Bull Got His Head Stuck

Our 16 month old Simmental Bull found his own head gate today. He somehow got his head between a big forked White Oak tree and couldn't get out. Had to build a ramp to put under his front feet and finally 2 of us was able to help him squeeze his head back through a wider section of the fork. Should've went ahead and worked him since he wanted to be in a head gate, lol. I'm just happy that he was calm and didn't hurt himself. Wished I had taken a picture, just because its something you don't see everyday but I didn't think about it. I did cut the tree down to make sure it wouldn't happen again. 

You got lucky. I wasn't as fortunate. Several years ago , I bought the Willard Keith herd in KY. There was several bulls included in the package , one of which was a bull called JJ Denim. Willard had bought 1/2 of him from Doc Freed for like $10k. We would use him 1 year at a time then rotate. One year while he was at my house he got to rubbing his neck in the fork of a sweet gum tree and got it stuck. I ended up having to cut the tree down with him trapped in the fork. Got him free but he immediately went down and couldn't get him up. He ate food for 2 days then died. That was a tough call to make, to let Doc Freed know.

I had a heifer calf get her head stuck in a split in a tree this summer.  The split looks like an upside down "v" in a hollow tree.  My best guess is that she laid down next to it and had her head in the tree when she stood up.  She didn't have sense enough to lay back down.  We put a halter on her and pulled her head down between her front legs.  We kind of "flipped" her out of the tree.  She survived with no ill effects...thank goodness!

I had a cow get her head stuck in the bale elevator. I had to get the cutting torch out to cut the cross bar on the frame. I have also had one stuck in the y of a tree, but of course the chainsaw blade was shot. On that one I had to hook a chain to the skid steer and break the branch off. I only have three tree's in the pasture.

Yeah, I would say we were blessed! My mom had went outside the house, to do some things around the yard and our bull lot is here around the house. She ended up coming in and saying Michael, I think one of the bulls has his head stuck in a tree. I'd figured he was just rubbing around a tree and she didn't know what she had saw, for I have never seen one get stuck in a tree. But sure enough he was stuck in the "Y" of a large white oak, just standing there like somebody had put him there to stay, again thank goodness he is a calm good dispositioned bull. I really don't see how he got his head through it to begin with, he really had to be stretching while rubbing or riding one of the other animals in the lot and fell into it or pitched into it by the 17 month old bull. Anyhow I'm now gonna be careful about which trees stay in a pasture among other things they could get into. Here's a toast for good luck to us all and better weather. 

Doc said:

You got lucky. I wasn't as fortunate. Several years ago , I bought the Willard Keith herd in KY. There was several bulls included in the package , one of which was a bull called JJ Denim. Willard had bought 1/2 of him from Doc Freed for like $10k. We would use him 1 year at a time then rotate. One year while he was at my house he got to rubbing his neck in the fork of a sweet gum tree and got it stuck. I ended up having to cut the tree down with him trapped in the fork. Got him free but he immediately went down and couldn't get him up. He ate food for 2 days then died. That was a tough call to make, to let Doc Freed know.

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We had a similar situation with a Reg. Angus bull several years ago.  Found him stuck, hadn't been there but a few hours but had injured himself trying to get free.  We got him loose and he died the next day.

At our rented pasture this summer, we got a call from the owner's that we had a problem with one of our bull calves.  Assuming he was out in the cornfield, or down with pneumonia, we feared the worse.  Upon arrival, we realized he must of been "wrestling" with a plastic lawn chair that had blown into the pasture, and somehow got his head stuck under the chair arm!  Needless to say, it took a lot of coaxing to get him close enough to the corral to pry it off.  Figured no one would believe us, so we got a pic...