Steve123 said:
Find a local dairy and get one of their bucket calves. Do a straight vacectomy, cheaper and easier on the bull. They are easy to handle when filling the marker everyother day. But don't keep them to long they get mean quick.
speaking of markers.. I'd like to know everyone's experience with using them. We invested in a bull point marker a couple years ago, and yes even the $40 per gallon ink... and used it for a couple of weeks..a nd put it back in the cabinet. We put it on our bull- to just get a good idea when he was covering a group of cows while we weren't watching.
It seemed to me that everytime they went to the bunk, or hay ring-- the bull would push in the middle (like they do), and he'd color the whole topline of the cow. It seemed that after about 2 days, every cow in the pen would be painted up *green*, like you wouldn't imagine-- and I know that most of them had not been in heat.
I thought it would be a great idea, as we use a marking harness on our rams- and it works awesome... however, the paint is on his brisket instead of his chin-- thus preventing that problem-- and forcing a mark only when he jumps her.
Anywone else have similar thoughts- or what I have done wrong? I guess that maybe if I just had a bull with cows out on pasture- say in June-- that might work-- instead of breeding for fall calves and feeding a little grain/ hay.
