Bully's Nose Plate

Bully is our registered Jersey Bull that is Daisy's "little boy."  We didn't give him an actual name because we intend on selling him.  We don't have room for him on our little farm and don't really prefer to have all the drama that comes with having a bull with the cows full time.  We need to put him with the rest of our cows temporarily, but we don't want him to get our milk.  He's a big fella for a little bull and he could drink all Daisy's milk in no time flat.

We use a little device that we call a 'nose plate' to help with this dilemma.  It probably has an official name, like a Weaner or something.  As you can see below the plate has two appendages with red, rubber balls that are inserted into the calf's nose.  The rubber balls make it somewhat comfortable for the calf - at lease as comfortable as you can be having something in your nose.  One of the appendages slides to the left and right and can be secured in position by tightening the wing nut with a pair of vise grips.

Nose Plate

This picture shows how it would look in Bully's nose.  You would push the balls close together in the nose and tighten the wing nut in order to hold it in place.

Nose plate in 'tighten down' position

On the back-side you can see that the plate has pointed pieces poking out.  The nose plate hangs down in front of the animal's mouth.  If the calf was to try to nurse on his momma, the pointed pieces would poke the cow's udder and cause the momma cow to kick the calf away. 

Points on the nose plate

I held Bully and inserted the nose plate and tightened the wing nut once the plate was in place.

Unhappy Bully

I'm lifting the plate up so that you can see how it is fastened in place.

You may be wondering how the calf eats with this thing in his nose.  Good question. At first it is a little tricky as you can see below.  When the calf tries to eat, the plate gets in the way.

How do I eat with this crazy thing in my nose?

It won't take the calf long to learn that he must extend his neck out to eat and then pull back.  This lays the plate out flat and enables him to grab hay or grass with his tongue and pull into his mouth.  In no time Bully had mastered the process.

Figuring out how to eat with the nose plate in his nose

I just have to keep a close eye on him.  Calves are industrious and notorious for figuring out how to wedge the plate into the fence and pull the nose plate out and then go rob our milk from Daisy.