After church on Easter Sunday we were just hanging at the house before we went to Sunday brunch. At some point in time Jimmy hollered that he had a cow out and we all sprang into action. That’s what we do at our house. If you want to get somebody out of bed fast, then holler that there’s a cow out. We know our jobs, we get it done. So, we had a cow out.
I took my grandson, Luke, with me (note to self: carrying an infant in your Easter dress in a hay field is not recommended). John’s buddy Bryce was with us and he had never done this job before. But I coached him along the way and it didn’t take too long to get the cow back in. Then we noticed what the real problem was. The bull was in with the heifers.
One thing you never want if you breed cows is for the bull to get with the heifers before they’re ready to breed. It happens from time to time. It’s like these girls have just entered puberty and they have raging hormones. A bull can smell those hormones all over the place. And when you get a bull who is interested in a girl, well, hormones take over. So, after we got the cow back in we knew that we had a really hard job to do, and get the bull away from the heifers.
I took Luke back into the house because I wasn’t going to be able to carry him around while we maneuvered the heifers and the bull. Really I took him in the house because I needed him to be safe. You never know what a bull will do when you try to separate him from the source of the hormones that he is smelling. My daughter-in-law, Brittany, offered to come and help as my son, Jay, wasn’t feeling well. I figured I would keep her as far away from the bull as possible but to serve more as a deterrent of where we didn’t want the bull to go.
Jimmy decided that he was going to put the bull into one of the stalls in the stock barn. That’s usually easy. He put some feed in there and the heifers the bull was chasing went right into the stall. The bull followed. Then Jimmy shoo’d the heifers out and shut the door on the bull. He then went to go get some baling wire to secure the door some more.
Have you ever seen a movie, or a cartoon, where the bull breaks down a door or a gate? It’s usually pretty funny, right. I was out in the cow lot when I saw this bull break through that stall door to get back out with the heifers. I immediately thought that was funny until I realized that this was real life and that it was really dangerous. What if Jimmy had still been standing there? What if my two novice helpers had been standing there? What if I had my 11-month old grandson standing right there? I shudder just thinking about that. But the heifers were on the other side of the door and the bull was not going to let anything be in the way of him and his girls.
I have to be married to one of the most patient men. Jimmy just scratched his head and went about deciding what to do next. So, he started putting things back together that the bull had knocked down. He put the gate back up over the back of the barn. He went around to where the bull had gotten over into the field with the heifers. He had to get a new post as the bull had knocked over one of the wooden fence posts. He ran some more wire to make the fence hotter right there. Then he decided to put the heifers into the stalls. Once everyone was put up then he worked at getting the bull out where he belongs. Honestly, that was the easiest part. Except for the fact that the horses wanted to see what was going on so they were all in the cow lot. But once we got them running back into the big field the bull walked right back out there with them like he hadn’t done anything wrong.
This morning the bull was with the heifers again. And it was just me and Jimmy to get him back in. Jimmy put all of the heifers into the stock barn and closed the door. Then he had me go open the gate to the back field so that the bull could get back where he belonged. It didn’t take 10 minutes but I was very alert during that time. You don’t want to get in between that bull and anything he wants. Fortunately for me, he didn’t really want to go back into the big field but he went anyway because his girls were put up.
Jimmy found the spot where he had gotten out and I will tell you this, he had to be looking for that spot. It was where two fence panels met. He identified the spot and then walked right through it. Of course he took out a couple of gates in his path. Jimmy said he was going to run another hot fence. This one needs to do a little bit more than just a zap. This one needs to stun. He has decided to move the heifers to another field as well. That way the bull won’t be able to smell them in the morning or night air.
We got this bull after Fr. David Willett died. This is one of his. Jimmy wanted one because he could remember Fr. David talking about their bloodline. And Jimmy knew that he wouldn’t skimp when it came to paying for a good bloodline. I sort of might have had a discussion with him this morning, while Jimmy was cleaning up his mess. I might have told him that he should be ashamed of himself, going after those little girls like that. I told him to remember where he came from and who he was. He just looked at me like he was going to start stomping the dirt any minute. I had to quit because I could see him charging me at any time.
You really do have to be careful around bulls. When Jimmy and I were just dating he was knocked down by a bull and rolled. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but I was whipping that bull for all I was worth. I was hitting Jimmy quite a bit judging from the welps that came up after it was all said and done. But the bull was not fazed. If it hadn’t been for Jimmy’s friend, John, passing in the road, jumping out of his car and grabbing a post-hole digger and hitting the bull over the head with that, Jimmy would have been hurt a whole lot worse. As it was he was just skinned from head to foot. He was so very lucky.
Another time we had two bulls on this place. One was in the back field and one was in the side field. The one in the side field was very young and just coming into his own. At some point in time though the old bull got over into the side field and decided he was going to fight the young bull for his territory. Oh my goodness, it was hilarious to watch but scary all the same. They butted heads for hours. They didn’t care what they knocked down in the process. Jimmy was setting tobacco and I didn’t have a clue what to do. So, I just watched. I watched for hours. When Jimmy got home he went to get the tractor and was only able to separate the two of them by putting the tractor between them. I think the old bull went away after that. Far away, like for hamburger.
I will say this though, a bull is a gorgeous animal. I have always been particular about thoroughbred horses. I love to watch them run. But, a bull standing in a field is a gorgeous sight, at least the ones we have had on our place. They are thick in the front and slim down in the back. Yes, they look just like those cartoon bulls that you remember from your childhood. Gorgeous but dangerous. I think I’d rather just look at them from afar.
