Well we did it again. Changed out minds again.. and hopefully it won't come back to bite us later this fall. We wanted to breed our Holstein cow Maggie to a Guernsey by AI-ing her. Which is a great way (we've been told) to get the breed you want and not have to deal with a dairy bull (which are reported to have more temper then beef bulls.) Well we can't say we didn't try because we did try for over a month to just get a hold of and talk to a AI-er and we never actually connected.
Then Papa, who has been mulling this over, came up with a great idea. Maybe. His thought was instead of breeding Maggie to a Guernsey just breed her beef (better calf for eating) and buy a Guernsey heifer calf. Raise it up ourselves and ta da! No messing with AI-ing (which has proved very frustrating and possibly quite pricey.) and praying for a heifer and having to do something with the bull calf if we didn't get our heifer. That and the fact that we spent the month we wanted to breed her trying to find out information and if she's not bred soon we'll have a winter calf and we DID NOT want a winter calf. As it is it will be Oct, Nov before she calves which is already a bit late. At this point it's better late then never.
All that to tell you we have yet another animal, thankfully borrowed not bought on our small 5 acres.
So Monday I took a good look at my calender and counted out days and heats and told Papa. "Better get him soon or we'll miss it again!" So Papa took J and L with him Tuesday and went to talk to our wonderful neighbor Jim about his bull. Jim is done with the bull and doesn't mind sharing so today (Wednesday) at lunch time Chip starts to bark and sure enough there is Jim backing his horse trailer down our driveway. Well Papa was going to come on his lunch break and help Jim with the bull but Jim was early so I called Papa and told him then went out to help Jim. After a 'where am I going chat?' Jim backed his trailer right to where it needed to go and his mirrors were only once in jeopardy!
As he backed the trailer in I was 'helping' and the bull put his nose out one of the tiny windows of the trailer and BLEW!! I was instantly intimidated. I'm NOT a bull person.. I'm barely a milk cow person. I much prefer animals that are smaller and less intimating.Really that's me in a nut shell. So a 2000 lb Bull is really pushing limits for me.
When the trailer was in place and the electric fence down and Bindy and Maggie were standing there ready to greet their new pen mate Jim handed me a whip (the 1st I have EVER seen him use.) and told me to send Chip away. EEK. Because the bull might chase the dog and you don't want that! As Chip loves to sit by my feet whenever I stop I sent him away promptly. He was very hurt and went about 20 feet off and felt sorry for himself. I sternly told my self it was better him then ME! Jim told me 'the bull should go into the pen but just in case' EEK EEK!!
Jim opened the outside door and then went inside to open the front compartment where the bull was. "Here he comes!" was a warning to me just before 2000lbs of Red Angus BULL came stumbling out of the trailer. Thankfully he never even LOOKED at me!! He got caught on the electric wire as he crossed it, shook it off like a pro and went to sniff the 'girls.'
I had the electric fence up before you could say 'red Angus bull' and got Jim's attention to tell him I was going to go turn it on. He thought this was a great idea and off I went. By the time I had the fence on Jim had pulled out and couldn't even stop for a coffee as his cows were still in the corral and he wanted to let them out. So I took one more look at this new animal and noting he was still in went inside to call Papa and tell him he could stay at work and have a nice quiet lunch. Well Jim pulled out of sight about the same time Papa got to the phone and so it was only me who saw a funny little thing that spelt TROUBLE clear as anything.
I was telling Papa how 'very smooth it all went' when, out of the corner of my eye I see something unexpected. Honestly if I was new at this whole farming thing or if I'd looked away 1 second earlier or if I'd never seen a electric fence do that before I probably would not even have thought about it again. But as SOON as I saw it I knew. Just a little jump in the wire.. like it came alive for 1 second just to jump, then stayed still, in it's insulator, still tight, just a little jump. I took one LONG look out the window and changed my tone!!
I'm ashamed to say I BEGGED!! "PLEASE COME HOME RIGHT NOW!" I don't think I shouted but I know my voice had a hitch or two in it. For those of you who don't know what it means when a wire jumps like that. THE BULL WAS OUT!! Bindy and Maggie seemed as shocked as I was. He just sort of walked over or under or something and was OUT. He didn't even break the wire! Pretty talented really. And before you think, as I must admit I did, what were we doing putting a 2000lb bull into electric fence if he was NOT trained to it. We weren't. Jim's cows are all electric fence trained, very well trained and so is this bull. He just simply didn't see it and being used to having 1/4 sections to run on he didn't even consider that he might have had less then an acre here. Just a moment to explain to you the SIZE of this sucker. Maggie's back is about as high as my nose. I'm 5,5 (they measured me at my last Doc. visit) So lets say she's about 5 feet tall, give or take. This bull is taller then Maggie, not by much ( he is a red Angus), but taller and instead of being skinny and bony like Holsteins are he is PURE MUSCLE!! Maggie's skinny little self weighs about 800lbs. This guy has muscles on muscles and has to close to my estimate of 2000lbs. Literal weight.(Papa always disagrees with me on weights so I'm not going to ask him. 1500 just seems TOO SMALL) This does NOT fit into my nut shell. My nut shell pretty much stops dead at 1000lbs.
Papa calmly tells me he'll come when he can but he has to finish something first. Oh and "make sure he stays off the driveway!" Right. Now if you take our 5 acres of place and measure acres from the road to the back the bull is about on acre #2. Back is good.. Back is FENCED. Front is HORRIBLE... Front is OPEN! When I hung up a minute later I really wasn't at all sure what I'd do if the bull went to the front. Maybe panic and try and chase it with the travelall... if I could get the beast of a truck to start??? Thankfully he was a good little bull (or a better big bull. He was out after all.) and went BACK. Unfortunately he got bored rather fast and went visiting. Thankfully the neighbors both work and unless they go to the back of their piece they'll never know they had a bull time visitor. He took his time wandering here and there and so did Papa. I did have to brave the outdoors and the bull several time to see where he'd gone too and to turn off the fencer. I didn't realize until later that the wire had not broken and he couldn't have gotten back in anyway. That was my big hope.. that he'd just walk back in!
Almost an hour later the bull finally stopped at the hay bale and started munching on the outside. It was lunch time for the children by then so I set J up as a 'watch the bull' helper and went and made then a snack lunch they could eat while watching a movie. Just in case I had to go do 'something' with the bull. I still don't know what I would have done.. gotten a big stick maybe?
The movie was just starting when Papa finally drove up. He'd been working on something simple and as so often happens it turned out to be less then simple and the driver was in a hurry and blah. He came inside for a bull update and then ordered me to make some strips of tin foil and went out and took the wire off the posts on almost a 1/4 of the fence and tried to herd the bull in. Well the bull didn't herd well and Papa came back and grabbed a rake (We both wished for Jim's whip) and finally got him in. Then Papa quickly put the fence back up and the strips of tin foil on the wire 'to remind him where the fence is' and turned the fence on. That's when we found his weakness. The bulls I mean :) I was watching out the window and I think if that bull had turned any faster without moving along with it he'd have fallen right over. He was inspecting this new fence from a distance when it happened and his inspection was suddenly over!
Papa had grabbed a bucket of our 'sweet mix' we feed the cow (it's not grain) and rattled the bucket. The bull is a bucket baby!! Papa poured the treat over a nice clean patch of snow and the 3 of them licked it up like kids do ice cream. Bindy of course made a real pig of herself and spent 3 times the time the other two did.. getting ever last bit of molasses off the snow.
When I checked the bull an hour ago he was laying nicely in front of the hay bale with Maggie. Thankfully, other then a quick sniff, he has not paid the slightest attention to Bindy. Which is just as it should be and renews our hope for a calf this spring. Maggie on the other hand has to breath out when he breaths in so that she can breath at all (slight exaggeration but not far off.). Perfect!!
Papa says he's a nice enough bull in that you can work with him and be in his pen and he doesn't loose it. But I put my foot down and informed him that neither I or the boys will be feeding the pigs or chickens or getting the eggs until the bull is GONE. We have to walk into his/their pen to do these chores and it will not be happening. He laughed and called me a chicken but I'm sticking too it. I'd rather be a chicken then have a run in with a bull.. any bull. I think I made my point as Papa fed the pigs today :)
Cluck clucking and proud of it!! :)
