You can raise them and make them manageable, but I don't think I would ever trust that it is safe. In other words, I would always be cautious and watchful around it. I would certainly never consider them to be a pet. A bull has more things on his mind than your love and affection. For that matter, I would never completely trust a cow, horse, or anything larger than me (sometimes smaller than me too). Animals can't reason like people and tend to react to what goes on around them. Heck, even people sometimes just react and don't always reason through a situation. Probably shouldn't complete trust all people either.

Don't even think about it. Castrate him, or have it done by your veterinarian or someone who knows how to do it.
A hand-raised bull has little, if any, fear of humans, and once he reaches maturity, and the testosterone starts to flow, he'll regard you(or any other human) as a potential rival, and no one is a match for 2000-3000 lbs of bone and muscle.
All you've got to do to realize what a bad idea this is, is to look at how many dairy farmers were killed - mashed into a bloody, greasy spot in the barnyard dirt - by dairy bulls before artificial insemination became the norm. There are still a few bull kills every year, but much fewer, since most dairies do not risk having a bull in residence(except in little straws in a tank of liquid nitrogen).
If you want to make a pet out of him, castrate him, and train him as a working steer(ox, after 5 yrs of age). Visit the Tillers International and Midwest Ox Drovers websites, and get a copy of Drew Conroy's 'The Oxen Handbook' to get you started.

Here is a link that might be useful: Berrybrook Ox Supply

ok thanks! I wonder why they can't be tamed and trusted though?? are they just too wild or something?? My grandpa use to have a pet cow as a pet and it was his best friend. It would pull him around in a wagon! It was so sweet.

Well, I have always said to never trust a bull, but our last hereford/red angus cross bull was more safe than any of the cows. I always kept an eye out for him, but he was the last one to make a mismove in the pasture. He's come right over to you and want his head scratched. But keep in mind, I always had in the back of my mind that he was in fact a bull.
I know a woman down the road that has a few oxen (castrated holstein bulls) that are fantastic... and HUGE. But again, they are steers, no bulls.

We had a friend who had a large black angus bull for a 'pet'. Buster the Bull knew what time his owner came home everyday and would go to the driveway fence begging for attention. Buster followed him around like an overgrown puppy. This is an exception, though, not a rule of thumb. And also, Buster was the only animal on the place so he always got all the attention.

Dairy bulls are notorious for being killers. I don't know that it's so much a characteristic of their breeds, as much as the fact that the typical dairy calf is removed from its mother soon after birth and is raised in close contact with humans - so they don't have the fear/respect for humans that the typical beef bull, raised on pasture with his mother, until weaning, has. A beef bull, raised on bottle/bucket, in close contact with humans *might* be just as dangerous as a Jersey or Holstein.
The llama folks have a similar situation with hand-raised intact males, that they call 'berserk male' syndrome. Once these guys reach maturity, they can become very savage and dangerous.

Even a gentle beef bull is not to be trusted - even though they may not exhibit the rage and up-front "I'll kill you!" act of the dairy bulls, they may seriously injure a person, even if they're not showing aggression.

Unfortunately I would say steer him too, if you want him as a pet/pasture ornament, if you need a bull, don't make him a pet. Lucky is right about the fear factor. Not a good idea at all. I have a similar situation, as Daisy's bull calf is getting quite large at 2 1/2 months old, already hard to handle at close to 300 lbs. His mom is feeding him, but we handle him and he really isn't much scared of us. He will lead without having to pull him around. He has learned that if you release tension he should follow. He likes to rub his head on us and sometimes pushes against us (yikes! I know, I know) He is getting quite ornory and his half dairy/half beef. Looks 100% beef (simmental). Everyone is telling us to steer him and let son show him, but he is so beautiful, husband thinks he will go for more $ if we leave him a bull. We need to stop messing with him. But in our situaltion we need to keep him on his mom (he is penned with her only at night, she gets out to eat grass during the day) so we can share milk OAD. So that means that we will probably keep him till at least till he is 7mos of age before weaning him. We are going to have to build a separate paddock soon so he can get out and eat grass during the day too.

Listen to all these people, please!

We had a local farmer who had a Hereford bull get on the neighbor so he took a bucket of grain to lead him home. The bull killed him.......never, ever trust a mature bull.

If you want a pet cow, try it. I, personally, have never found bovines to be very pet-like. They may be gentle, but just don't really want to be touched or messed with. I like to keep it that way. They have a rather short life span in general so it seems easier on all involved to keep it on a business level.

I've raised lots of dairy heifers, but none ever became a 'pet' - yes, they had a much smaller 'flight zone' than my beef cattle, but none were a pet, per se.
We did have one bottle baby - a Simbrah-cross heifer, who did become a pet - I could walk up to her anywhere in the pasture, put kids on her back for a ride, could even milk her standing in the pasture. She was never aggressive or pushy, even with a new calf on the ground, but we did have one Limousin bottle calf that the kids raised - I sold her when she was ~ 400 lbs, because I was afraid the was going to hurt my kids - not agressive, just really pushy, and my kids were no match for her, even at that size.

I agree with the others, make him a steer. Bulls are only needed to breed cows. If you aren't doing that, you don't need one. The dairy bulls seem to have a shorter fuse, were in closer contact with farm folks than beef bulls. Had to milk the cows daily, not left out herds in the fields like beef, check them regular to get them bred. Bulls needed to be nearby to get the job done. Had to get cows in and out of bull pens or let him in the dry herd, then try to seperate him back out. He got nasty when the cows were removed.
Beef bulls were only handled a couple times a year, just lowered the rate of maybes. Ranchers also culled pretty hard, worked to get more gentle cattle over time. Might be a quantity thing in culling, more beef cattle to small farm dairy herds. Less personal.

Bulls were the number one killers of farm folk until the introduction of AI.
You absolutely CAN'T trust them, no matter how much you work with them. The breeding drive is ahead of all others in their minds.

I would also advise the person with a young calf to castrate him now. Why do you think a crossbred bull would be worth more as a show animal? As a breeding animal he would be a gamble on calf production. No one I know uses crossbred bulls, just purebreds. Is there demand for his breeding? And with a boy to handle him?? Not safe at all.
I think he would do best as a show steer, have muscling in the right places. Crossbred steers do well in beef classes. Even steers can be a real handful at a show or Fair. They seem to get loose pretty often when I watch the showing. A couple of strong men can have a hard time making steer do what is needed. These are well-trained steers, just 'don't want to' today. I know the kids, they did the homework, steer is having a bad day.

Bulls come and go as they please, not worth having around waiting for an accident to occur.

My next door neighbor got a little bull thinking how cute and she laughed when told not to expect it to last..He was as good as gold...followed her around like a puppy and then one day out of the blue..he not only decided he was upset with her but when she managed to get out of his way, he started after her 10 year old...needless to say he doesn't live there any more...

Thats so sad. And it's awful gldno1 that the bull killed that farmer!! I didn't know they were so mean! I know of a story I heard a while back about some cows defending their owner. There was this man once that had almost 30 cows and he spent some time w/ them all everyday. Oneday he decided to buy a bull and put it in w/ the cows. Several days went by and the bull completely ignored him. Then oneday when he went out to feed them the bull charged at him and attacked him! It would have killed him if all his cows hadn't come to his rescue! Everyone of his pet cows came and chased the bull off and circled around the man until he could get up and call for help!

I'm glad I got all this advice about bulls though. Thanks!

Of course I agree absolutely with all the advice not to keep the entire male as a pet. Thought you might appreciate this story in its proper context.

An 11 yo girl who moved to a new suburb near us had attracted the attention of a stalker. This creep would appear at her window at night, the girl was terrified. Police came everytime with tracker dogs, did no good even though the fellow was also at the windows of another child about 1/2 mile away. The girl was used to beef cattle and asked the permission of the owner of a small Braford breeding herd in an adjacent paddock to spend time with them. She was with them one day, broad daylight, sitting on a big rock near her house. The stalker spotted her, approached. The herd bull chased him out of the paddock, girl made her way home safely. The mother told me this story; they resolved the issue by buying a Doberman and having it sleep in her room.

This breed and I dare say the vast majority of beef cattle in Australia are culled very severely for temperament but it's still common for a bull to take an instant dislike to a stranger, or someone who has upset them in the past. Some dislike being eyeballed particularly. The selection for quiet cattle could be tempered somewhat in the male by the selection for libido, fertility....ability to do the job of getting maximum number of calves..

Wow, she was lucky that she had the bulls. But, now I know you can't actually trust them!

I may be wrongly interpreting the above posts. I disagree that making a bull into a steer will make him safe. I will give you three instances. My daughter showed cattle for 10 years. She usually chose to show steers. For the most part, they were easy to break. Sometimes, they became stubborn and wouldn't lead. However, during one show, we witnessed a show steer go "berserk". He lunged over the top of the man who was leading him into the ring. The man ended up with a ruptured spleen. During the State Fair one year, the same thing happened with a steer. They had to triple tie him and they finally had to sedate him and put him on the trailer. He went straight to the locker. And yesterday, a woman I worked with was called to the hospital. Her husband was taken to the emergency room after a steer charged her husband. Her husband had to crawl into the feed bunk and laid flat while he used his cell phone and called for help. To be blunt, I personally think dogs, cats and rabbits make good pets. Leave the cattle to be used for milking, breeding and producing beef.

I would agree with nebrjewel, steers are not reliable as a pet. If you want cattle around, a steer is USUALLY much safer than a bull. However if a steer takes a notion, gets upset or stubborn, it is like arguing with a car left in gear with lots of gas! It WILL endeavor to go or do whatever it pleases!! Too bad if a person gets in the way or irritates him!.

There have been and will be, lots of nice steers around. The problem is that they are large animals, can be unreliable in an instant! They cannot be depended on to always be calm, work well in all situations.

I will add that the same stuff above, also holds true for cows, the female of the species. There is not much nastier than an angry cow!! The bad ones I have seen are also fairly calculating, work at trying to do harm. Includes both beef and dairy cows. One beef heifer was just bad from the beginning. Went for beef pretty quick after she started chasing folks in the field, not playing at ALL! She got loaded by trying to attack the man standing INSIDE the stock trailer. We were prepared for this and he used the open escape door in front while we slammed the gates closed behind her. She TRIED to come out the escape door too but was unsuccessful. The heifer she was in with grew into a nice cow, came when called, loved the horses. Never a minutes trouble with her.

Another thing with cows is instinct, they react to conditions around them. A farmer we know was checking his cow with the brand new calf out in the field. The OTHER cow came from behind and horned him in the back!! He was lucky she missed the important body parts, but was still a terrible wound and infection mess. Seems that when cows calve, it gets ALL the cows on alert for predators, VERY excitable. He thinks that is why cow went for him, protective instinct, usually a nice calm cow.

These are meant to educate the readers here. Folks need to pay attention, discuss behaviour, learn to READ THE CATTLE when you have them around. Livestock does the unexpected fairly often. How often to you want to hear hear the famous redneck remark? "Gosh, they never did that before!"