Halter Breaking A Freshened Heifer

[pleasantpasturesbeef]

Hi! I am wondering what the best method of halter breaking a cow is. My heifer is due to calve any day now, and I wanted to wait a little while after she calves so as not to add stress to her body while she was pregnant or recovering from delivery. I bought her with her Mother (Angus-Hereford cross), and her mother was a show cow, so she is halter broke, even tho I haven't really ever "worked" with her. She load trailers really well when I've taken her to get bred. Now her daughter, this heifer I want to break, is about to have her first calf, and she wears a halter that I put on her, but she's rather wild. I just got her into the barn a few nights ago, so I'm hoping that will settle her down a little while she's in there for the next week or so. How soon after she calves is alright to try to halter break her? When I put a lead rope halter on her like they use for show calves, she manages to get it off within a day or so. Should I just tie her to a post for certain lengths of time? I guess my main concern is causing too much stress soon after having a calf for the first time, and making her weak. I am not a show cow operation, by the way; I just breed my own cows and raise grass fed beef. My family used to raise dairy steers for meat when I was growing up, and they were not halter broke, but they were tame enough for me to grab their halter and drag em back to the pasture when they got out. Now I'm working with Angus and Hereford and Simmental and Maine Anjou, and they are huge and beefy compared to the Herefords and Holsteins. I am not strong enough to man handle these girls, so I need to get her halter broke if it isn't too late!

The first photo shows the red heifer on the right with the lead rope halter that she came with. Her mother is that Baldy in the middle of the photo.

The second photos shows her next to my Jersey steer back in November. She's not terribly big, but just really strong and wild.

 

[Redgully]

I would wait a fair while after calving or things could go pear shaped. Ideally a couple of months and halter break the calf at the same time in sight of the cow so she doesnt fret. I would tie up, start for 20-30 minutes a day and over a week build up to an hour. Tie and walk away so they don't associate you with it but make it about the halter. I would get a halter that tightens on the nose when they pull, they seem to work better.

 

[pleasantpasturesbeef]

Thanks! That's kind of what I was thinking, so I'm glad to have that confirmed. The cattle are at my brother's place (45 min away), since he has fences lol. We were both in it, but then he couldn't afford it and got too busy, so I bought him out. But I may be able to get my sister-in-law to tie her up for me on days that I'm not there.

Is it all right to put a halter on the calf within a week after he's born so that it doesn't get too wild? I had a calf born last spring, and I never put a halter on him before a show friend came and got him a few months later, and halter broke him with all his calves. He was so wild, that he jumped the fence and then crashed feed bins and thrashed like crazy when I finally got him in the barn!

I would wait a fair while after calving or things could go pear shaped. Ideally a couple of months and halter break the calf at the same time in sight of the cow so she doesnt fret. I would tie up, start for 20-30 minutes a day and over a week build up to an hour. Tie and walk away so they don't associate you with it but make it about the halter. I would get a halter that tightens on the nose when they pull, they seem to work better.

 

[Hpacres440p]

You wouldn't leave it on him full time would you? I can see all kinds of disasters with a young calf in a halter all the time…

 

[Redgully]

Thanks! That's kind of what I was thinking, so I'm glad to have that confirmed. The cattle are at my brother's place (45 min away), since he has fences lol. We were both in it, but then he couldn't afford it and got too busy, so I bought him out. But I may be able to get my sister-in-law to tie her up for me on days that I'm not there.

Is it all right to put a halter on the calf within a week after he's born so that it doesn't get too wild? I had a calf born last spring, and I never put a halter on him before a show friend came and got him a few months later, and halter broke him with all his calves. He was so wild, that he jumped the fence and then crashed feed bins and thrashed like crazy when I finally got him in the barn!

If you handle a calf every day from the time they're born they don't learn to fear you in my experience and are much easier to work with. But if you have a bull calf you intend to keep as a bull it's better they learn to fear you or else they can try and dominate you.

 

[pleasantpasturesbeef]

Her bull calf came yesterday. I plan to raise him for meat, so I'll be castrating him. I'll def be doing my best to get over there as much as possible to handle him and interact with him.