This is our purebred milking shorthorn bull, Promise, perhaps an anomaly on a Holstein farm, but calving ease on heifers is important to us and his babies bring a good price at auction. Beautiful Broadway is the one red daughter we have from him. All the rest have been various combinations of black and white.
This will take you to a picture of Promise's 90 point dam.
Here is a picture of Promise before we bought him. Sadly his speckles vanished.
For laurainnj at Somewhere in New Jersey
Thanks for the pic - he's handsome - love the nose ring! ;-)
ReplyDeleteDoesn't look very ornery.
You are most welcome. For a bull he is remarkably quiet, which is why we still have him, even though he is over three years old. Still he IS a bull and requires extreme caution in handling. I never, never, never go into the pen with him, nor does anyone else but my husband, and he is extremely careful. Dairy bulls are terribly dangerous, although milking shorthorns are the quietest breed. One of the first things I attended with my husband when we first were married was the funeral of one of his good friends....killed by a bull when he went out to bring down his cows for milking. He had just gotten married himself and was just home from his honeymoon.
ReplyDeleteHow tragic! I wouldn't think they could be so dangerous, even to the person who keeps them?
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why you say you still have him, even though he is over 3? Sorry! Showing my ignorance here!
Are they just prone to be mean or is there something that provokes them about going into their pen?
Hmm, I am not sure exactly how to explain. Bulls are by nature unreasonably aggressive, dairy worse than beef. They tend to become more dangerous after they are two years old, probably because of extra hormones after maturity. They do not care in any way who owns them. They will even attack inanimate objects just for the fun of banging their heads into something. Just before we bought Promise we had a Jersey bull that wasn't too much of a problem down in the heifer barn. We figured we could safely turn him out to pasture with some heifers. My daughter and I were fixing that fence and checking the stock when he attacked us. It was terrible. He had us in the center of the field and kept charging, only being turned away because I had a stick and screamed and banged the ground with it whenever he came after us. My husband was about a quarter mile away up the hill in another field driving tractor. He saw what was happening and leaped a five strand fence to run to our rescue. How a guy his age could jump a fence and run that fast is beyond me, but I thanked God he was there. I don't believe we could have gotten away without being hurt although I may have been able to back him off if I could actually have hit him with the darned stick. He was too quick though. We sold that son of a gun the next auction.
ReplyDeleteI think I remember reading that story here a while ago. Wow!
ReplyDeleteAre they as feisty with the heifers?
The only way I can relate to the aggression you talk about is after having seen a few bullfights in Spain - funny how the bulls get so mad at a little guy in a shimmery suit waving a red flag at them!
Be careful! Thanks again for sharing the pic.