We’ve had some tough interviews before but our trip to a Stephenville dairy farm turned out to be particularly interesting. We were in Erath County, the dairy capitol of Texas because of a rash of cattle rustling in the state. With the weak economy, thieves look at cattle as easy money. They’ll take one… or twenty… and sell them at auction for hundreds of dollars each. We were at the dairy farm to interview Joe Riley, a farmer and rancher who’s been hit several times. While Riley welcomed us to his property, one resident bull had obviously not been consulted. No sooner had Kris Gutierrez started the interview, did the bull start to voice his concern. We were unfazed. He kept mooing. Then he got closer. And closer. Finally we asked Riley, “Should we, uh, you know, move?” And he paused and then said, “Yeah. We better …  Holsteins don’t bluff.”

The bull continued his slow advance for a bit and stomped his hoof on the ground once or twice just to show he meant business. We backed up to a safe distance and then started the interview again. After a few minutes, the photographer and I noticed the bull ambling over to our car. He moved in front of it so we couldn’t see him. Then we saw the car rock a few times. When we came around to the other side, the bull had managed to take off an antenna. Riley managed to shoo the bull away before he did any more damage.