"Most dairy or beef farms traditionally had at least one, if not several, bulls for purposes of herd maintenance.[12][13] The handling of an aggressive, powerful animal was a practical issue with life-threatening consequences for the farmer.[14]
Bulls respond well to a good handler

It is estimated that 42% of all livestock-related fatalities are a result of bull attacks, and only about one in twenty victims of a bull attack survives.[15] Dairy breed bulls are particularly dangerous and unpredictable; the hazards of bull handling are a significant cause of injury and death for dairy farmers in some parts of the United States.[16][17][18] The need to move the bull in and out of its pen to cover cows exposed the farmer to serious jeopardy of life and limb.[19] Being trampled, jammed against a wall or gored by a bull was one of the most frequent causes of death in the dairy industry prior to 1940.[20] As suggested in one popular farming magazine, "Handle [the bull] with a staff and take no chances. The gentle bull, not the vicious one, most often kills or maims his keeper." [21]"



The article continues and is worth reading.