Bull Fight

This a guest post by our good friend Factor. He has a property just east of us that he bought several years ago and is raising Belted Galloways.  On a recent visit to see us and check on his property, he happened to be on his property when two bulls were fighting. It sounded so interesting, I asked him to write a little about the incident and supply me with a few photos for my blog. I hope you find it as interesting as we did.

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When I established my herd of Belted Galloway cattle more than two years ago, Griff (the local man helping me manage them) moved his champion but older bull, Yoseph, to my property to be with them. I thought it was just for reproductive purposes but Griff said it was also for the comfort and protection of the younger and largely female cattle. Today, I tangibly found out why. 

When I drove onto my property I found a very large Black Angus bull from my neighbor's ranch in the middle of my herd nosing around the heifers...much to Yoseph's chagrin. The rogue bull seemed unflustered by my presence, so I was able to observe from close proximity -- his focus was squarely on Yoseph. 

The bull began textbook threat behavior, showing me and Yoseph his broadside view with his head down and back arched, pawing with his forefeet and sending dirt flying behind and over his back. It was both alarming and comforting that Yoseph did the same. They slowly approached each other and with a sudden surge they butted heads and began forcing each other back and forth in the pasture. Surprisingly the other cattle seemed completely nonplussed. I was concerned for Yoseph since he's older with hip bones and spine partially visible through the thinning hide across his back. Fortunately the flurry of grass, dust, and grunts ended quickly and neither bull seemed injured. And thankfully the victor was clear.

The rogue bull made his way, alone, back towards the breach in the fence and Yoseph escorted my (or should I say his) herd of 32 cattle calmly back into the pasture.

A few minutes later I drove into the pasture and Yoseph approached the truck. As if looking for congratulations, he passively stuck his nose in the passenger window coming nose-to-nose with my hopelessly little and wide-eyed Aussie, Linkin. I saw a very small cut above his left eye, the only evidence of the confrontation. He had won, as I'm sure he'd done many times before -- and he probably never had any doubt that he would.