From Bull to Ox

As part of a natural farm system that produces milk from cows that are protected for their whole lives there is the requirement to manage  the bulls in different ways. One is to have a bull or bulls for breeding and the other is to neuter the remaining males and train them for working.

Some thoughts on Bulls. To keep the milk supply regular and to keep the herd to a stable number there will be the general need to impregnate your cows at regular periods. You could choose to impregnate using artificial insemination where you select a specific bull from companies that sell bull semen. The other way which will require careful planning is to keep your own bull or bulls for breeding. I say bulls because once your bull has fathered some daughters you would have to have a plan how to impregnate the daughters. So you would probably need a second bull. Then after some years  you would need to replace the first bull with a third bull. Of course you would protect the first bull for its whole life and then you could decide to neuter the bull so that there is no risk of any unscheduled pregnancies or you could keep the high segregation standards for him in retirement.

Generally a bull and especially dairy bulls would require very high and strong fencing and gates to avoid jumping  over or smashing through when a cow calls amorously to the bull from a distant field. Best to have a complete field between the cows and the breeding bulls. You would also likely need a bull pen or pens to have a strong and secure environment to keep strong bulls.

You can also use your young bulls (before neutered) on not fully grown cows.

A practical problem with keeping protected cows with long lactations or with big gaps between pregnancies is that there is a certain amount of infertility in later attempts at pregnancy. Having a bull makes it easier to catch each cycle of the cows as artificial insemination is not as sure in this case.

Training bulls for working. There will be a bigger section on training oxen for work however here I just wanted to mention that using a neutered bull called an ox for work is an important part of the farming system for cow protection. I liked to neuter the bulls at one year old and at the same time insert a nose ring. When they were about 2 or 2-1/2 it was a good time to train them for light work. You could train them younger but work would have to be light and built up as their size and weight increase.

Training a on ox for work is easy and natural.