I have successfully raised my first two calves and today I turned them both out to pasture. Only one problem I banded the male at about 2 months of age, but he is now chasing the heifer and trying to ride her. They are both 6 to 7 months old. Does this mean we botched the banding job or that he's still gonna be interested he just can't get the job done?

-- Joel Combs (jwcinpk@yahoo.com), May 03, 2002

Answers

Joel, our banded steers do the same thing. My understanding is they still have some interest. I'm impressed you were able to band at 2 months of age. We just banded our first at 3 weeks and it was all we could do to catch and hold onto him (we don't have a headgate), the bands we have don't stretch all that far and we had to kind of work the testes through it. He seemed to tolerate it just fine, but we are probably going to band earlier next time. I have heard they grow faster if you do it later but it seems like it would hurt m

-- J.S. (stoom2@hotmail.com), May 03, 2002.

Is she cycling, the heifer? That's probably it, although they just "do" that steers or no. I can always tell who is ready, by all the ruckus, lol. The heifers are the worst! ;^)

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow1@aol.com), May 03, 2002.

Hubby has been a cattle man for 40 years, we may be of some help. Sometimes a true steer will ride heifers once in a while. Or perhaps when you banded,one testicle went up into the body and was saved. A staggy steer will develope a thicker neck and bawl more like a bull and could get the job done. There isn't anything you can do to correct this. Just observe and see. Don't feel bad, it happens to us too and we've been doing it forever. Keep us all updated on the unfolding story of the steer/maybe, maybe not.

-- Marilyn in CO (www.tomeatbeef@aol.com), May 03, 2002.

Our steers all do this. I wouldn't worry about it at all. We don't even ever have any female bovines on the place. They simply ride each other. None of them has ever been a 'banding failure', it's just something they do. Be careful when you are in the pasture, they aren't particular about species.

-- Dianne Wood (woodgoat@pacifier.com), May 03, 2002.

Will a gelding ride a mare when she is in heat? Our neighbor bought in a new gelding when their mare was in and he went right to work. They quickly put her in a stall. Would he do this everytime? They get along great when she's not in.

-- Tricia (rosie71@alltel.net), May 04, 2002.

Yes ... some geldings will mount a mare even though they have been "successfully" gelded. Sometimes the behavior stops when he gets better acquainted with the mare but sometimes it doesn't and he will continue to mount when the mare is in heat.

There are geldings that usually known as "proud cut" ... when they were gelded all of the testicular tissue was not removed so while they are not capable of producing sperm they do have higher testosterone levels and will display stud-like behavior, talking like a stud to a mare and including mounting and penetration.

And occasionally, you will find what appears to be a proud cut gelding that is actually a "ridgling" (or that is the name I know them by) ... a colt that had a retained testicle and the person gelding did not get that testicle removed. This happened more often in the past, when more colts were not gelded by vets ... but it does still happen occasionally.

-- SFM in KY (sportpony@yahoo.com), May 04, 2002.

even another heifer calf will mount your heifer. It's a normal part of the cattle sex behavior. Dave

-- dave (davekurshten@yahoo.com), May 06, 2002.