Taking the bull by its horns – day 76 of 365

Now that I have a title, I can play with the concepts to share today.

I started with the practical interpretation of the title, but I was using too many words, and worried about losing your interest. So, I adapted a snakes and ladders style of writing.

One step forward, two steps back.

Why did we call our bull Ganamede? I am not going to directly tackle this bull by its horns….

I would like to say that I named him after a divine hero in Greek mythology, Ganymede or Ganymedes, who Homer described as the most beautiful of mortals.

A bit closer to the truth, is that Ganymede, or Jupiter III, is the largest and most massive natural satellite of Jupiter as well as in the Solar System, being a planetary-mass moon.

Here’s Our First Close-up Image of Ganymede in Over Two Decades! – Lights in the Dark: Taking the bull by its horns – day 76 of 365

It is the largest Solar System object without an atmosphere, despite being the only moon of the Solar System with a magnetic field.

So, blessing the bull with a large-scale name would hopefully result in a massive bull with large scale offspring. But that is not the naming convention we were following.

Nor was it based on the “great hope of future colonisation” as implied through NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope finding possible evidence of an underground saltwater ocean (with more water than all of Earth’s surface) on Ganymede. Identifying liquid water is crucial in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth and in the search for life as we know it.

This last explanation comes closest to the truth. As a “Trekkie” , I love the concept of space as the final frontier, and I am an avid Sci-Fi reader. I was reading a book where Ganymede was the base station for a rebel force that was planning to overthrow the corrupt shenanigans on Jupiter.

Yep, there you have the bull by its horns.

Now let me deal with the literal implications of the title.

Ganamede is our prime stock building bull. We bought him as an untested young male from a neighbour, and the only criticism was that his horns were not well treated, so they were growing out right next to his head.

Why are cattle’s horns cut in the first place? Folklore will have you believe the horns take up all the testosterone, so a bull with horns will have less mass. But it is just a practical consideration – when working with animals in close quarters, horns are a danger to kin and kind, so that is the reason horn removal is practised.

Ganamede’s horns were growing crooked, and it was nearing the point where it would penetrate his eye. Urgent intervention was required.

We have heard many tips on how to deal with horn removal.

1. There is an acid you can apply to young calves, which kills all future horn growth. But then you must isolate the calves from the mothers for 24 hours, because calves use their heads to thump mother on her udders as a not so gentle attempt to get better access to the milk on tap. And with that action, the acid on their baby horns may cause pain to the cow.
2. We will be trying a new trick: a “bal rekkie” or “ball elastic”.  It’s a similar process to making bulls into “eunuchs”. You putt a very tight elastic band over the horns, right to the root of the horn, and the horns stop growing due to interrupted blood flow. But it is a slow process, and Ganamede’s horns were simply too big to be able to affix the elastic.
3. Medical horn removal, which I don’t espouse for the trauma it would cause these large docile animals.
4. Mechanical removal is the solution we opted for. Embryotomy wire is used to saw through the horns. Great care must be taken when positioning the cut, as you do not want to cut through the root of the horn, which will cause excessive bleeding, and in the heat of summer, flies may lay their eggs in such bleeding wounds. Tar is solution to stop the bleeding and prevent infestation, but better is to avoid open wounds in the first instance.

Thanks to Dr Theuns, who showed us how easy it was, with the least amount of stress to the animal, but not foregoing human safety while working with a half a ton brute force hot and bothered animal.

Here is another tool we have found to work well. It is important to keep the animal still, but it is difficult to convey to said animal, that they must keep still even if they are scared. We purchased an immobiliser which connects a negative terminal to the animal’s hind, a positive terminal to the skin at the corner of its mouth, and an electrical current then keeps the animal still (but not necessarily quiet).

I know, it seems a bit barbaric, but it was an essential procedure, and we could not put the animal down for the duration. Other options include a nose ring which physically restrains the animal, or a shock stick which is inserted… but let me leave that image just there, and rather show you the interesting composition of cattle horns.

For the closing credits, here is one happy chappy, who can eye all the lovely ladies, and procreate to his heart’s content.