Got a Real Live Wire!!

Not really about a "pet" per se, but about animals (livestock in this case), so I thought I'd put this here for the animal lovers because it's a neat story.

So this past spring we calved out and among this years batch were two nice lookin' bull calves. The first one, one I've talked about often here is the bottle calf (mom faltered), and the other one is just your normal robust little bull calf. We had a number of bull calves this year, but these two stood out (the rest will probably get steered out). This story is about the latter of the two standouts.

Anyway, ever since this little guy was 'hatched' he's been a rambunctious one, always playful and much more curious than the others (most all calves are curious to a degree). But this guy was different, more forward. Now, his momma is one of our best cows and she consistently throws some of the best calves too with excellent dispositions (a good thing in bulls). This year we've had a lot more direct interaction with the calves due to the one bottle calf, so we're constantly in the pens with them because of him. In so doing we noticed this one calf (the subject calf) was a pretty spirited little fella, much more than usual. We'd go in the pens and he'd almost immediately start pulling some shenanigans. He'd start jumping around, or showing off, or he'd run around you, or he'd sneak up behind you to spook you. He is always up to something, like trying to steal a bucket of starter feed or get in between you and the calf we're trying to feed. As a result we've calmed him much the same as we did with the bottle calf, so he's very socialized (by this I mean, if we brush the bottle calf, we have to brush him too or else he's a pest). If we scratch one, we have to scratch him. He'll insert himself into just about every situation. Plus he's a little ham, hamming it up at every opportunity. It's pretty funny actually.

This has been going on now since day #1 with him. He's about 4 months now, so he's probably about 250-275lbs and just under 3' tall. So he's still just a little guy. In another distant pasture we have our herd bull and a couple left over yearling bulls which we left intact (better money in bulls sometimes). These two yearling bulls are probably 900lbs+ now. Our herd bull is a giant at 2,300lbs. We put the junior bulls in with our herd bull just to keep him company after we take him off the girls, so he's not alone. Cows are surprisingly social creatures, but I digress. Now normally, we can't leave the yearlings together with the herd bull much longer than what we have because at this age they'll start to fight for supremacy. We usually let them get started for a couple months, but then separate them when it starts getting really rough. Our herd bull, Jack, will usually make short work out of even a couple yearling bulls (even simultaneously) if they challenge him. But this year, so far, no real wrestling matches yet, the yearlings steer clear of Jack when they're starting to feel their oats. So everything is good in the bull pasture.

Fast forward to yesterday. We turned the bulls out into a closer pasture. In the new pasture they can see the girls and the calves, whereas before they couldn't see them. Of course this immediately results in...OH!!!...WIMMINS!!!! Well, we better start showing off our wares!!" Let the games begin. Now these guys aren't sharing a fence with the girls, but they can see them and smell them if the wind is right. Even so, the two yearling bulls are still pretty timid, especially of Jack. Okay, so last night we're in the pens with the adult girls and their calves, feeding. Here comes this little bull (our subject today). He sees the bulls over in the adjacent pasture and perks up. He stares at them for a while, and THEN starts doing something I've never seen a little bull calf ever do before. I hear this low growl, and then this high pitched bugling sound (almost like a bull elk bugle). Adult bulls will do this over distances to challenge each other. It sounds like a series of long woofs which start out real low and end on a really high note, just repeated over and over. I spin around in shock and look to see who's making this noise and it's this little bull calf. The yearling bulls are nowhere in sight, and only Jack is standing there looking across the pasture into the corrals. This little guy is challenging JACK!! Jack is nearly 10x his size!

HOLY COW!! Never saw that before!! I'm sure I haven't probably described it very well here, about just how unusual something like this is, but it's pretty unbelievable. Normally the little bull calves would be terrified of the herd bull (it's like the is love-fear thing, they idolize him, but they're skeered to death of him at the same time). Not this little guy! He's standing there like... "Lemme' at him! I'll take him! Just lemme' at him! Open this gate up one time and I'll go show that big guy a lesson he'll never forget!" Wow!! This little guy is some kinda' live wire for sure! I reckon this one is gonna' be a handful before we get him turned loose. He doen't pay any attention to the yearling bulls at all, but when Jack shows up he starts hootin' and hollerin'. What a hoot!

We normally wean the calves by separating them and putting them in with the herd bull. This year is gonna' be interesting to watch! I'll bet it's gonna' be fireworks from the word go.

He's a real life LIVE WIRE!

Are these pets or meant for McDonalds? They sound like your pets which I find really sweet.

a reply to: Justso

No, they're custom beef cattle. And no, they won't ever see the inside of a McDonald's...no worries there!

Not pets, but the little ones can be kinda' fun sometimes. After that they just become cows and steers. The herd bull usually gets a name, as do some of the older breed stock, but everything else just get's a number on an ear tag.

I'm subscribed to this thread. Please update us here. I want to know what happens when that little fellow turns out with ol' Jack. Yeah, he's gonna be a fun one. If he makes it past that

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Had a bull calf that acted a lot like yours when I was growing up. We kept him for breeding, but I also made him my pet! I named him Flower and rode him around our neighborhood like a horse, even hitched him to the wagon every so often and gave the younger kids rides around the neighborhood. He LOVED all of the attention, and I loved him! The adults all got a good chuckle watching a 12 year old girl riding a big, black Brahma bull around for several years.

I was nearly 18 when necessity forced us to sell him. I still think about him to this day, and my sister and I still laugh about our odd relationship!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Sounds like he's already got balls bigger than his brains for sure. Better watch out for him.

a reply to: incoserv

Oh, he'll survive it. When these guys get to fightin' it's really just a strength contest to see who can push the other around the most. They're all naturually poled, so there's no horns involved, just head on head. They'll go at it for hours, days even, until they're so tired they can't even stand anymore. Jack loves it because he gets to work off all that winter spring laziness, lollygaggin' around and bulk up. He winds up being a great big ton and a quarter of solid rippling muscle.

We've only had one bull come up anywhere near being able to take him (he couldn't, but it was brutal!). I've even got video of it, and it was amazing. They went at it for weeks. These were (2) two year olds against Jack and they'd tag-team him. We'd raised these two up as champs (which they went on to become..grand champs) for a couple breeders who were interested. Both of these guys were solid steel by two years. Just to give you an idea of how big...they stood about 5'-5" at the shoulder and about 7.5 foot at the nose, and were so strapped neither one of them could fit through our XL chute with the doors wide open. Their shoulders would bind up in the chute, so we had to coax them through by stepping through with one foot and shoulder first and then twist to step through with the other foot and shoulder! ...and Jack DWARFS these two! (no way is he ever fitting in a chute, not even close). When we got either one of these two in the big stock trailer they could both easily look down at you out the side openings at the top of the trailer without craning. I'm 6'4" and I have to stand on my tippy tip toes to get that high, and then just barely. These are big boys! Jack got so big after that he was downright spooky! He's as gentle as a lamb, but he's so freaking big he just doesn't realize how powerful his sheer bulk can be.

In all my years at the National Western Stockshow I've only seen one bull bigger. Just one, and he was MAMMOTH! A farm up in ND raised him up. I'm not sure I would have ever liked to see Jack and him go at it. There'd be some broken stuff (corrals, barns, fences, etc) for sure after that!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Sounds dumb, I know, but what is custom beef cattle? That still sounds like eventual food to me. Wouldn't that be hard, emotionally? You sound like you love them but maybe that is respect.

a reply to: Justso

A custom beef operation basically means we sell individual animals to buyers (commercially packed or on the hoof). We don't sell hundreds of animals at a time to intermediaries who feed them out at feed lots and then send them to market in bulk. Our cattle are direct to buyer. Another way of looking at it is we're not really in the commodities market. We're selling much higher end beef to more discerning buyers. We also usually have a waiting list before the animals are even born. In some cases we will even custom feed an animal a certain way for a customer's desired end result. (More marbling, less fat, grass fed only, combo grass-grain feed out. Most of our animals are all grass fed, but we do other variants depending on what people want.

As far as emotions are concerned, no, we don't get attached to them (breed stock and bulls maybe a little bit, but not the production animals). They're a hoot when they're just little, but they grow up to be regular cows. It's a business, you can't let emotion factor in. It's hard enough to make any money, let alone if you let your emotions get in the way. They're not like dogs. After you shovel enough S#, get slammed around enough, stepped on, charged, peed on, fix stuff they tear up (constantly), deal with their freak outs and so forth, feed them in the worst conditions imaginable and deal with all their BS...you kind of learn to be sort of ambivalent about it.

Now, that said...we take VERY good care of the animals while they're in our custody. We spare no expense on making sure they are healthy, not in pain, that they have fresh food and clean water. And believe me, this is a LOT of work to ensure all that. We have an unwavering commitment in this regard. Animal care is paramount. A happy cow is a profitable cow at market.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

How can you get us invested in this fantastic creature and NOT supply a picture or two?!!!

originally posted by: KansasGirl
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

How can you get us invested in this fantastic creature and NOT supply a picture or two?!!!

Ask ATS! Ask them why they make it so insanely difficult to post pictures! It requires like 10 extra steps that no other website on earth requires. So ask them.
,
However, I'll do one better than a pic.. I have a video (my only YT video) of Jack fighting. Please TURN DOWN THE MUSIC! (I did NOT add this music, YT did on their own (for some dang reason)). It's a long video, but this is what a bullfight looks like. I give some skip ahead hints in a minute.

Let me go find the video.

Okay...here's Jack! This was filmed in 2013.



ETA...Jack is the one with the white belt. The black bull is Ike, his son at two years.

ETA 2 - This is pure muscle power. Notice how Jack never let's him off the fence. That's the game.

ETA-3 - If you watch carefully at 5:16 Ike pushes Jack back into a fire ant mound and he goes nuts (and sprays fire ants all over both of them, decimating the mound. But he never let's Ike have the pasture and keeps him on the fence. This went on for days (seriously). Day and night. At any given time these two are pushing against each other hard enough to move a tractor trailer! It's just constant force.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Ah- say no more. It IS ridiculously complicated to upload a picture here. What the hell, ATS?

Thanks for the video- those are gorgeous animals! Pretty adorable. I cracked up at the end, because I've been watching these two guys do this thing for almost 6 minutes, and in the corner of the frame there towards the finish, there's another Jack standing there watching, presumably this whole time. 😂😂

a reply to: KansasGirl

The spectator was just a younger steer. He was stayin' the heck out of the way! He didn't want any part of that action!!

Just a looky loo!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Great story, and brought a smile, so thanks for that! And, wow, what a handful he's going to be! Tough little guy, eh?? Can't wait to hear more.

Very entertaining story! Your little guy sounds like a powerful force.