# bulls can jump



## COWS (Dec 23, 2012)

Took neighbor's medium sized bull to stockyards Sunday afternoon for sale Monday. To be accurate, it is a holding point at an old stockyard and the stock is taken to a sale barn 40 miles away. Any way, neighbors facilities are ok except you have to back the trailer slightly up hill to get to the loading chute. Doesn't work too well when there has been much rain. Plan 3 weeks ago was for neighbor to get bull in pen and I would bring truck and trailer there, then we would unhook the trailer and hitch it to his small tractor which could easily and accurately back the trailer in place, then unhook from trailer, then back truck up to trailer and hitch back up. Truck would back up by itself ok. Bull was in a stall that loading chute opened out of. He leaves the gate to the chute open and the stall open so the cows are used to exiting through the loading chute. Got every thing ready, noticed that the bull had jumped out of the pen, breaking down the commercial steel gate in the process. By last Sunday new gate had been installed and boards placed above the gate to discourage jumping and the plan was to get the trailer in place then get the bull in the pen and load him on the trailer before he got restless again. Things went well. A cow got in the pen with the bull, but there is a cutting (sorting?) gate in the chute and the cow was run out through that which probably gave the bull the idea that going down the chute was a good idea. Loaded bull without incident, except he thought of jumping out of the trailer, but couldn't make any progess in getting over the 6 1/2 foot high sides. Once rolling he couldn't do much moving around. Got to sale, unloaded bull with no trouble, ran him into a chute with solid steel sides and a solid gate in the chute in the direction of the trailer. He turned around in the chute and trotted casually to the gate and flatfooted jumped it. He didn't break down that gate and they were able to get the bull turned around and headed into a holding pen. I was glad to be through with the project. The gate in the chute is maybe 5 feet tall, sometime I will take a tape measure to it.

COWS


----------



## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Cows tend to jump, bulls tend to go under, like lift a gate and barge through. But as you've seen, they can jump, too. Moved a 2300 pound Angus and used a gate to funnel him onto the trailer. He got most of the way over it, without half trying. Something solid and taller than they'd ever jump is best, but sometimes you go with what you got. 
The Sale barn unloading area has tall sides and I've seen a few get over it.


----------



## CIW (Oct 2, 2007)

There's always a story about a jumper. My papa bought a bull on short notice, at the sale. He was a well bred bull. But he could jump. To keep him they ran 2 cows with him and crowded in a very small pen.
All was well. They just couldn't get him separated from the cows. Our neighbor had bought the cows, so we just loaded everything up and headed out. Tried to separate him again in the trailer to let the cows off. No dice. So we unloaded him at the neighbors. We got the cows shed off and tried to load him. Sure enough "wooop" over the corral fence and headed north.
He jumped 5 fences and crossed 1 road. We never had to fix one wire and he beat us the 3 miles home. By the time we got there he was standing in our heifer's where he was suppose to be let off.
My dad kept that bull 3 years. You just had to know he was going to jump out if you separated him from his cows. At the end of his useful time as a breeder my papa called the mobile processor.
Once they go vertical, cattle are amazing jumpers. I've seen several that have been taught to vault with great success.
Solid walled, 6' 6" is a good height for corral fence.
My papa had what he called the stupid pen that was over 7' and had solid sides. It was right off the alley to the chute. More times than not it seemed that heifer's ended up in there. Its been my experience that they seem to have that tendency more often.


----------



## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWAIjYs9Lws[/ame]
sort of like this?


----------



## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

We had a steer clear a gate that no other cow had ever jumped and he did it easily.
Wife and I were walking the lane around the pasture petting his head and scratching his neck through the fence, when we reached the end of the fenceline he backed up a few feet and launched himself over the gate so we could pet him some more...


----------



## unregistered41671 (Dec 29, 2009)

I grew up on a very large cattle ranch in S FLA. I have worked lots of bad cattle and have seen lots of jumpers. When I was a senior in high school a friend and I were headed on our 30 mile trip to school following a cow truck load of Brangus Bulls headed to the livestock market. There were probably 8 head of bulls on board. The truck was an old class 6 straight job with a HD metal body on back. The sides were tall, probably over 6 ft.
We followed a few miles and all of a sudden one of the bulls decided he had enough riding. We were running about 60 mph. Considering the truck floor was about chest high, we figured the bull fell over 10 ft. The bull jumped up on the RH side and got a good toe hold and he was over and sliding and rolling on the grass. I can remember seeing dirt and grass flying. When he finally slid to a stop, he got up with no apparent injuries and jumped the fence headed SW. I knew the driver of the truck and of course we both stopped when the bull decided to get out.

They caught the bull with horses and dogs before dark almost 18 miles later. We was skinned up and had lots of barbwire sign on him but was no worse for wear. He made finally made the trip to the market.


----------



## Tango (Aug 19, 2002)

An adult Charolais bull jumped his fence and mine and bred my Guernsey who was in heat, breaking her back. She had to be put down.


----------



## FarmerDavid (Jul 16, 2012)

My in laws just built a coral 5ft tall and pretty much made fun of me when I told them it wasn't high enough. I plan on making mine 6ft. Hopefully they don't have any problems but in my limited experience a cow seems to think it can jump out something under 6 and much less likely to try 6 or higher.


----------



## Karin L (Oct 5, 2006)

I've heard my fair share of stories of bulls jumping out of their enclosures, plus I've seen one do it and knew a couple of notorious animals that even did it--twice. 

The first one I heard of was almost exactly like that story from Possum Belly, except that it was just a single bull being shipped, and he jumped the stock racks put on an old grain truck (just a 12' by 8' grain box, sides were over 6' when including the stock racks) and landed in the nearby ditch with nary a scratch or injury. 

Second story: We had four stag steers get out on us and in our failed attempts to get them in, as they were so wild and scared by the guys rebuilding the road running along our quarter. Not only did they put the run on us, but jumped the neighbour's fence (a couple simply crawled through) to the cow herd. When they were being reloaded to get home, one of them, a yearling limmi steer (stag, actually, as he'd been cut a month ago at the time) made an attempt to escape by jumping out of the back of the truck (same sort of truck as in story 1 above), followed by a just-as-nutty simmi steer, which meant they had to be caught and put back in the truck again for the short trip home. Glad to see them go when the time came to sell them plus the other steers we were backgrounding at the time.

Third story: I was just barely 4 or 5 years old at the time when a Charolais bull Dad had been keeping separate from the steer herd, broke free from his enclosure and jumped the fence. Scared me to death, and as a result scared the crap outta Dad, because the only thing I remember seeing before running screaming bloody murder back to the house was this huge, white shape leap over the over-4' wood fence (no 8' iron panels at the time), land on his front followed by his back (just like a cat!) and look at me. Part of me claims that I charged at by a bull because that's what it seemed like to me at the time (and is just that much easier to mention in passing to those who ask), except that I wasn't (I was outside of the corral where the other corral was inside of), but the sight and sound of that bull getting out would be enough to put a bit of fear in anyone, big or small. 

So yeah, bulls most certainly can jump.


----------



## COWS (Dec 23, 2012)

Neighbor got check for bull. Weight 1095, brought $.75 a pound.

COWS


----------



## COWS (Dec 23, 2012)

Neighbor got check for bull. Weight 1095 pounds, $.75 per pound.

COWS


----------

