Room In The Barn Temporarily

Since the load of animals headed off to the auction and there was an empty pen in the show barn, I decided it was time to extract the young bull Uproar from his mother on the other side of the barn. Mike hadn’t been gone an hour before I went into action.

Uproar had a weaner clip inserted a couple of days earlier but knowing that he was already eating grain and hay like a teenager I figured that he was not nursing very much anymore even before being clipped. His demeanor has always been pretty calm and laid back, the weaner clip didn’t change his attitude and he wasn’t spotted hanging around his mother much at all. I locked the head gates (stanchions) for the two cows, while they were busy eating I opened up the pens and led Uproar out into the pasture at the end of the barn and around to the other side where the auction animals had been tying up the space only hours before.

Uproar had the pen all to himself with plenty of hay, grain and water. I took the weaning clip out of him as soon as he went to the manger to nibble so he would be more comfortable. His mother, Quiet, on the other side of the barn was not real pleased that he did not come when called to empty her udder and she complained for the next 24 hours.

We were planning on moving the two bulls with weaning clips from across the river the next day so it would only be a short time Uproar would be alone, and even at that he was not isolated enough to bother him since we have the pen next to his with three already weaned animals. The three do have access to an open pen area off the far side of the barn but Uproar rested comfortably while awaiting new pen mates and his mother bellowing on the other side of the barn brought no reaction from him.

When we did get the two bulls moved over from across the river, it took a couple of hours for them to calm down after having their first trailer ride and being moved to a new barn but the piled up hay enticed them into eating quickly. Within a few hours they were locking their heads into the stanchions without getting spooked and I was able to remove the weaning clips from their noses.