how do you stop bulls fighting

[haller]

i have 3 bulls that don't want to stop fighting and if tired or fixing wire. anybody have any ideas.

[rkaiser]

If you can handle the smell,,,, by a big old hairy Billy Goat. He'll tune em in.

[15444]

Agreed. Either buy a good old billy goat or keep the best of the three and ship the other 2, and then buy a yearling next spring so that you can start keeping bulls the care-free way by maintaining a good age difference between the oldest bull and the 2nd oldest. If there is one old dominant male and every knows it, the other's won't bother to fight. Works for us and others.

[haller]

just curious how does the billy goat work

[mb_rancher]

build a nice big steel bull pen and let them in there sooner or later they ll figure out who the boss is.

[ALLFARMER]

I have been told if you tie a billy goat to a bull eventually the goat will lead the bull around.

[cowman]

When I was a kid we always had a big pen of about 30 bulls. My grandfather had a billy goat in with them. When any of them started getting on the fight that old billy was right there to enjoy the fun! Not much fun having a goat slam you in the ribs when you are focussing on fighting another bull! That goat lived to fight and was always ready for a good go around!

[rkaiser]

Had a big stinky billy for a few years and he did a whale of a job. Brought home a new cocky Black Limo bull from a sale and dumped him in a fairly small pen with two mature Bulls and El Stinko. Went for a walk up the hill confidently knowing everthing would be cool. The friend with me asked about the smacking noise coming from the pen. As we got back close enough to see the young Black bull was backed up against the water trough with El Stinko threatening him with another wack on the forhead from his impressive 2 1/2 foot spread and all of his 200 plus pounds.

If the big bulls would fight, you're right cowman, he'd join in the fun. Diggin in their ribs or givin their nuts a nasty scratch with those antlers.

Only two problems with a goat. Hard to keep em in a pen (and off truck hoods) and they stink to high heaven.

Good Luck

[cowman]

15444 mentions a solution that works also? The real ugly fighting takes place when bulls are pretty evenly matched? If you run multi-bull pastures keeping a good age difference works very well? For example a three year old and a yearling? The three year old will do the majority of the work but the yearling will pick up the slack around the edge!
I never keep a bull longer than a three year old. The economics of rapid turn over are there if done right...in normal times? Not now.
I get all kinds of flack here for suggesting my system might work for the commercial man...but here goes anyway!
AI your top ten cows to the breed of your choice with the characteristics you are looking for. Expect 8 calves? Expect 4 bulls? Choose two. Don't feed them out heavy...in fact run them out with the cows all winter.
By spring you will have a yearling bull that isn't all that great to look at. The first year he doesn't accomplish a lot but by year two he is getting the job done. Use him in year three and ship him.
So you take a $750 calf, add $150 for the first winter? Now you have a $850 yearling? Pasture the first breeding year at $100 and another $150 for second winters feed...so now you have a two year old for $1100? Again pasture and winter feeding brings you to the third year...now you have a three year old for $1350? Use him for 2 months at $30/month and sell him? You have a total of $1410 in him. Pre BSE youthful bulls regulary brought over 70 cents a pound, so if he weighed 2000 lb. you are breaking even? Getting your bull for free?
Using this method you will also be assured his mother had good temperment, good udder, good feet. Feeding him you will not have foot and leg problems or any fertility problems. If you don't like his first calves you get rid of him with no loss?
Now consider the alternative? You buy a yearling at $2500. By two years old you have $2750 in him? By three $3000? You sell him after breeding and you have $3060 in him...and get $1400? So you don't have $1660 in your pocket, that you could have had?
The purebred industry likes to convince you that they have all the superior cows but this is not reality? There are commercial cows out there that are probably a lot better than any grand champion. In any decent sized herd there is probably enough genetic diversity when you are using AI that inbreeding won't likely be much of a problem?

[rkaiser]

cowman - cowman - cowman.

[nicolaas]

One of the best bulls I ever used was a bull that we raised out of our commercial herd. He is deep and long. I kept him and 10 other bulls intact till they were 10 months old, and then picked the best one. We have used him for 3 years now and he puts the other purebred bulls I run to shame. I suppose it is because most purebred people feed their bulls 14 lbs of grain /day, leading to disappointment when the bulls are exposed to "real life" when they get to the ranch. I would not feel so bad shelling out $3000.00 for a bull if it was not obese and I could actually see some traits when they were yearlings, but I guess that is the trend. Just go to any purebred show these days. You can hide any imperfections with feed it seems.

[cowman]

Well Randy, what can I say? It was getting pretty dead in here...
Now I'll defend the purebred industry...The fact is if they bring bulls to town, not fed to be big, they usually get kicked in the butt! The "well fitted" bulls usually bring the most money! And hey lets face it when you have cows that are worth $2 or 3 thousand each and herd bulls worth a small fortune you'd better be getting a real premium on the calf or you won't be in business very long? On top of that consider the high fees the breed associations charge and all the extra BS you have to go through to promote and sell your product? In the end it isn't some guaranteed road to riches...far from it!
Top that off with having to compete with all the wealthy playboys, who are in it for the glory and couldn't care less if they ever made a dime, and you have a pretty tough old business.