by Terry Lidral
When you’re bucking futurity bulls in competition, you want your animals in peak shape and at the top of their game. With one and two-year-old bulls, that’s not an easy task. Understanding their disposition, their physical needs and their emotional make-up goes a long way to helping your young bulls develop into successful athletes.
“Every bull is different,” Cory Melton, owner/operator of Melton Bull Company and former stock contractor with Circle T Ranch and Rodeo, told us. “Some will have the same needs, but some will be naturally heavier or thinner.”
For Melton, keeping constant control over the weight of futurity bulls is essential to making sure the young animals can reach their peak performance for competition.
“I keep all my one and two-year-old futurity bulls together when I’m not getting them ready for an event,” said Melton. “These young ones are not penned up in confinement so they can move around on their own. They’re young and they are always moving.”
According to Melton, it’s this constant movement that keeps his futurity bulls in top physical shape.
“The one and two-year-old bulls react to everything. Older bulls only get stirred up when they are being worked with. But these youngsters get easily stressed and are always on edge,” explained Melton. “I don’t have to do any extra work with them to keep them in condition.”
But with all the activity and stress, the one and two-year-old bulls have to be carefully monitored to make sure they don’t become too lean.
“I want my futurity calves to stay lean, but I want them to get enough nutrition to grow. I don’t want them to put on fat or excess weight, but I don’t want them to have a lack of energy. It’s a fine line to keep them in peak condition,” Melton told us.
One of the ways Melton evaluates his bulls’ conditions is to consider their body appearance.
“Bulls have different conformation and they have different appearances. But you can tell about their conditioning by evaluating the appearance of each individual based on their individual conformation,” continued Melton. “Their bodies can be compared to those of dogs. You can tell by looking at their ribs if they are too lean, in good shape or fat.”
When his bulls are not being prepped for a competition, Melton feeds his futurity bulls all the same, a combination of grass, hay and grain.
“My futurity bulls are on grass and they have free choice of hay. The hay fills them up so there’s no real damage to their conditioning by letting them eat as much hay as they want. I grain them just in the morning with around 10 to 12 pounds of grain each. My feed is low fat with 18 percent protein which builds energy.”
A few days before they are to compete, Melton brings his bulls in to monitor exactly what they eat.
“Just before an event, I’ll bring in my one and two-year-old bulls and hand feed them. I ration their grain and I lean them up even more so they are at their physical best. But I don’t want to lean them up too much because that causes a lack of energy,” cautioned Melton.
Some of the major concerns Melton has about his one and two-year-old futurity bulls are their high level of stress, their excitability and their lack of concern for their own safety. To address these issues, Melton works with his young animals to help them get comfortable with the bucking process.
“It starts with ground work,” said Melton about getting young bulls ready to buck. “There are three stages to the process. Number 1: they need to learn how to handle, load and sort. Number 2: they need to learn how to stand in and leave the chute. Number 3: they need to learn how to successfully complete the bucking process.”
For Melton, it’s all about hands-on ground work and letting the animals learn where to go and what to do. He begins with a basic run-through.
“I desensitize them so they’re not scared. Being scared wastes energy,” Melton explained. “These guys have never been bucked so they don’t know what’s going on. The first thing I do is open the gates and put on a little pressure so they learn how to go through the lead-ups, chutes and out through the gate. That’s the way they learn to slow down and aren’t going 90 miles an hour. “
Introducing the loading process is an essential part of Melton’s training program. Melton considers it an opportunity to learn how the bull will act while handling as well as how he will act in the chute.
“Hands-on work in the chute lets me know how he will react to being confined – what his tricks are, if he’s going to buck in the chute, etc. Some bulls are more accepting than others. You get to know how good or bad he’s going to be.”
Teaching his young bulls the complete bucking process is a must for Melton. He bucks his young bulls at home outside of competition to get better acquainted with their personalities. Understanding how a young bull reacts to the different stages of the process allows Melton to better handle those reactions when they happen in competition.
Another reason for getting to know the individual bull is to be able to assess his stamina and his ability to sustain peak performance when competing.
“Here in Texas, you can go to a futurity event every week,” said Melton. “That means you have to manage your bulls to get the most out of them. It used to be thought that a futurity bull might have 8 to 10 outs in them. Now we’re seeing them 20 to 25 times at competitions.”
With a higher number of events, it’s important that the weight and energy of a growing bull is sustained. It’s easy for a futurity bull to become too lean.
“If they are on a lean diet and competing every week, a young bull can get thin. You have to watch for that. If he gets too lean, he has to eat more to get his energy level back up,” Melton told us. “A bull kept in top shape will buck longer before his body gets tired.”
“A bull will eventually get fatigued if he is bucked too often,” Melton added. “If I have a futurity bull that was out 3 or 4 weeks in a row and he didn’t show signs of weakening, I will try to give him a break before I see him losing a step. It’s always better to stop them too soon.”
“You really have to know your stock,” Melton went on to say. “You need to know what your bulls can take. If a bull is winning, it’s important to tell yourself, ‘I’m not going to ruin my bull. I won’t go to this event because it’s too much.’ If a bull is winning everywhere, it makes it hard to leave him at home. Greed can take over. Greed will ruin a good bull faster than anything else.”
Melton cautioned that there may be no warning signs that a bull has reached his physical and emotional limitation.
“Some are easy to read and some are not. It’s not always fatigue that causes a bull to quit bucking,” Melton explained. “Sometimes it’s just the bull’s heart or desire to buck, so knowing the difference takes some experience. A bull is usually at his best just before he starts to get fatigued. But a bull can be pushed too far. Most bulls will show signs of needing a break. You just have to be paying attention. His heart gets broke and we don’t see the signs of it coming. That’s because we didn’t manage right. We have to be good managers.”
As far as learning from others, Melton has never stopped.
“I learn from everybody. I can learn from those who have been in the business for a long time. And I can learn things from newcomers too. I take a little bit from everyone and see what works. It’s trial and error. I learn what to do, but I also learn what not to do.”
One of the things Melton has learned is the best way to water his bulls at an event.
“I watched guys water their bulls at competitions over the years. Some of the guys took the water away several hours before their bulls bucked,” Melton said of the method that for him does not work. “I don’t do that. I found that bulls will drink only when they’re thirsty and only how much they need if they have free access to water. Bulls, unlike people, do not drink just to drink. They don’t gulp and overfill their bellies. They will regulate themselves. So, my bulls have free access to water whether they are at home or at an event.”
“At most events,” Melton went on to say, “bulls are staged in bucking order an hour or two before they buck. At a PBR event, they haul bulls to the building from bull housing around noon or one o’clock and the bulls won’t buck until that evening. So, I don’t think pulling them off water is a priority. I think it was an old theory that has changed over the years. But you have to do what you think works for you.”
Author: Terry Lidral
Terry Lidral is a western writer/journalist who lives in Idaho. She is the publisher and editor of the online magazine Bucking Stock Talk and the online magazine Western Living Journal. Her publishing credits include Storyteller for Real American Cowboy Magazine, writing feature articles for Humps N Horns Magazine as well as a wide variety of national and international web sites, historical magazines and news publications. She is known for her "up close and personal" profiles of celebrities and industry moguls such as NPR's Tom Bodett; PBR's Wiley Petersen and D.H. Page, PRCA's Sammy Andrews, Cindy Rosser and Julio Moreno to name a few. She has been applauded for her way of making a personal connection between her readers and her subjects. She indulges in her love of rodeo by serving as an associate board member for the Caldwell Night Rodeo. She is also an accomplished trainer and handler in dog agility. Her shelties Amelie and Milo are titled in NADAC, USDAA and AKC.
