Yesterday Gene and his nephew, Micah, went to a bull sale at the Rockingham Country Fairgrounds in Harrisonburg. He wanted a white-faced red Hereford to replace “Big Red” that I wrote about in “Big Red’s Last Ride”. It was dark last evening when Gene came home with BBF Harkradar 34X B29, a white-faced red Hereford bull. As Gene backed the cattle trailer up to the pen to unload him, he started making “I am here” big boy bull noises. He could smell the other cattle on the farm. We put him in a small lot with some younger bulls and heifers for the night and what a ruckus they created. They romped and played and they chased him round and round the pen as they tried to figure out who he was. We decided to call him Radar.
This morning Gene opened the gate and let him wander into the “big boy” pen where the other bulls are resting and putting on weight before they are turned out to the cows and heifers in a few weeks to begin the intense breeding season.
He ambered out to pasture as the other bulls came running to check out the new intruder.
Within seconds, all mayhem broke loose. Big Boy Angus stumped his feet and pawled the ground throwing dust high in the air while lowering his voice 3 octaves as if to say, “who do you think you are, I am King Tut here” as he stormed out to alert the other bulls who were quietly resting under the trees about the “young squirt” who had just entered their domain.
The bulls/steers in the feedlot pen beside the bull pen went absolutely berserk. Radar was more concerned with them then he was the bulls and became very vocal as he expressed his manhood. We sure were glad there was a very hot electric fence in between but held our breath it would suffice. (You can see the action in the video at the end).
Forget Radar…the bulls barely acknowledged his presence in the field. Instead, they instantly went after each other; bullying, dualing it out, heads locked together, their testosterone raging!
The white-faced bull is a home-grown offspring of “Big Red”.
While the big boys dualed it out, Radar wandered around checking out the turf before finally getting into the tussle.
Radar was born September 19, 2014 in Goochland, VA. We thought it was neat that he got to come back east to make his home 30 miles from where he was born and raise.
Click on the link below to watch a video of the bulls in action.
Follow up note: The next morning all was peace and calm in the bull pen. Maybe they simply worn themselves out or else they figured out their status quo…. at least for this moment!
