Bull fight at Shady Grove Ranch!
Pedro on the left and Big John on the right.
Meet Pedro, the young Jersey bull owned by TrueFields LLC. Pedro, who is a dairy bull (as opposed to a beef bull), is a bit more high-strung than our beef bull, Big John. That’s not surprising, as we’ve heard stories from old-timer dairy farmers about dairy bulls suddenly turning dangerous, warning us to always keep an eye out for young dairy bulls. For some reason, dairy bulls are not as mellow as most breeds of beef bulls. Perhaps it is because most dairy bulls are bottle-fed by a human instead of being raised by a cow, so perhaps they lose some of their respect for the distinction between man and beast.
So when working with Pedro, or any bull at the ranch, we are always cautious and attentive. We’d prefer not to have to keep a potentially dangerous animal, but we do have to have a dairy bull to make babies so TrueFields LLC cowshare can continue to operate. We just try to seek out as mellow an animal as possible to rebreed our cows each year. (Unlike conventional dairies where a cow can be fed hormones to extend her milking season to multiple years after a single pregnancy, we only milk our cows for about 10 months at a time, giving the cow a 2 month rest before her next calf is born.)
Our grass growth has exploded at the ranch due to plentiful rain and fairly moderate spring temperatures for East Texas. Instead of mowing, we often let the cows graze around the house. Free food for them, free labor for us! This week, Matt let the dairy herd around the house to graze. I began to hear some mooing and (believe it or not) cow growling, as if a couple of bulls were challenging each other. I went to the back door to investigate, wondering as I walked, “Who could he be challenging? There aren’t any more bulls over there.” Sure enough, Pedro was outside, scraping the ground with his hooves, snorting and huffing at another bull near his paddock.
Great. A bull fight. Just what we need–broken fences, mis-bred cows, and general chaos. On top of that, Matt was away for the day, bringing some cows to processing. I’d be on my own to control these feisty animals.
It only took me seconds to realize that this bull was not challenging another bull—he was challenging his reflection! He had meandered over to the wellhouse and spotted his own reflection in the window. Now he was snorting and threatening the big scary bull across the fence! I managed to get a short clip of video of it, and in the video, it looks like he even managed to frighten himself.
The wonders of farm life never cease to amaze me, and most of the time, they make me laugh!
Here is the video of Pedro making a fool of himself. Enjoy!
