Head butting bull calf

[Fran]

I am a newbie to Dexter's (3 years this summer), but I can tell you that being attacked by a bull is probably one of the most terrifying things that you could ever have happen!! He was never particularly friendly, started bellowing and pawing the ground at us pretty early on. A few weeks before his 2nd birthday, he got me. Very thankful to be alive. He was culled and sold to a processor.

[lakeportfarms]

I'm happy it wasn't worse for you Fran. A couple of years ago we had need for a Highland bull since ours was (accidently) poisoned with Japanese Yew branch clippings somebody had tossed in our pasture , and some friends had a Highland bull they could spare. He had spent the first year and a half of his life in a petting zoo. As my wife was bringing a container of water out for the chickens, he came after her thinking it was grain and knocked her down and pushed her into the ground. When he determined it wasn't food, he fortunately let up and walked away. She was scraped and bruised, and we think she probably had her collarbone cracked. He was on the trailer that evening of course. His head and horns look pretty impressive up on our friends wall! The funny thing is, he was a dud bull as well and our little 1 year old shorty High/Dex cross bull ended up breeding the Highlands, which got us a couple of handsome little 75% shorty Highland bulls, so it all worked out in the end.

[Fran]

Thanks, me too! I was home alone when it happened and thank God that he finally stopped. He stepped on my leg, which was probably the worst injury that I had - other than being black from mid-back to top of my legs. No broken bones though. He won the battle but I won the war.. ;D
Hopefully our new bull will be a lot nicer. Seems to be so far. He'll be 1 on May.

[Fran]

And ouch on the cracked collarbone. Oh, love the part about his horns on the wall!! Very thankful that ours was dehorned.

Love reading all the posts on here - very interesting! So much to learn...

[indexters]

Well, just an update on Sambo. He is shaping up nicely in the behavior department. As I suspected, a lot of his problems were from being more nosy than anything, but also a terrible tendency to head rub. So far, one fence and one gate have given in to his rubbing. Luckily, I have now discovered that no matter where they are, all four will come to me and follow our Ranger back to the barn. My dh is still concerned (he was raised on a dairy farm), but my thoughts are they are easy to manage compared to my upbringing on a beef farm (with polled Herefords).

[Deleted]

We have had the very same problem with one of our bulls from about 14mths onwards. We purchased him, he was not bred by us.

It wasn’t aggression, it was affection but like you indexters, you wonder if you should be doing something to discourage it.

When I asked for advice at a BBQ full of very long term and experienced dexter breeders, they all said the same ‘ smack on the nose’

Now while this may have been the correct answer – I don’t believe in hitting animals. I believe in earning and maintaining their respect.

I didn’t want my bull to be wary of me, I didn’t want him to be hurt by me, I wanted him to be relaxed and at ease around me especially when I moved my arms and hands around.

We trained, showed and bred Rottweilers for over a decade and a half, and we were ‘controversial’ in our training methods then, ensuring respect and confidence – but guess what: when our dogs were behaving as they should with very little effort or constant control by us – people then stood back amazed and wanted to know how we did this. After explaining our methods, these same people still argued how we shouldn’t be doing that………………………………………………go figure !!!!

How we managed our bull’s head rubbing and soft butting was we watched him to learn and understand why and when he decided he had to head butt etc.

We discovered he wanted his rub, scratch and our attention before anyone else in the herd. SO we obliged.

Within 1 week there was a marked difference in this behaviour. And over a couple of weeks, he became content to wait for our attention because he knew we were going to get to him.

After buying a few Dexters from here and there, we are starting to realise, as it was with dogs, that a moo’s experiences up to and just after weaning does have a marked effect on their behaviour as adults both within a herd and towards humans.

Our 2.5mth old calves come to us, wanting to be hand-fed.

Last night I rubbed one of our 3.5mth old calves down from nose to rear feet – she loved it, moving towards my hand for harder scratching and around me as she was telling me where she wanted a rubbing the most.

Our 8mths old are just adorably affectionate, with one of our young bull calves just so sweet and loving.

We run our 5 bulls with our 15 girls, except when heifers are indicating a heat cycle – then the boys are confined to a 7 acre enclosure for a week.

The boys are only separated around breeding month while we selectively breed, but outside these times all 20 Dexters are free to walk to us and around us while we are working on the property – and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

[Deleted]

Oh and I forgot to mention.
All our boys have forehead scratches, scratches right behind their horns and lets not forget their butts and either side of their tail head areas………………….

They are allowed, and encouraged to walk up to us and see what we are doing. Their curiosity is amazing.

Of course a bull would knock you down expecting food if he hasnt been encouraged to wait his turn.
But this isnt aggression - its required training to teach him different.

Cows in heat will make a bull irritable and more focused on the cow and not you - it comes down to understanding animal behaviour and answering the "why".

Watch, look, learn has been my uncles motto for the 40 odd years he has been breeding herefords.
He doesnt use sticks, dogs, bikes or horses.

He doesnt separate his bulls to a paddock way back down yonder, only returning to them once or twice a year as is the standard practice with many.

He has had no less than 200 animals at any given time and he has never experienced or been the centre of aggression.

And he says he never stops learning or being amazed by them.

[Deleted]

Oh genebo - you made me *blush*

And yes, different owners can and do get different results from similar animals - I can acknowledge that.

And yes I am guilty - I am firm in my opinons when they are life's lessons, but I am not so dogmatic that I couldnt say I am wrong or not do a turn around and agree that someone else's opposite opinion when it makes better sense.

I never want to offend. But I do always hope that when voicing my opinion that others may sit back a little and think about it some more - even if they dont agree.

Live a little outside the square - into the unknown for a little
Why? Cause its alot of fun

[littlecowfl]

Your uncle sounds like an amazing cattleman.

The only thing that I don't think was mentioned (maybe I missed it) was I give my young bulls toys. Balls or barrels work well. I don't know if you have the same sort of thing, but we got a few plastic barrels for free and they work very well.

[lakeportfarms]

That's a great suggestion for bull toys. It's much better to choose the thing they play with than for them to find something on their own. Because you probably won't like what they choose!

[indexters]

For the bull toys, I took genebo's suggestion (or maybe I just read it that way) and we give them the 200 lb protein tubs. They seem to like to push these around the field. I will say when the fence and gate went down, I noticed the protein tub was 'off'. Not sure what was going on with it, but my have gone bad. We have since disposed of it and turned them into nice spring grass.