Surviving a bull chase

STEWARTVILLE, Minn. — On Sept. 7, 2024, dairy farmer Willie Dux went out to his beef cow pasture by himself to sort out the bull. The day would prove pivotal, pushing him to sell the cows and partially retire one week later.

The bull, which had been underperforming, also had recently been tangled in some barbed wire, leaving the animal with a missing toe.

Willie, who has dairy farmed his entire life near Stewartville, said he did not think twice about being out with the animal.

The bull had tested him a few weeks before, but a matador-like hand movement had veered the bull off. That Saturday, Dux was not so lucky.

“I tried to sort him out,” Dux said. “Pretty soon, it was just me and him.”

He said he and the bull were playing “Ring around the Rosie” with a gooseberry bush before the bull attacked.

“He pushed me down and started beating on my arm with his head,” Willie said. “I could feel his brisket on my hip, but then he left.”

Willie had been pushed into the gooseberry bush, and he said he theorizes that the bull’s injured hoof and possibly his eye came into contact with the prickly bush which made him back off.

“He left, and I had my glasses yet, had my cell phone yet, so I called my wife and called the owner of the bull,” Willie said. “I felt pretty good by that time.”

The Duxes paused long enough for Kathy to get a quick change of clothes for the chilly hospital setting and headed to the emergency room.

“On the way to the hospital, he said, ‘I don’t even feel like I’m in shock,’” Kathy said. “I didn’t argue with him. (I thought) ‘You can believe what you want. We’ll just see what the ER (emergency room) doctor says.’”

At the emergency room they estimated he had broken about 20 ribs. The doctor documented three broken on each side. None of the ribs were dislocated, however, and the lungs and heart were OK.

When it came time to tell his story to the doctors, Willie said reading the doctor’s notes afterwards brought some levity.

“The first line states he is a farmer,” Willie said. “She didn’t know what a gooseberry was, so I said a thorn bush.”

The doctor misunderstood thorn bush and the finished narrative said Willie had been pushed into a phone booth. Willie said it made him think of Doctor Who.

Willie was admitted to the hospital to begin recovery, where he stayed until the following Friday. Meanwhile, back on the farm, the Dux family rallied to get the work done. The Duxes’ son, Kenny, took a week off work to help milk cows and fix the fence. Their daughter, Clara, came from Montana for a few weeks to help, and their other daughters helped as they were able on the farm and with doctor visits around their jobs.

The Duxes, who are retirement age, had been planning on selling their cows in the next several years and had already begun talking with their neighbors, Jeff and Tim Pagel, about buying their herd as Willie had wanted the cows to go to a small farm.

The summer of 2024 had been hard on her and Willie, Kathy said, as they struggled to keep up physically with the work on their farm.

“I tried pressing him with making plans, but it seemed like there was never any time for that,” Kathy said. “It was morning till night, and it was just consuming our lives. We just didn’t really get a chance to plan.”

The injury brought the need to sell the cows to the forefront. Several other dairy farmers helped with the negotiations, and the cows and the milk quota they held were sold.

“It is hard to face up to our limitations as we get older,” Kathy said. “That’s a very real thing. But not that we need to be inactive, but we do need to give our body a break.”

They waited until Willie was home for the 40 cows to leave.

“Our oldest daughter, she said, ‘I think Dad should be here when the cows go,’” Kathy said. “I think that was good.”

On loading day, one week after the bull attack, Willie was outside in his hospital pants being part of things.

“There was sadness,” Willie said. “You realize that (will) be the last time you see them.”

Kathy agreed.

“It’s always been a dairy farm since the Duxes came in 1919,” she said. “This is the last time that this farm will have dairy.”

The Duxes plan to raise up their remaining dairy heifers and sell them as springers. They will continue their beef herd, which has nine brood cows and 28 animals for finishing. They also will farm their 200 acres of tillable cropland and 120 acres of pasture.

Willie had taken over the farm from his parents in the 1980s. He always enjoyed farming, sneaking out of school to help his dad with farm work.

After college, he designed a new stanchion barn and his dad built and paid for it.

“(I was) always amazed by that,” Kathy said. “He must have known that you were passionate enough about it that you were going to stick with it.”

The barn was used up until Willie retired. Willie was indeed passionate, with some years not taking even one milking off.

“(Now) five o’clock rolls around … what do I do now?” Willie said.

Looking to the future, the Duxes said they want to do more retirement planning.

“We’re just trying to get the basics done, like a trust or something,” Kathy said. “We have to do something, but we don’t know what, and so we’ve been seeking out the professionals. It’s just taking a while to get to that point to figure it out.”