Random thought for the day

[Gwolf]

I dunno, but all this talk about nose rings reminds me of an 'incident' years ago that had a lasting impression on me... and convinced me that those nose rings might not always work at stopping either or both rutting or rooting, but sometimes, it duz'nreally matta...

I was out one day in this old 4WD bush basher that we used for mustering, and I just wasn't quick enough to get it outta the way of this really angry scrub bull that somehow had a nose ring... and I can tell you that despite the nose ring (it was a bloody good nose ring - tho how the heck a bloody massive feral bull had got that way out in the bush was beyond me?!) after that bull was done with the bush basher, said vehicle had been both rutted AND rooted and then some!! And I reckon that if it hadn't focussed the bull's attention for as long as it did, giving me enough time to get out and really leg it, then it wouldn't have been the only thing that ended up that day as Wallaby Ted's older brother!!

No kidding, by the time it was over, that old bush basher REALLY WAS Roo Ted!




Garn' - maybe ya just hadta be there?!

That is fairly normal behavior for feral or domestic bulls. All the trucks they are building now have plastic grills. If you are going to drive it in the field where young bulls are, or even in a field with several older bulls, you have to put a metal grill guard on the front end or even the domestic bulls will break the whole front grill out of your truck. It is a competition or show off thing for the bulls. They don't often hit the sides of the trucks, but they seem to want to bash at the front end, maybe to stop the truck, or just to show off. If there is not truck in the field, the young bulls will get out there, pawing up the dirt and bashing heads with each other. A young bull weighing a ton, plus or minus a few hundred pounds can do some serious damage to a truck grill. The bulls are not as eager to bash at the front end of the tractor with the hard metal front end weights hanging on the bumper, but they will sometimes give that a try too. Butting heads and pushing each other around is how the bulls determine their pecking order. The winners of the bull fights determine which bulls are the top of the pecking order and have their choice of which cows in the herd they breed. The lower down bulls get what is left over when several cows are in heat at the same time. You can always tell which cows are considered to be the most desirable because the number one bull will cut that one out of the herd and try to keep her away from all the other bulls and cows for several days. The younger, smaller, or less aggressive bulls get left with the less desirable cows, by bull standards. You would only have more than one bull with a larger herd of cattle. The ratio is about 30 to 35 cows per bull. A herd with approximately 100 head of brood cows would require at least 2 and probably 3 breeding age bulls with the herd to assure most of the cows are bred back in minimal time period after calving. The head bull will always get first choice of the cows because they have proved they can beat the other bulls in head butting contests and breaking plastic grills out of trucks contests.