Red bull

No, not Redbull the energy drink. We're talking about a red bull. Like this:

This is a Polled Hereford bull, which is the breed of bull that we currently own. Polled means that it is a hornless breed. We prefer not to have horned cattle because it's a lot safer. On the other hand, most of our cows are black Angus, which you've all seen before. They're black. When a Hereford bull breeds with a black Angus cow, it produces cute little calves like this:

Hereford bulls are commonly bred with Angus cows and vice versa. They are both good breeds of beef cattle. And since we don't run a pedigreed, purebred cattle business, then it's ok for us to have some mixed blood. The cross between Herefords and Angus are called Black Baldy's, because as you can see,

the resulting calf is black, with a "bald" or white face. The white face and black coat are dominant genes, but you can also get a red calf with a white face. Last year, out of our 26 calves, 21 were black baldys and 5 were red baldys, but all had a white face. So you can see, the black coat gene and white face gene are dominant. This year, out of our 6 calves that have been born so far, 3 are black and 3 are red.

Anyway, back to the main point. This is the story of our Red Bull. It was the late fall/early winter of 2009. I believe that Joseph had just gotten home from his mission, but maybe I'm mistaken on that point. Joseph and I went to a bull sale at the Utah State Fairgrounds. Clayton was working late that night, and Joseph and I were the only ones who were available to go. We weren't actually planning on buying a bull; in fact, we drove there in Joel's Durango. Not exactly a bull-hauling vehicle. We were only going to the sale to see what prices good bulls were going for. Now, mind you, Joel had given Joseph a blank check, and said that if we found a really good bull for under $2,000, then well, maybe we could think about buying one. But although we were in the market for a new bull or two, having recently sold our bulls, we weren't planning to buy one at this time. Window shopping, we were only window shopping.

But sometimes, you're out window shopping, and you find something so tempting, something absolutely gorgeous that is priced so low, that you've just gotta have it. We're sitting there in the auction ring, Joseph and I, and they're bringing out some really nice bulls. Really nice. The Angus bulls were a bit higher priced than was in our budget, but that's ok, because after all, we weren't going to buy a bull tonight. Right? Right?

They started bringing out the Hereford bulls, and they were going for really really low prices. I mean, these are some fine looking animals, going for $1500, $1750, $2100. Right in our price range. They bring out a beautiful two year old bull, and before we knew what we were doing, we started bidding. Joseph was probably the youngest bidder in the room, so I'm not sure that the auctioneer took us very seriously, but we kept on bidding. And what do you know? The price was right, and we had bought ourselves a bull. Joseph, when he had realized what he had done, was pretty nervous and unsure of himself. He was worried that the powers that be (Joel & Clayton) would be upset at our unauthorized bull-buying expedition. And a Hereford bull, at that. Now, there's nothing wrong with Herefords, or black baldys; in fact, black baldy cows are known for being excellent mothers. And we've had Herefords before in the past, but the current market is leaning more towards straight black Angus beef. So you better believe that when we called Joel and then Clayton, to tell them that we had bought ourselves a Hereford bull, well, let's just say that they were both pretty surprised.

So why did we buy the bull? After all, we were just window shopping. No thanks, I'm just looking. Just checking out the merchandise. Well, I can't answer for Joseph, but when they brought that bull out, I think I just fell in love a little. He was barely two years old, but he was HUGE. Way bigger than our previous bulls. He was just the most beautiful speciman of a bull that I'd ever seen. And to this day, I still tell him all the time what a fine looking bull he is. (PS, the picture of the bull at the top is not him. As beautiful as he is, I've never taken his picture. How ironic. I just pulled that picture off of Wikipedia.)

Back to the bull sale. So we had just bought ourselves a handsome bull, but as I said earlier, we had driven the Durango. Didn't bring a trailer or even a halter to walk the bull home along the freeway. Just kidding. Luckily for us, one of the bull sellers/buyers was a rancher from Grantsville, which is a 5-10 minutes drive from Tooele. We worked up our courage, approached the rancher, and told him our pathetic tale; that we were two kids from Tooele who had somehow bought ourselves a bull but had no way to get him home. He took pity on us fools, and even more luckily, had room in his big stock trailer for just one more bull. We packed our beautiful bull into the crowded trailer, said goodbye, and then drove ourselves home. And Joseph took our own trailer out to Grantsville in the morning to pick up our beautiful bull and drove him home. He's not aggressive like Bull #49, but I wouldn't say that he's as gentle as Bull #20. Just a nice medium temperament. He has proved himself to be very fertile, which is a nice bonus to his good looks. Our first crop of calves that he fathered was one of our most prolific years we've had. AND in that first crop, we got our first pair of twin calves that we've had in about 25 years. How cool is that??

My last bragging point about our handsome bull is this: last spring we took Red Bull to the vet for his yearly check-up. At the check-up, the vet takes some measurements and checks for diseases. He also takes a sperm sample to make sure the bull isn't shooting blanks, so to speak. Well, at our spring check-up, the vet took our bull's sperm sample, examined the swimmers under a microscope, and then proclaimed that it was the best sperm sample he'd seen in weeks. I was so proud, I nearly popped the buttons off of my jacket. That's my Red Bull!