Gentle People Gentle Cattle

[Brute 23]

When I worked Brahman cattle with my grandfather we would always move real easy and slow. He would kind of stand behind them and I would open the gate. Some times more than once so they could see it. They would move on their own then. If you tried to push them they would just get out of control. They would kill themselves before you could do anything.

They were tame as can be in the pasture. He hand fed his bulls. We have pictures of him leaning on them and having his arm around there knecks,,, but he always said they are different animals when they get pinned up.

The last ones that were sold we had to literally get them to chase us in to the chute and then ump out.

 

[Keren]

We dont use an electric prod routinely . . . but there are some times when you will be glad its there.

When my mate was pinned against the gate getting her chest crushed.

When a bad-footed steer went down in the race.

When a heifer went down in the crush with half a calf sticking out and the lower vet gate was closed and the calf was being choked.

When we fed out and one heifer got her neck caught in the self feeder, and almost broke it and we had to get the others away from the food.

Bottom line, we dont use it much, but when we need it, its there.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I've been reading posts about normal cattle who seemingly get mean in chutes or enclosed areas. Do they get claustrophobia? -or is it actually a case of induced panic brought on by previously terroizing experiences in the past?

I think a big problem many cattlemen have is that they are either in too much of a hurry or do not handle their cattle at all and when they do they "manhandle" them in effect often terrorizing them. Texas Longhorns for one are extremely smart and learn by association. They don't forget. They know their friends and they know their percieved enemies. There are a lot of cows and bulls out there of all breeds who have been labeled everything from mean, stupid or outright nuts who are simply scared to death. Why? Because they've been "trained" by unwitting handlers to be fearful. They aren't born that way, they become that way.

We treat our cattle with gentle consideration...and within the limits of their ability-there is nothing they wouldn't do for us. Bovine psychology is really little more than plain old common sense. Gentle People make Gentle Cattle...Rough cruel people make normal cattle dangerous. We use a hot wire on our fenceline but no one is going to convince me that Electric shockers used to move cattle aren't a form of bovine terrorism... and where there is fear in a half ton or one ton animal, people and animals get hurt. Check our website for Cattle Handling training techniques that really work. Besides, it's a lot safer and a lot less stressful for all concerned.

After all, common sense dictates you can not out-muscle cattle, so lets out-think them by incorporating gentle handling techniques.
____________________________________________________
Premier Longhorns LLC
Registered Texas Longhorns
Cutting Edge Genetics
Stillwater, OK
http://www.premierlonghorns.com/INFORMATION-LINKS.html

You have never penned a bunch of F-1 tiger yearlings, you can walk up to them in the pasture close the gate on the pen and its going to get tested.

 

[Proverbs 12:10]

I started out a while back in the longhorn business and after a few years thought I had cattle handling mastered. Then several years ago I bought some registered brahmans and bred to a hereford bull cause I heard that made a good mama cow. I found out I didn't know squat...learned what "high headed" was all about.

 

[millstreaminn]

While I was in high school I worked for a good dairy farmer but his son had to be the worst, meanest herdsman in the book. He was the idiot that kept pick handles sitting around the bard to "teach" the cows not to swat him with their tails... Still pisses me off to think about that. When he would just walk in the milking barn all the cows would tense up and be on edge. If he wasn't around those where a nice, calm herd of holsteins to milk.

 

[Outrigger2]

You have never penned a bunch of F-1 tiger yearlings, you can walk up to them in the pasture close the gate on the pen and its going to get tested.

i agree with that statement

 

[Tegerian]

My cousin was always brutal with all of his livestock, be it cattle or horses they were all crazier than a ****-house rat and you couldn't hardly get near them to do any work without them freaking out on you. On the other hand I've seen folks who were gentle with their cattle raise some unsocialized nut-bags as well, as folks have said here, some animals are just crazy whether you're nice to them or not.

 

[grubbie]

Okay, gotta weigh in with my two cents. First of all, I've seen posts from you before on how longhorns are somehow smarter than other breeds. I don't buy it, personally. I don't believe they are any smarter, or dumber, than other breeds. This is not an attack, just my opinion from my own experience. Also, someone else stated that some cows are smarter than we are,....,I don't buy that one either. I agree some wild or mean critters are born, and some are made, but I have also noticed that if we have a cow that is wild and flighty, her calf is that way as well. But if we keep that calf and spend some time with it, we can generally get it calmed down after a time. Just my two cents on this great post!

 

[jbfarms011]

I had to give one of our calves a shot for pneumonia, well we havent been in the business long and we are still learning. this cow wouldnt cooperate, it took us 11/2 hours to pin it down and that was by laying a rope down on the ground and when it stepped in it grabbing the rope and tieing his back legs together to take him down, by this time we were up to our elbows in cow crap. any solutions to the problem?...getting to old for that kind of work, lol

 

[randiliana]

I had to give one of our calves a shot for pneumonia, well we havent been in the business long and we are still learning. this cow wouldnt cooperate, it took us 11/2 hours to pin it down and that was by laying a rope down on the ground and when it stepped in it grabbing the rope and tieing his back legs together to take him down, by this time we were up to our elbows in cow crap. any solutions to the problem?...getting to old for that kind of work, lol

Build/buy a chute, doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't even need a headgate on it (although that would work better). Chase the animal into a corner and squeeze it up with a gate.

 

[holly heifer]

:lol: The herfs are great! All I have to do is yell-- here cows--
and they know the feed is being put out. Need to sort some
out? No problem! Open the gate, point at the opening and
presto, the cow is in the scale pen. Gotta love those herefords
:heart:

 

[ALACOWMAN]

we worked a few heifer's yesterday afternoon. and was watching the other's afterward come around the chute smelling around and my son said they can smell that nervous sht.... we all know how they go from piling to squirt'in pronto when stressed . but i never thought of the smell cause even though they were in no danger or closed up you can see em get flighty

 

[ArrowHBrand]

I whole heartedly agree that calm people have calm cattle. When we work our cattle we call to them like they were dogs and the lead cow will usually get them coming in our direction. When a heifer or calf needs a little assistance making up their minds in which direction they want to go, we'll ride into their "space" just enough to push them on. If that doesn't work, and I have worked cattle that we literally had to ride the horse almost onto them, we call one of our blue heelers over. Most of the time they know if the lot gate is open, they are going up so they go towards the lot gate. If the gate between the pastures is open, they are being moved and will go towards that gate. Now a bit of advice for those new to cattle, and this is just what has worked for me and entirely IMO, if all heck breaks loose get the head cow (the lead cow that usually makes all of the herds decisions) going in the direction you want the others to go. There have been times when we just can't get that one or two dang ornery cows going or bull going so we leave them behind and most of the time they will realize they are being left and will quickly join back with the herd. This doesn't work all of the time, but it has worked for us. Just a thought.

 

[TREY-L]

The temperment and personalities of cattle varies from individual to individual, their personalities are as varied as every person that posts on this forum. If you design your facilites to give them only one choice, then working them should not be a problem. Remain calm and always be respectful of your animals. Being respectful doesn't necessarily mean lighting candles in their honor or bringing them gifts of grain, although maybe it couldn't hurt, but respect used in the sense of remembering that they are a powerful animal that has been "hard wired" to a certian degree, by our creator. This is how "almost" every animal deals with very stressful situations, even humans, i.e. reflexive actions. It's called innate behavior response, all animals are born with them, humans included.
Trey

 

[CKC1586]

There is a good article on the Home Page by Heather Smith Thomas, or is it Heather Thomas Smith.. anyway good information in the article on this subject.