Bull Power
- June 24, 2026
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- Jan Swan Wood
Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life
It was turn out day for the bulls on the ranch I worked on way back when. The bulls were all mature
bulls of Simmental and Charolais breeding and they were big boys. Most weighed up in the 1700 to 2000 pound range, but several were even bigger.
One purebred Simmental bull must have weighed 2400 plus, as he was just massive. His pet name was Grumpy due to his constant “bull grumbling” as he walked along. He was a very nice bull to handle for someone afoot or horseback, as were most of the bulls, and it’s good that he was, due to his size. If one were to think that a bull that size isn’t active and athletic, they’d be wrong.
There was another Simmental cross bull that was always called the Buckskin Bull. He was a dun color
with a little white on his face. Also a nice bull to handle, he was smaller than Grumpy but not by much.
The Charolais bulls had several in them that matched the Buckskin Bull for size but no one was the
specimen that Grumpy was.
The bulls had to be trailed several miles to the summer pasture where the cows were, so I’d started
early with the bunch to beat the afternoon heat. The bulls knew it was turnout time, so they were walking along like true gents and we were making good time. The last gate into the pasture where the cows were had been reached and I’d opened it off my horse and simply held it out of the way while they walked past me.
Getting the bulls distributed would entail leaving some at dams and with cows when we started
encountering them. Naturally, the bulls were feeling pretty good about their upcoming jobs and some
were frolicking a bit and pushing each other around. Grumpy did not engage in such nonsense and,
believe you me, no other bull wanted to play with him. I just trailed along behind, staying out of their way
and appreciating the raw power they displayed.
During one of the pushing sessions, Buckskin Bull and a Charolais bull had gotten out to the side and
a little away from Grumpy, who was in the lead. When Buckskin Bull lost the bull fight, he had ended up
out ahead of Grumpy and was walking down the fenceline in front of Grumpy and not bothering anyone
at all. Grumpy didn’t seem to walk any faster or act annoyed at all by Buckskin usurping his lead position.
Buckskin Bull must have slowed a little, maybe to take a bite of grass or something, and he was overtaken by Grumpy. Grumpy never broke stride or changed expression, but suddenly he stuck his head between Buckskin’s hind legs and bulldozed him along until he was centered under him. With one flick of his head, like he was flicking a fly, he picked Buckskin up and tossed him over the fence next to them and into the neighbor’s pasture.
Buckskin bull landed on his back with a loud “whoof” and scrambled back to his feet. Grumpy had never missed a stride and was still walking down the fence, having resumed his lead position. Buckskin fell back and walked along the fence next to the rest of the bulls, seemingly quite chastened.
When the first dam was spotted, the bulls moved out toward it and I trotted over to a gate and opened
it so that Buckskin could walk through and rejoin the ranks, which he did without a hitch. Grumpy proclaimed loudly that he was staking his claim on the dam and the bunch of cows that were grazing
toward it. The other bulls didn’t argue and we continued along, with Buckskin in the lead this time,
perfectly happy to leave his grumpy herd mate behind.
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Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life
About Jan Swan Wood
Jan was raised on a ranch in far western South Dakota. She grew up horseback working all descriptions of cattle, plus sheep and horses. After leaving home she pursued a post-graduate study of cowboying and dayworking in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota....