Best Bull fencing?

[aoconnor]

We are finally bringing my red Brangus bull home again after a year away with another herd of heifers. We will be bringing 10 of the girls home, too. Right now we have barbed wire, but our bull laughs at it. 5 strand heavy duty fencing, not a problem for that big ol boy. So, what do we fence our perimeter with that will hold a bull? Would prefer not to have all the neighbors cows having red calves again next year:-) Last spring was bad enough, but at least we know he throws lovely babies

[Deleted]

Sounds like you need a good hot electric wire, chest high (to him) and a foot inside the barb wire fence. Otherwise a good stout pipe fence may be needed to keep him away from cows. May be best to keep with a few cows. If a bull does not respect a fence, around here, he is as bad as a mean bull. The bull teaches the rest of the herd his bad habits....James

[aoconnor]

Thanks! He will have his 10 cows coming with him, hopefully they aren't all settled yet and we can get a hot wire up for him before he wants to find other ladies. We have a pipe rail fence started on the perimeter, but we thought we had another year before our bull was coming home. Just found out today he is coming back in a couple weeks. We would have to spend thousands and thousands to get the rest of our pipe rail done, so until we have it all in place it will just have to be the existing barbed wire with a hot wire.

[allenw]

I would drop him at the sale barn and buy a gentle bull to replace him, it has always worked for us.

[aoconnor]

Jul 19, 2015 18:37:43 GMT allenw said:

I would drop him at the sale barn and buy a gentle bull to replace him, it has always worked for us.

He is a very, very gentle boy. I can groom him and bathe him as long as no cows are close anywhere. He comes to his name, "Norman", and I hand raised him from the time he was an 8 week old calf. It isn't a problem handling him, he loads like a horse, travels well, and is kind to the cows. It's just that he travels if "his" cows are all bred and he's still in the mood. He is a valuable boy, we were just not expecting him home until the spring. We leased him to a neighbor with fresh heifers while we were getting ready for cattle at our ranch again, including new fencing. 

[allenw]

Why is he valuable, super hot pedigree or what?

[Awnry Abe]

One strand of electric is all it takes. Bulls and cows are big and heavy, so they make good ground contact, so you can get by with lesser juice than say, calves or goats. You don't need to go Jurassic Park. There are several options for augmenting existing barbed or field fence with electric. The best part about electric fence integrated with existing structural fence is that you don't need electric everywhere. A few key stretches will teach your livestock to respect all of your fencing.

[aoconnor]

Jul 20, 2015 1:38:58 GMT allenw said:

Why is he valuable, super hot pedigree or what?

He is extremely well bred (Brangus) and throws very nice, low birth weight calves that grow well and large. He throws his color a lot (red), and when breeding to Herefords that's a good thing. He is gentle and a very easy bull to manage. All of those things combined make a quality, pricey, bull in my area.

[aoconnor]

Jul 20, 2015 3:25:04 GMT Awnry Abe said:

One strand of electric is all it takes. Bulls and cows are big and heavy, so they make good ground contact, so you can get by with lesser juice than say, calves or goats. You don't need to go Jurassic Park. There are several options for augmenting existing barbed or field fence with electric. The best part about electric fence integrated with existing structural fence is that you don't need electric everywhere. A few key stretches will teach your livestock to respect all of your fencing.

Thanks Abe, I will definitely do a hot wire. I appreciate the info.