Bull Keeping - Advice Please

Saffy · Post by **Saffy** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:14 pm

Prior to buying our few pampered Dexters I kept a milking herd but have never really had any quantity of experience of keeping a bull at all, we kept a Hereford as a sweeper for the heifers but I had little to do with his life.

Our little bull which we hope to keep as a stock bull is now 9 months old so …..

Do we need to put up – “Beware of the bull signs” – on fences and gates to fields and yards? We are not going to put him in fields with foot paths.

Apart from the usual – public liability insurance – which I have checked covers him, is there any other insurance that is considered necessary?

I know there are certain regulations covering penning for bull beef. Is there any for keeping a bull in a field with other cattle or in yarding?

Is it best to keep him with steers when he isn’t working or with dry cows?

No that isn’t quite 20 questions but give me time I shall probably think of more!!!

We are hoping to be able to keep a bull but it isn’t the be all and end all for us, we will give it a really good try and see how it goes.

Anything else anyone can think of that we ought to know about keeping a bull for the first time?

Stephanie

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:34 pm

Hi Stephanie

We keep our bulls with steers because it's easy.

Dexters are not classified on the dangerous dairy list, so if the bull is thought to be OK, then he can be in fields with footpaths. We put a sign up that just says "Bull in Field" rather than "Danger (or Beware), Bull in Field" because that says he's dangerous, so he shouldn't be in the field with a footpath!

Edited By Broomcroft on 1207230010

carole · Post by **carole** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:46 pm

Hi we looked into this when we bought a bull as we have a footpath running through 2 of our fields, there is a booklet available from your local council which is specifically about what you must and must not do with footpaths and there is mention of livestock and bulls in particular (I think it states that you are not allowed to keep a bull alone in such a field)

Louisa Gidney · Post by **Louisa Gidney** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:58 am

The advantage of a home bred bull is that from being very small you have been, like his mum, a figure of authority. He will hit a teenage stage, like all creatures, when he will start trying the boundaries & thinking he is a big scary bull. You need to be very firm in letting him know that he is not big and not scary. A smack on the nose and No! or Bad!, and conversely the tail head scratch and Good Boy, conditions mine not to put their heads down at me and to stand still for a scratch, so you can then work along the back to slip the halter on from behind. I do not bucket train my bulls, except as a special treat for going in the trailer.
I leave the horns on my boys & hire them out. Their placidity is generally commented on. However if they go out for long periods to novice cattle keepers they can acquire ideas above their station and need some remedial training before going out again.

Saffy · Post by **Saffy** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:38 am

Thanks you for the above replies - we are going to act on them all!

We thought we should get a couple of signs but- Bull In Field -is a much better wording.

Also we shall get hold of the footpath booklet so that when the local "rampant rambler" complains, I can show him I am right. :;):

Louisa as what age would we expect the teenage behaviour? He is 9 months. I ask partly because he is so relaxed you would think he was smoking weed in the bushes and partly because our steer has been displaying this kind of awkward behaviour from time to time. When you least expect it of course and doesn't seem to be letting up but he has done it since he was much younger than the bull is now. I wouldn't want the bull to get like him.

Our fences are mostly either thick hedge with pig netting in front, or pig netting topped with two strands of barbless wire, will that be sufficient to keep the bull in when he is full grown or will I need electric fences inside that?

We have one paddock which has only rails which we had best not put him in again, he has already been exploring from there just to prove a point. He had only been in the field a short while and I wondered where he was and called out, he appeared from up stream, peaked at me, trotted toward me, jumped back over the stream and squeezed with great difficulty and very U shaped back, through the fence!!!

Stephanie

Edited By Saffy on 1207381196

Louisa Gidney · Post by **Louisa Gidney** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 3:48 pm

Fences, good question. Depends on what stock is next door & how much of a mummy's boy he is. I've had steers jumping everything in sight to get back to mum. If there's only sheep next door then what you've got is fine. If you should also have an inconsiderate neighbour putting bulling cows/heifers next door, then the Berlin Wall might just about stop him. Again, the advantage of a home bred animal is that he will be hefted to your boundaries, more or less. Grass is always greener though. Short legs tend to go under fences, non shorts go over the top.
Teenage, usually in 2nd year but varies with each animal.

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 5:25 pm

How right you are Louisa. The only problems I've had have been when I've put a group including Apollo in a field with no sign of other animals in the neighbour's field only to find a few days later that a load of tempting heifers have arrived there. This situation certainly shows up all the flaws in what would otherwise be a perfectly satisfactory fence. If possible I'd prefer to keep the lad within the farm so I have control of all the adjoining fields but it isn't always possible.

Saffy · Post by **Saffy** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:24 pm

OK on the surroundings for most of the time as nearly all of it will be arable but my tenant does bring his heifers nearby for a short period in the Summer.

I shall keep him several fences from them, at least it will give me a sporting chance of stopping him!

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:33 am

I would work on electrifying your boundary fences Stephanie. The fence bordering the neighbour's possible heifers, probably should have elctric wire running above the fence as well as inside your fence. That should prevent unscheduled matings.

wagra dexters · Post by **wagra dexters** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:45 am

As was pointed out to me earlier this week, we antipodeans didn't inherit hedges and rock fences. We do have convict built rock fences in some parts, but mostly we have a clear go, so electric fencing is the obvious choice.

Failing that, I would make a tight training yard, small and with close wires, 4 hot, 3 earth. Once they have been weaned into that, with the Mums the other side, they have learnt a lesson for life. A single wire at nose height, off-set to a hedge or a rock wall, will keep them in.

Some will say that Dexters know when the fence has shorted out. They may, but if trained at weaning they are not prepared to risk trying their luck. Two off-sets, high & low, may be required for a bull paddock, or to keep goats in. But they don't keep wombats out. Nothing does! ...and we don't use bottom hot wires, because echidnas can't back out of them. They get their quills caught, and fry. Not nice.

Margaret.