Interesting bull

[PureCountry]

I guess that's what you'd call a wise management decision emrald1. I know when we used our JD Gator for tagging, you'd get into a ring-around-the-rosie with some cows chasin' ya, and some would climb into the back while following the calf bawling on the tailgate. That gets your heart goin' when your all of a sudden on your back and your view of the clouds is blocked with the cow staring down through the steering wheel.

Lots of these things - quads, gators, cages, etc. - can be handy. My point was that you shouldn't need to fight off that type of cow. Coming up with ways to deal with them to convince yourself it's not a chore, is like taking a gun from a killer and saying it's OK to let them out on the street. Maybe you've taken a bit of the danger away, but they're still there.

So it goes with cows like that. If they're that snuffy, I get rid of them. No questions asked. I've been rolled by enough of them to know that you won't always be going through the herd and have the luxury of your quad or cage around.

[ALICIA]

But is it just me or do that kind seem the raise the bigest calf.

[ALICIA]

ALICIA, they ALWAYS raise the best calf, and in my case, the calves have always been easy to handle and the daughters of the snotty cows have never been nasty like their mothers.
I bring my cows into the corrals to calve and have steel pens so 2 7/8" pipe between me and a snotty old mama is always nice to have. I only have a couple of the snotty ones left, the rest of them aren't bad. I always like it when the snotty ones calve first and I can get them turned out.
The funniest thing I have ever seen is one of them losing a battle with a 300 pound miniature donkey a couple of years ago. She was only a day or so away from calving and I put her in a pen with the donkeys while I put fresh bedding out, she took a run at the donkey and got a pair of tiny hooves right between the eyes. That changed her attitude !!!!

[ALICIA]

I bet that did. I can picture it.

[ALICIA]

The donkeys are my THERAPY here ! I bought one to keep the calves company when I weaned them and bought a second one to keep the first one company in the summer .
Spent $1800 getting a rail fence built around an ugly corner of the farmstead for a donkey paddock...
My kids thought I had completely lost my marbles....and was spending their inheritance as well !!!

I have kept the donkeys with the heifer calves for the past three winters, penning the donkeys up when I feed the heifers grain, and the rest of the time they are together. The donkeys rule the roost from day one....but the heifers are tame and follow the donkeys around wherever they go.
My two year old heifers are as tame as they were when they were calves....so my experiment with the donkeys was worth it....but my kids still think I am nuts !!! Oh well, what do they know ???