Our intention has always been to grow our suckler herd by keeping some of our heifer calves, this obviously means we have to sell Tim (our absolutely gorgeous pedigree Red Devon bull) and replace him with another bull that can service his daughters!  We advertised Tim and put the word out for a few months once he had come out of the girls (September)

For Sale photo

We had some interest and whilst we were waiting for the TB movement test to be done prior to the sale, David spotted a rather lovely young (15 months old) Red Devon bull in Wiltshire.  Durham arrived but whilst he was in isolation the sale of Tim fell through.  This meant we had two bulls – not ideal.  One option was just to keep the two bulls and allow Tim to service our original cows (those not related to him) and Durham to see to the heifers next season.  Not a bad idea as Durham is young and quite small which would suit the smaller cows.

We eventually put the bulls in together with the other steers and after a bit of initial ‘argy bargy’ they seemed to settle in pretty well. 

Trying to establish who is boss – not surprisingly it was Tim

Meanwhile Tim was still being advertised and although we had a little interest,  he was nearly 6 and a big boy which heightens the possibly of knee/feet problems.

He then proceeded to have ongoing hoof problems with just wouldn’t resolve…..and we had to make the really really hard decision of sending him to the abattoir.  That in itself is a hard decision but then we had to decided how to go about it in the least stressful way for Tim.  We got him in the crush and left the trailer open (full of lovely straw) for him to wander up into.   David then took him directly to Haverfordwest Abattoir, a short journey, once they arrived the process was relatively stress free with the staff asking the best way to deal with him (probably because he was a very big boy and you don’t want to rile him!) – which is quietly, no shouting or hurrying.  This they did along with David’s help – David was pretty impressed with the place.

So hard when you have had such a gorgeous boy for several years – maybe it is because he was our first bull but we will always think of him as extra special. He had a wonderful life and was much loved, which is the only consolation.  We are hoping to keep one of the new bull calves whole so Tim’s line will be continued.

A few photos……

Tim and son

Family portrait

A mutual love in!