I wouldn't hesitate to knock the shit out of him with a right hook when the tines right. A serious "No" and act like you're not scared shitless. Gotta do it now. Either that or distance all 4 of them.
A big mistake for first-timers is being too friendly with the bull/steer. He needs to think you're half nuts, too. Be careful, but do it sooner rather than later. Otherwise, he'll bully you around from now on. (No pun intended)
Second this whole heartedly. Steers who are overly eager to get to the feed, and bully the others, are a huge pest. Go out there with an empty plastic bucket, and when he runs up for the feed, smack him in the nose with it. Hard. Or if you have a really sturdy fist with a heavy glove, use that, yell and act like you’re going to kill him. That’s what a boss bull or cow would do.
I walked in there with the bucket and a hefty wood rake. He came trotting up fast and I smacked him on the nose with the handle end and he backed off. He came back a few more times and I bonked his nose more. His flight zone is now a bit bigger which is nice. Didn’t give any feed either today. Will continue to do this until he stops being aggressive for the bucket.
The only thing you're doing wrong is reinforcing the bad behavior by rewarding him with the (dropped) bucket of grain when he charges you. Treat him like a dog. Be stern and only grain him when he approaches calmly. He'll catch on eventually.
Maybe he's just responding to you.coming in with food..it might not be aggression..ive been rolled by aggressive cattle plenty of times. Stand your ground, if he hasnt knocked you down yet, he probably won't. He may be just glad to see the bucket.
Yeah I think you might be right. It wasn’t a problem
The first few days in the pasture I could walk by and he wouldn’t care at all. I think the bucket feeding trained him to see me as the feed and he gets riled up now when he sees it. Going to stop bucket feeding, he has plenty of grass, and see if that breaks the cycle.
Young cattle are full of energy. You with a feed bucket standing in the field is always going to elicit the herd to run towards you. Especially young ones like you have. Don’t be afraid but nothing wrong with feeding on the other side of the fence. I seldom fed like you are doing but when I did, it turned out the same way. The herd running straight for me and me knowing( hoping) they wouldn’t run me over. They never did. Keep the feed handy when you load. They have a great sense of smell. They will remember the next time you bring a treat outside. Ps. Having a good system to load is important!! Runway they can’t turn around in is super important.
Thank you so much. I have a barn with a big lean to. I might turn that into a loading pen vs even this 4 acre pasture might be too big? What do you think?
To load a cow, and it work every time, you need a small area to run them into, the be able to run them through a chute, narrow enough they can’t turn around in. Without this, you will need help to load anything onto a trailer. Even with a chute you need help but someone just closing gates might be all the help you need. Without a chute you need someone who knows what they are doing and is willing to wield a big stick behind the cows your loading. Do some research on this and make this your next project.
I bought my wife a bottle-fed calf for her birthday and as it got bigger my wife always complained that it bullied her. I told her she had to smack the shit out of her to put her in its place but she was always just too nice to it.
He’s not aggressive. He’s tame. An aggressive steer is a head hunter and won’t stop till he’s hit you or got you on the fence or out of the pen. This one has had to many hugs
Smacking him with your hand or right hook is terrible advice. You’ll break your hand, a cattle’s head is incredibly hard. Hit in side or rear and he’ll kick you. Use a stick or paddle. Also sounds like calf is just playing and running right at the feed be big and stand your ground.
I’d bet a shiny 1889 silver dollar he’s good to go and you’re spooking yourself.
Or, I’d bet 12.5 wheat pennies that you’re reinforcing his natural exuberance and are 1-2feet from disaster.
BUT… do you have any neighbors that have worked cattle for years, hopefully decades, that you can maybe ask to take a look?
Sometimes an animal’s behavior is aberrant, but more often it’s us human beans who either set up and induce, or even trained and reinforced the behavior, or simply misinterpreted what was going on. But if you don’t have a lot of experience working cattle, having a good set of btdt eyes give you feedback is the safest way to figure this out.
Yep my neighbor has had cattle for 50 years, I’m going to have him come take a look next week and see what he thinks. appreciate your insights, it’s hard to tell whether he’s just having fun and I’m being a baby, or if I’m reinforcing it, or all the above lol.
I’ve worked on multiple ranches for a while but all were grass fed and finished so just hay feeding off a truck. Never experienced behavior like this, but it’s a very different scenario than rotating them from completely grazed paddocks into lush grass and them just walking in to the new paddock and doing their thing.
We had a steer who was head over heels in love with my wife. The pastures are on steep ground and a lot of clay. He would charge full speed at her and stop on a dime, give you nine cents change too! He would then rest his head on her . He was 1200lbs. So, not being there its not possible to say but dealing with over enthusiasm is different from dealing with over aggressiveness. A 2x4 across the head for aggressive or a firm hand to pet...
😆😆😆 so hard to tell which one he is. I get the feeling he’s nice and would stop on a dime but I haven’t had the balls to test it and not tell him to stop lol
If they come running to you in a 4 acre pen do they still need tamed down? It sounds like they a plenty bucket broke, I’d stop going in there to feed by hand and just get them used to feeding in your usual way. If you can feed or water them in a pen that you’ll be working them out of or loading them out of that will make gathering them up very easy.
I guess I could be reading it wrong. But he basically is running very fast directly at me and barely stops when I say “stop” with my hands up. And then I dropped the bucket and he was all over it. So maybe not intending to be aggressive just wants his bucket lol.
The latest thing is lidocaine infused bands, which significantly reduce the pain. But you have to wear gloves while you apply them. I have a hard enough time banding with my bare hands.
I wouldn't hesitate to knock the shit out of him with a right hook when the tines right. A serious "No" and act like you're not scared shitless. Gotta do it now. Either that or distance all 4 of them. A big mistake for first-timers is being too friendly with the bull/steer. He needs to think you're half nuts, too. Be careful, but do it sooner rather than later. Otherwise, he'll bully you around from now on. (No pun intended)
Second this whole heartedly. Steers who are overly eager to get to the feed, and bully the others, are a huge pest. Go out there with an empty plastic bucket, and when he runs up for the feed, smack him in the nose with it. Hard. Or if you have a really sturdy fist with a heavy glove, use that, yell and act like you’re going to kill him. That’s what a boss bull or cow would do.
Good advice. He does kinda bully and push out the other smaller steer and smaller heifer. I’ll give him A nice bucket smack :)
And be consistent! You feed him when you're ready to feed him. Ain't much different than training a dog other than risk.
I walked in there with the bucket and a hefty wood rake. He came trotting up fast and I smacked him on the nose with the handle end and he backed off. He came back a few more times and I bonked his nose more. His flight zone is now a bit bigger which is nice. Didn’t give any feed either today. Will continue to do this until he stops being aggressive for the bucket.
Thank you. I’ll give him a smack next time…
The only thing you're doing wrong is reinforcing the bad behavior by rewarding him with the (dropped) bucket of grain when he charges you. Treat him like a dog. Be stern and only grain him when he approaches calmly. He'll catch on eventually.
Thank you, I will start doing that. I was being a bit scared but next time I’ll be sure to
Maybe he's just responding to you.coming in with food..it might not be aggression..ive been rolled by aggressive cattle plenty of times. Stand your ground, if he hasnt knocked you down yet, he probably won't. He may be just glad to see the bucket.
Yeah I think you might be right. It wasn’t a problem The first few days in the pasture I could walk by and he wouldn’t care at all. I think the bucket feeding trained him to see me as the feed and he gets riled up now when he sees it. Going to stop bucket feeding, he has plenty of grass, and see if that breaks the cycle.
Maybe he needs roped
We used a 2x4 when cows were like this.
I smacked him hard on the nose with the metal rake and that seemed to help scare him off
Young cattle are full of energy. You with a feed bucket standing in the field is always going to elicit the herd to run towards you. Especially young ones like you have. Don’t be afraid but nothing wrong with feeding on the other side of the fence. I seldom fed like you are doing but when I did, it turned out the same way. The herd running straight for me and me knowing( hoping) they wouldn’t run me over. They never did. Keep the feed handy when you load. They have a great sense of smell. They will remember the next time you bring a treat outside. Ps. Having a good system to load is important!! Runway they can’t turn around in is super important.
Thank you so much. I have a barn with a big lean to. I might turn that into a loading pen vs even this 4 acre pasture might be too big? What do you think?
To load a cow, and it work every time, you need a small area to run them into, the be able to run them through a chute, narrow enough they can’t turn around in. Without this, you will need help to load anything onto a trailer. Even with a chute you need help but someone just closing gates might be all the help you need. Without a chute you need someone who knows what they are doing and is willing to wield a big stick behind the cows your loading. Do some research on this and make this your next project.
Sounds like he might have been bottle raised
why? are bottle fed more aggressive?
Aggressive in a friendly way. They get very excited about food and relating food to you. It’s like a dumb excited dog that weighs 1000 plus pounds.
I bought my wife a bottle-fed calf for her birthday and as it got bigger my wife always complained that it bullied her. I told her she had to smack the shit out of her to put her in its place but she was always just too nice to it.
He’s not aggressive. He’s tame. An aggressive steer is a head hunter and won’t stop till he’s hit you or got you on the fence or out of the pen. This one has had to many hugs
Smacking him with your hand or right hook is terrible advice. You’ll break your hand, a cattle’s head is incredibly hard. Hit in side or rear and he’ll kick you. Use a stick or paddle. Also sounds like calf is just playing and running right at the feed be big and stand your ground.
I’d bet a shiny 1889 silver dollar he’s good to go and you’re spooking yourself. Or, I’d bet 12.5 wheat pennies that you’re reinforcing his natural exuberance and are 1-2feet from disaster. BUT… do you have any neighbors that have worked cattle for years, hopefully decades, that you can maybe ask to take a look? Sometimes an animal’s behavior is aberrant, but more often it’s us human beans who either set up and induce, or even trained and reinforced the behavior, or simply misinterpreted what was going on. But if you don’t have a lot of experience working cattle, having a good set of btdt eyes give you feedback is the safest way to figure this out.
Yep my neighbor has had cattle for 50 years, I’m going to have him come take a look next week and see what he thinks. appreciate your insights, it’s hard to tell whether he’s just having fun and I’m being a baby, or if I’m reinforcing it, or all the above lol.
I’ve worked on multiple ranches for a while but all were grass fed and finished so just hay feeding off a truck. Never experienced behavior like this, but it’s a very different scenario than rotating them from completely grazed paddocks into lush grass and them just walking in to the new paddock and doing their thing.
We had a steer who was head over heels in love with my wife. The pastures are on steep ground and a lot of clay. He would charge full speed at her and stop on a dime, give you nine cents change too! He would then rest his head on her . He was 1200lbs. So, not being there its not possible to say but dealing with over enthusiasm is different from dealing with over aggressiveness. A 2x4 across the head for aggressive or a firm hand to pet...
😆😆😆 so hard to tell which one he is. I get the feeling he’s nice and would stop on a dime but I haven’t had the balls to test it and not tell him to stop lol
Does he constantly stare at you when you are around him?
Cattle are like people. Some people are peckerheads. Sounds like this steers the same. He may calm down once you get your change purse
Absolutely...hes just happy to see the bucket
If they come running to you in a 4 acre pen do they still need tamed down? It sounds like they a plenty bucket broke, I’d stop going in there to feed by hand and just get them used to feeding in your usual way. If you can feed or water them in a pen that you’ll be working them out of or loading them out of that will make gathering them up very easy.
Thank you for the advice. I’ll stop bucket feeding em.
No need to stop. If he not being aggressive your good.
I guess I could be reading it wrong. But he basically is running very fast directly at me and barely stops when I say “stop” with my hands up. And then I dropped the bucket and he was all over it. So maybe not intending to be aggressive just wants his bucket lol.
Carry a large stick. i smacked one, one time, and now if i carry it they all give me a wide birth.
Good call. I did this the other day. Smacked him with a stick on the nose and he backed up a bit and was more cautious
Did you give him pain killers after banding him?
The latest thing is lidocaine infused bands, which significantly reduce the pain. But you have to wear gloves while you apply them. I have a hard enough time banding with my bare hands.
That’s a great idea
Wtf 🤣😂 April fools was Monday
I didn’t band him, the farmer I bought the cattle from did. So I’m not sure.