Cow not growing well

[NH homesteader]

Hi Cattle people!

I am posting this regarding someone else's bull. I don't know much about cows, I'm a goat person!

This is Leroy. He is an 11 month old Brown Swiss bull. And he is TINY. He is maybe 4' at the withers. Aside from the obvious fact that this guy shouldn't be keeping a random bull in his backyard for no apparent reason (and no one else can go in with him because he's pushy)... Why is he so little?

Okay I'm going to give as much information as I have... And this is what would be pertinent if he was a goat lol. He eats some hay, plenty of grain and has a salt block and loose minerals. He has no scouring but has not been dewormed since he was a few months old. He was a bottle baby but was weaned around 3 months old. His barn was previously occupied by horses and there are chickens on the property but not in with him.

And yes he had frostbite on his ears last winter. @farmerjan you know Brown Swiss. Ideas?

 

[NH homesteader]

Ugh picture loaded twice

 

[farmerjan]

Oh boy....is there any chance he is a cross with some mini breed??? He could also just have a dwarf gene, they do pop up every so often in most any breed. And I don't mean the type that causes them to be mis-shapen but sometimes they just are small, like they are stunted.
His halter looks to be way too tight, it looks like it is actually cutting into his skin. That could be preventing him from being able to eat properly so is actually a bit stunted in growth. Yeah worming would be my first thing to do, and getting that halter off him. Making him a steer would be next on the list as he is only going to get worse with the pushing; and at this point it would only help to keep him from getting mean....
He looks about 4 months old; eyes look bright, no obvious signs of sickness...but every time I scroll back up to that picture the tightness of the halter bothers me.
Previous animals occupying the pen etc would have caused problems long before now, doubt that is what it is....no obvious "hay gut" ...don't really know. Maybe crossed with a jersey???

 

[NH homesteader]

This guy wants to breed him. I'm not sure why or to whose cow... I hadn't noticed the halter being tight, I'll pass that along. I know he's eating, and I've seen him use his salt lick and eat hay.

Does he look like a cross feature wise? They got him from a dairy that breeds brown Swiss but they could have other breeds, I don't know.

He doesn't act sick, at all. He's fiesty!

 

[NH homesteader]

Oh and reading your response to my husband, he said that after I took that picture he told the guy he needed to loosen the halter. It wasn't cutting into his skin but it was matting down his hair and he seemed uncomfortable. So my husband fixed that one!

 

[farmerjan]

If the guy isn't a "farmer" he has no business having a bull as you stated...and he has no reason to want to use him as a bull for breeding as you also said "why or to whose cow" ... NO ONE in their right mind would use a stunted bull for breeding, if he has a recessive gene that has caused him to be small, that is a NO NO in the purebred business. If he is trying to create a mini-brown swiss, then he needs to know what he is doing and obviously doesn't. Dairy breed bulls tend to be much more aggressive than beef breed bulls. THAT'S A FACT. And one kept like a "pet" will be so much more dangerous, as they will turn on you when you least expect it. I used a young jersey bull one year that a farmer was looking for a place to keep him for a few months, and he was fine but I NEVER turned my back on him and never let myself get too far away from a safe spot. He never gave me reason to doubt him... he was well mannered and not pushy and jerseys are supposed to be the worst.
He could be fine for the next 10 years...but you said no one can go in with him because he is so pushy....NOT A GOOD SIGN.
Ask him why he wants to breed him? I would not use a brown swiss on anything, not even a big holstein. They normally have too much "bone" and throw big calves. With him, I wouldn't even hazard a guess. Semen is too cheap to be keeping a bull of a dairy breed like that....He won't make any money at it; if the bull is pushy no one in their right mind would want to have him breed their cow as disposition is considered a "HERITABLE TRAIT". I wouldn't let him anywhere near my cows. You couldn't use him on first calf heifers, even though he is so small for his age, as there is no way to tell if his calves would be big. Anyone with a family milk cow would get them bred AI or at worst use a beef bull so that they would have a calf that they could eat. If it's a "macho" thing --no offense to your husband--then the guy needs to get hurt to get a wake up call. Sorry, I have little use for people who think they are gonna "do something" when they have no idea what they are doing.
If the halter is a "horse halter" it will not fit him properly under the throat and will cut his swallowing ability. A cattle halter will actually not have a "throat latch" but will come down and be like an x under his lower jaw where the band goes over his nose. A halter will not stop him if he wants to pull his owner around. A bull needs a ring in his nose for control...and it is required at any show where bulls are shown, expressly for the control factor. And most shows limit show bulls to under 2 years old... Every dairy farmer that I know and milk test for, that keeps a bull for cleanup breeding, will ship them at the first sign of aggressive behaviour. Your neighbor is a train wreck looking for a place to happen.

 

[farmerjan]

No he doesn't look like a cross, but I was grasping at straws...some jersy swiss crosses look like that and you can't tell they aren't straight swiss except that their build is finer, as they get older it is more noticeable...

 

[NH homesteader]

Bravo for that response! Trust me... I have told him again and again that this is an idiotic idea. And he lives right next to a very populated part of town (small town but still) and has mediocre fencing. I only posted on here out of concern for the health of this animal and I am glad you don't think I condone him having this bull!

I'll pass along what I can, maybe he'll listen to a Cattle expert rather than a goat girl.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

He's pure BS (brown swiss acronym) or could be even Braunvieh (similar in breeding, just one is more "milky" than the other, respectively). But I wonder if there's something missing in what he's being fed. If he wasn't given adequate protein, then that might contribute to his slowed growth. Do you know what kind of grain he's getting? Is the guy thinking of adding a higher protein supplement at all?

 

[NH homesteader]

He eats Poulin Textra 16%, it's out if Vermont. It's supposed to be a multi animal grain but primarily for dairy.