Mr. Boo and The Neighbor
When it comes to interacting with the neighbors, Mr. Boo is a practiced master at it. Usually, it means he goes through a fence somewhere so he can mingle and mix with the pretty little heifers of one of my neighbors.
He then patiently allows himself to be returned to the right field with no argument. Of course, as soon as he gets back in his home field, he starts “talking” to his girls, announcing his presence among them, mumbling as he walks.
There have also been a couple of instances when he’s had a dustup with the neighbor’s bull. This has resulted in broken fences, including one instance when he tore up the fence, then led every one of my cows and calves into the neighbor’s field. Even though the fence gets stretched, pushed over, and some wires broken, it never seems to have been more than a shoving match between the boys. Of course, when the bulls get near each other, there seems to be a great urge to tell the other one what a big and bad dude you are. This requires much huffing and puffing, followed by great sessions of bellowing and bawling. This is often accompanied by vigorous pawing the ground, the dustier the better, often throwing dirt in the air and up on the back.
Up to this point however, the fence is in perfect shape. All the activity is occurring, each on their own side, yet not close enough to push or shove on each other. If they’re up to the exercise, a little shoving and pushing will often begin with the fence between two big heads.
A vigorous shove can result in squeaking wires as they’re stretched to the limit. Only one more good shove, and the fence gives way allowing the two would-be combatants to cross the fence line and push and shove to their satisfaction. There’s often no clear winner from one of these little dust-ups, as boredom or tiredness usually sets in first.
Once in a while though, the shoving and butting of heads determines who’s stronger, and truly is the baddest dude. When that happens, the defeated bull is obliged to make himself scarce, often being run off in a rush. The victorious bull then is obliged to explore the new pasture, checking out all the neighbor cows as he goes. Until now he’s only seen it from his side of the fence.
As you can imagine, the tearing up of fences, accompanied by cattle showing up in the wrong field, can quickly become tiring to the ranchers. The whole point is your bull needs to be in the field with your cows. It’s why you bought him after all. And often it’s necessary to put your cows with their bull in a field which borders a neighbor who probably also has cows and a bull.
Keeping an empty field between the two bulls is an obvious solution, but because of utilizing the available feed to the best advantage, this often makes separation impractical. Therefore, the solution lies in some other method of keeping the bulls from tearing up fences. Enter the electric fence wire.
Once the single strand of electric fence wire is strung and connected to the charging unit, the problem is often solved. However, there has to be a strand of wire running through insulators, being held away from both sides of the barbed wire fence.
It’s interesting to watch bulls learn the vagaries of a newly installed electric fence. First, the shock isn’t injurious. However, it’s definitely strong enough to get the attention of even a oneton crossbred angus bull. Even a stubborn one named Mr. Boo.
The wire isn’t charged 100 percent of the time. It gets a surge of energy on an every-few-seconds schedule. The nose of a curious bull might actually touch the wire during an off period. But, rest assured, if he continues to sniff and put his nose on this curious wire attached to the fence, it will definitely zap him.
A snort and a shaking of the head often is accompanied by a quick step away. Of course, the first zap is never enough to learn. However, after several shocks from the electric fence, even the most stubborn of bulls will walk away and find something else to do. Even the bawling and puffing are usually forgotten.
It takes sufficient learning on both sides to keep the fences in one piece and standing upright and tight. However, when the original intent was to tell off that smart-aleck neighbor bull and show him just who’s boss, it’s amazing how a single strand of charged electrical wire can change their minds.
Such is the case with Mr. Boo and my neighbor’s bull on the west side. His cattle have been turned into the field which borders my western fence, in order to eat off the nice green grass there. Running with his cows there’s also a large, muscular angus bull. Physically, he’s a good match for my big boy. Without the electric fence, there would be plenty of opportunities to practice fence repairing skills.
With the electric fence in place, it’s interesting to watch Mr. Boo and the neighbor go through the process of bawling and huffing at each other. This includes the obligatory pawing of the ground. Missing, is the shoving and pushing to prove how much bigger and badder each one is, or is not.
The two big neighboring bulls often stand about three feet away from the fence, mumbling, bawling, and pawing. They keep a distinct gap between their body and that thin strand of wire. First, the fence remains intact. And second, the animals stay in the right field.