Handling cattle: Who taught you ?

[bunchgrass]

IMHO - it's also pretty important to be able to "read" your animals. Looking big to some high headed critter doesn't mean squat and can get you run over while that same action will work against animals that don't think you're trying to kill'em right then and there. Sorting stick for reach and seeing trouble before they do seems to be the best action. But I'm new here so maybe I'm messed up : )

[Rosielou]

Learned from, and still learning, from my grandfather. 50+ years working with cattle, he knows his stuff pretty well. Usually we use a thick stick, maybe about 4 foot, couple inches wide or we use about a 5ft pipe, bout half an inch across. Sometimes he uses a whip, but never cracks it. He usually taps them with it. Sometimes we use a hotshot on the bull calves that are being stubborn, but we've probably used the one we have now about a maximum of 20 times and we've had it 5+ years. Sometimes he grunts a little at them, but never really yells.

Usually I don't use anything, but if I'm working with cows that are a little bit more spookier, I use the pipe I mentioned. Sometimes I use a small PCP pipe about 3 1/2- 4 foot long. But now since we've almost sold out we usually don't have to use anything, maybe the whip, but never really cracking it. Most of the time I raise my hands, wave a little and sometimes snap my fingers to get their attention, or I cluck at them like I do my horses, or smooch at them like a dog to get the attention of the heifers and calves. Usually the older cows require a bit of waving.

I also learned what NOT to do from the local salebarn. They hotshot them until they have their tongues out and foaming at the mouth and bellering. There's one guy who operates the gates who I usually want to just knock upside the head with the paddle he uses. He uses one of the paddles with the BB's in the end and just whacks the cows in the face as hard as he can manage and I swear he closes the gate too soon so it gets the cows hindquarters or their heads. He's an older man, but he's just so ignorant with what he does. Today he repeatedly hotshotted a cow until she reared to jump over the railing, and I just shook my head. It's really angering how much they hotshot them in this heat, 100+. Just awful.

[Jinglebobbie]

My grandpa taught me that the quiter you can move the cattle the better off you'll be. We have electric prods but seldom use them. I think Grandpa was right about alot of things. If you get a bad one, send it packing.

[Nesikep]

rosielou, it's the same at our sale barn... I mean they do want them to walk around the ring for the buyers to see, and I can understand it if you're trying to sort one out of the pack you might need to use different tactics, but when I see my halterbroke heifers getting chased like be nice in the ring, and then the hydraulic doors hitting them on the rump every time they leave the ring, it gets my blood boiling as well. They don't use hotshots though. I'm just really glad I don't have to take my calves back after they've been through the sale barn... I don't think they'd ever handle the same again.