered because of that). One option is we can try to fatten him up and hope that he warms up to our homestead and gets his act together. Thoughts?
The alternative is we could get a different Dexter bull, who is 4 years old and very capable of getting her bred. We went to look at him today and is a beautiful animal in every way, but is a little harder to work with. He hasn’t shown any aggression to humans, but the owner said he does often shake his head at you when you show up, and you just have to shoo him away and carry a stick with you to keep him in his place. I know this is a “typical” bull, but my wife is a little nervous, especially since we have our first child on the way. He is also coming from a much bigger herd, where he has a lot of cows to breed. Is it an issue when a bull is used to breeding 40 cows and is put in a new herd with only 2 cows?
BLUF: Should we get a 4-year-old proven, great looking bull (with a bull attitude) or should we stick with the bull yearling we already have and hope he is capable of doing the job?
And
Is it an issue if you bring a bull from a herd of 40 cows into a herd of 2 cows? I am worried that since he won’t have as many cows to breed that he might be more aggressive and perhaps injure one of our cows.
Here are the details:
We purchased a Dexter bull yearling (about 1.5 years old), hoping he would be able to do the job. He arrived in much poorer condition than we would have liked, but has already made drastic improvements in the month we have had him. He is very calm (for a bull) and is handled enough so you can give him a rub down. He hasn’t shown any interest in the cow at all, it could be that he is just adjusting to our herd, and maybe he needs more time but I am worried he went sterile during his time of not being fed properly (the farmer we got him from was down all summer from a medical emergency and the animals suffered because of that). One option is we can try to fatten him up and hope that he warms up to our homestead and gets his act together. Thoughts?
The alternative is we could get a different Dexter bull, who is 4 years old and very capable of getting her bred. We went to look at him today and is a beautiful animal in every way, but is a little harder to work with. He hasn’t shown any aggression to humans, but the owner said he does often shake his head at you when you show up, and you just have to shoo him away and carry a stick with you to keep him in his place. I know this is a “typical” bull, but my wife is a little nervous, especially since we have our first child on the way. He is also coming from a much bigger herd, where he has a lot of cows to breed. Is it an issue when a bull is used to breeding 40 cows and is put in a new herd with only 2 cows?
I’m curious what you would do in our situation. Thanks for your input!
I will try to post some pictures, I'm trying to figure that part out lol