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Author Topic: Training Advice  (Read 5240 times)

BrimwoodFarm

  • Joined May 2016
    • Brimwood Farm
    • Facebook
Training Advice
« on: January 09, 2019, 07:24:43 pm »
Hello all,

I'm a livestock manager for a public farm park and we have a couple of bull calves. I really don't have much cattle experience so I'm hoping for some advice/tips from you!

They're about a year old now. Still intact Holstein Freisans, and generally very friendly cows. However, they're at an age that they're becoming rather baulchy and are large enough to do damage if they wanted...or even accidentally. I know I'll probably have to split them soon and send both, or one, to market to prevent hostility towards each other but is there anything I can do in the meantime to make them understand that we, the keepers, are boss?

As I say, they're friendly to a point but because they're so used to people, they'll happily come and pin you up against a gate as they're trying to take the bucket out of your hands. They don't have nose rings - I'm not sure how effective that would be in getting them to back off?

Any ideas/tips/handling advice greatly appreciated.

Sbom

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Staffordshire
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2019, 07:34:18 pm »
You have 2 Holstein fresian bulls on an open farm?????

Accident waiting to happen!!!

The friendlier they are the more dangerous they will be...market ASAP and next time get them castrated as calves so you can keep them longer.


BrimwoodFarm

  • Joined May 2016
    • Brimwood Farm
    • Facebook
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2019, 07:51:53 pm »
You have 2 Holstein fresian bulls on an open farm?????

Accident waiting to happen!!!

The friendlier they are the more dangerous they will be...market ASAP and next time get them castrated as calves so you can keep them longer.

Yep, that's my concern... definitely accident waiting to happen. Good call about the castration....I expect my bosses will buy some more in at some point, so I'll make sure to get them castrated earlier on.

Can I ask about TB....they were done in Oct but am I right in thinking they have to be done again now because the 60 day period is over?


Sbom

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Staffordshire
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2019, 07:57:15 pm »
Yep, they’ll need a pre movement test unless going straight to slaughter.

Buttermilk

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2019, 04:29:56 pm »
Send them to a red/slaughter mart and you do not need to tb test.

They should go there rather than a store mart as they WILL become dangerous, there is a reason you cannot have dairy bulls in a field with a public footpath.

honeyend

  • Joined Oct 2011
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2019, 12:08:28 am »
 Bulls are not friendly, they are not pets  ever. And get rid quick. They have gone to a bigger farm.I suggest you watch these videos on cattle handling which are really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsYS8BtqbGk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBV2Ss0XmDc

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2019, 09:08:59 am »
Test them and put them in a store market. There is no point putting them in a fat beef ring if they are no where near finished. A bull beef finishing unit would be a better place for them.

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2019, 10:17:38 am »
This sounds so dangerous I thought it was a wind up. Assuming it is true - ffs get them away now. Dairy bulls are so dangerous it is illegal to have them on public rights of way etc

Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
    • Nantygroes
    • Facebook
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #8 on: January 12, 2019, 08:04:13 am »
  Horrified!

2 entire dairy bulls on a public farmand it sounds like there is no one with cattle experience to deal with them.... get rid by fastest route possible (will need to be nose ringed if sold on) ….. H&S ex  would have field day even if there was only a minor accident.   Note: TOO friendly cattle can be as dangerous as wild ones!   Even dairy farms rarely keep dairy bulls due to their nature.

If you really have to have cattle decide before you buy them what you want them for and get yourself or another member of staff trained to deal with them.
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

http://nantygroes.blogspot.co.uk/
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landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2019, 11:04:01 am »
  Horrified!

2 entire dairy bulls on a public farmand it sounds like there is no one with cattle experience to deal with them.... get rid by fastest route possible (will need to be nose ringed if sold on) ….. H&S ex  would have field day even if there was only a minor accident.


In actual fact they only need a nose ring if being kept for breeding, which these clearly aren't. :sunshine:
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #10 on: January 12, 2019, 11:16:58 am »
Hello all,

I'm a livestock manager for a public farm park and we have a couple of bull calves. I really don't have much cattle experience so I'm hoping for some advice/tips from you!

As I say, they're friendly to a point but because they're so used to people, they'll happily come and pin you up against a gate as they're trying to take the bucket out of your hands.

Any ideas/tips/handling advice greatly appreciated.


If they are that pushy, you should not be going in their pen/enclosure to feed them. Even the most placid animals, having been allowed to do this, are unaware of their weight and can easily trample on you without consciously meaning to. Change your feeding arrangement so you feed them from the outside, eg a trough hung on the gate, or a feed barrier that they can get their heads through in order to reach the trough.
Just getting Friesian bulls because they are cheap is false economy in your situation. You're not geared up to handle them, and the money spent on castration could have been used to buy better calves, that'll give you some sort of return when selling. These will fetch next to nothing as stores because it costs as much to fatten a poor animal as a good one and even decent breeds are not fetching much at present.
Next time get heifers!
« Last Edit: January 12, 2019, 02:37:13 pm by landroverroy »
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

BrimwoodFarm

  • Joined May 2016
    • Brimwood Farm
    • Facebook
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #11 on: January 12, 2019, 03:23:48 pm »
Thanks all.

This is a problem I inherited so I'm glad for your advice! TB testing Monday & Thursday this week so can send off to market the following Tuesday I hope.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2019, 12:40:13 am »
Don’t get heifers!  They’re nothing but trouble as soon as they start bulling.  And it’s highly likely they’ll escape when the lust is upon them. Get castrated bullocks. And not a dairy breed or Limousins, get something placid like Angus or Hereford.

And teach them some manners, and halter train them, when they’re still a lot smaller than you!
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2019, 08:50:47 am »
Don’t get heifers!  They’re nothing but trouble as soon as they start bulling.  And it’s highly likely they’ll escape when the lust is upon them. Get castrated bullocks. And not a dairy breed or Limousins, get something placid like Angus or Hereford.

And teach them some manners, and halter train them, when they’re still a lot smaller than you!


Angus are not renowned for their docile temperament! Herefords and Simmentals are generally nice quiet cattle.

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Training Advice
« Reply #14 on: January 13, 2019, 05:30:49 pm »
BBs are like pets most of the time too

 

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