The tale of Jimmy Bull

This past week, a story popped up in my FB memories which has prompted this writing. 

Once upon a time, we had beef cows.  Well, Rob had beef cows when we met.  3 of them to be exact.  He was rebuilding his herd after having to sell them for reasons best not discussed here, it will just piss me off.

Now, having beef cows and building a herd necessitates a revolving door of bulls.  You understand the biology I assume.  Girl cow plus boy cow equals baby cow. 

Rob didn’t have a bull in 2009 when we got married.  He was going to borrow or buy a bull calf to do the deed.  Our first year together, he did buy a bull calf.  A sweet good-looking boy that was called Jimmy. 

Rob liked to name his bulls after whoever the rancher was that he got the calf from.  In this case, it was a neighbor named Jimmy S.  Jimmy S had been running dairy cows for about a thousand years, and when he “retired” he got a Black Angus bull and breed all his Holsteins to that bull. 

Genetics is a cool thing. 

Putting a Black Angus bull on Holstein cows does a few things.  It knocks their legs off.  That means that very tall Holstein cows produce babies with shorter legs.  It drops their black/white color scheme and turns them all black.  And it makes them more muscular as beef cows generally are.  No energy going to make milk means more energy for muscle growth. 

After several years of breeding his Holsteins to a Black Angus bull Jimmy S produced a beautiful herd of beef cows with amazing milk.

Jimmy S. is a sight to behold.  He is one of the nicest, funniest, sweetest guys around who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. 

He was also about the size of a garden gnome.  Seriously, I could tuck him into my armpit and still have about 6” to spare.  And older than dirt. His real age was indeterminate. When I met him I first thought he was about 90, but turns out he was somewhere in the 60 year range.  A better guy you could not ask for and as far as I know, still running his Black Angus cows on his ranch.

Ok, back to the bull. 

We used Jimmy for a few years and he produced beautiful babies to increase the herd.  Some of those babies grew up and went into our freezer, and some were sold for others to put into their freezers.  The cows stayed, but Jimmy the bull was prone to making bull calves. 

Breeding a bull to its offspring is called line breeding when it works and inbreeding when it doesn’t.  Things were getting to where Jimmy was not going to be viable as a sire for another year.  With great trepidation on my part, and a more matter of fact deal for Rob, we sold him.  He was a good bull.

Rob talked to Jimmy S about a new bull from a different breeding line and Jimmy bull calf #2 came to our ranch. 

Jimmy bull was a real sweetheart.  He adored being petted, fed treats, scratched in all his skitchy spots and would let you lean against him or hang over his back.  We did this intentionally.  Having a bull that is people friendly makes life much easier for all involved when it comes to having to move them from pen to pasture and vice versa. 

(Be advised, this can backfire and make a bull so people friendly that they become a problem, the same with sheep rams)

Jimmy bull did his duty and produced many beautiful babies, many more that were cows vs bulls.  Again, many were sold to sustain our ranch, and the cows were kept as replacement heifers to enlarge the herd.  The original 3 cows had aged out of breeding or passed away by now.  We were up to about 6 breeding cows by this time, including my Holstein dairy cow Loo Loo.

One day I came home from work.  As was my usual routine I went out to check the sheep and the cows, do a head count, and make sure everyone was healthy, happy and eating.  We could not do this before we went to work, as both Rob and I left home for work while it was still dark. 

About a month prior, we put Jimmy bull #2 out to pasture with the girls for the next breeding cycle. 

I’m doing the head count and I’m coming up one bull short.

WTF?

Now, there is really no missing a big 2000+ pound bull.  His body shape is different from a cow with a massive shoulder hump and, quite frankly, no bag.  Aka udder.

I drove our pasture for over an hour looking for him.  I didn’t find a body laying anyplace.  There was no downed fence.  He was not standing across the street or in the neighbors alfalfa field staring at me.  He was not in the lean-to at the water tank.

It was like aliens just whopped him off the planet. 

I called Rob at work to let him know Jimmy bull was AWOL.

Rob, being Rob, had a very hard time believing me.   So he came home, certain he would find Jimmy bull in about 5 mins.  Yeah, he was not happy with me. 

Low and behold, he did not find Jimmy bull either. 

Phone calls ensued.  Sheriff’s office asking if anyone saw him.  Brand inspector in case he showed up at a sale barn. Neighbors in case they saw him meandering around. Nobody saw him anywhere.

After several hours more of driving the area looking for the escapee, the sheriff’s dept called Rob back.

Apparently, Jimmy bull got 2 miles down the road and had jumped into another field with 2 other heifers and was romancing them with his boyish good looks and big shoulder hump. 

Seems that his job at home was done and he was looking for new fields to sow.

Spreading the wealth as it were.

We went to where he was residing and managed to get him out of their pasture.  Unfortunately, Jimmy bull was not with the program and after getting him a half mile home decided to double back and no amount of persuading on our part was going to keep him from his new girlfriends.  Back into that pasture he went. 

Time for a new plan.

Rob called for back up with his daughter and her husband.  We blocked off the edges of the gate with trucks and had backed up our trailer in the hopes of running him in. 

FYI at this point in time I was basically useless.  My knees had given out and I was gimping around on a cane all the time. 

I was standing on the outside watching this deal go down to run him into the trailer.  Jimmy bull again was less than cooperative.  He decided that Robs truck was going to be the path of least resistance and he plowed right into the side of it instead of the actual path of least resistance into the trailer. 

Robs little granddaughter was in his truck and you never heard a child scream or eyes as big as hers got when that bull hit the truck and tried to jump over it.  Yeah, he hit the driver side back door right where she was sitting and watching.

Jimmy bull decided that this was not a good idea, went around the truck instead and back into the field to continue the menage a trois.

We went home in defeat. 

A new plan needed to be worked out.  The host of Jimmy bull was not very amused at his continued residence.

We needed strong young cowboys to get this job done. 

I found 3 that were willing to take on the task of getting Jimmy bull into a trailer. A date was set, trailer was hitched up and away we went. 

It took those boys over 3 hours to wrangle one bull into that trailer.  And it exhausted their horses. 

They tried one rope and pushing him in with the other two cowboys.  No luck.

They tried two ropes and pushing with the third.  No luck.

They had to do two ropes, thru the trailer, back to the cowboys with the third ready to slam the door shut and Rob waving his arms, yelling the whole way.

Finally, that’s how they got him in the trailer.  And he fought every inch of the way. 

It was a heck of a rodeo.  Those boys earned their pay that day. 

Jimmy bull spent the next day in the trailer as we dare not let him back out. He ended up going to the sale barn the day after that.  Unfortunately, once he got a taste of the forbidden fruit down the road, there was nothing that was going to keep him home outside of locking him in Ft Knox. 

BTW, the girls down the road never got pregnant. All that and he never got his job accomplished. 

Blessed Be!