Halter breaking a wild feild steer

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Bikermike

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Ok so I'm new here because I'm having a very hard time breaking a steer for my daughters ffa project. He's buck wild! He's broke out of the homemade chute 4-5 times. He will do fine tied up to a tree but you cannot touch him he will do fine tied up to a tree but you cannot touching past his shoulders. He will try to charge you when you untie him. He's about 650 pounds one years old and I'm using a chain halter I try to tie him up in the afternoons for 3 to 4 hours at a time nothing is seeming to help any advice would be wonderful!!! If something doesn't give soon I will have to sell him at the market and she will not have a project I'm not going to have my daughter get hurt over a stupid steer!!!
 
Bikermike":27swhhvl said:
Ok so I'm new here because I'm having a very hard time breaking a steer for my daughters ffa project. He's buck wild! He's broke out of the homemade chute 4-5 times. He will do fine tied up to a tree but you cannot touch him he will do fine tied up to a tree but you cannot touching past his shoulders. He will try to charge you when you untie him. He's about 650 pounds one years old and I'm using a chain halter I try to tie him up in the afternoons for 3 to 4 hours at a time nothing is seeming to help any advice would be wonderful!!! If something doesn't give soon I will have to sell him at the market and she will not have a project I'm not going to have my daughter get hurt over a stupid steer!!!
Sell him. He could probably be broke by someone with a bit more knowledge/experience and more facilities, but being as it is, I would sell him. Even the best animal is not worth getting yourself or your child busted up for. If you can, get a lamb/pig/goat for this go. The validation/weigh in dates are usually later if you already passed that point with the steer(so a replacement isn't feasible). Next time around, look for steers that are advertised as junior project or first time showman ready. They can still be good enough to compete, but already have the rough edges taken off. :2cents:
 
I agree, that steer is a hazard to you and your kids health, he ain't worth it.. and 650 lbs for a yearling is pretty darned small too... Wish I could say anything else but that's the brutal truth of it.
Depending on where you are you might be able to find a much more docile animal
 
Get rid of him.
Better that she be hurt by not having an animal to show than get really hurt by trying to train a wild one to show.

Cut your losses. learn from mistakes and do better next time.
 
leave him tied to that tree for 24 hrs. no food or water..he will be broke. seems cruel but I had a crazy heifer once that got a chain hook stuck in her mouth off a trlr safety chain. that crazy cow would chase ya or bolt like lightning. came home one day and she had swallowed it and it got caught behind her back teeth. she had been there at least overnight and maybe longer. the dirt was all tore up but when I found her she was standing there calm as could be. I walked right up..lifted her lips up to see what was holding her and un hooked the hook...she just looked at me and slowly walked away for a drink....she never chased me or ran like a crazy after that....kept her for a long time.
another flighty steer got caught in a head chute one day..idk how...but after I finally let him out...he was docile as a hound dog. he had been there all day as well....
 
I don't want to give up on him yet. Once I get a new halter (tomorrow I hope ) Ima tie him up again over night. Luckily its cool and he will be in the shade. Maybe I can lead him to water or food. Ima keep working on him for a few more week. After that if he ain't changed to the market he goes.
 
Sell the steer or eat it and go get a goat, lamb, pig, rabbits or chickens, then next year start with a younger more manageable steer or get one that someone has started.
 
Bikermike":375pud98 said:
I don't want to give up on him yet. Once I get a new halter (tomorrow I hope ) Ima tie him up again over night. Luckily its cool and he will be in the shade. Maybe I can lead him to water or food. Ima keep working on him for a few more week. After that if he ain't changed to the market he goes.
Keep a eye on him periodically, don't want him to hang his fool self..I've used inner tubes in the past for colts.wrap it around the post, then run the rope through the ends... It gives and takes...learns them that give to pressure..take a herd stick and rub his sides, back and head.. maybe tie a rag on the end of the stick
 
Son of Butch":19u4byjc said:
Tie him to a donkey for a few days..... but who has donkeys?
. Who indeed..bet I seen 50 today on my way to Amish paradise...one was even spotted...they ugly enough, don't need no chrome :cowboy:
 
The best we have done is put them in head catch and handle them wash them till they get tired of it than do the same thing the next day.The 1st time they will throw a fit but after they get use to it they are a lot easier to break.
 
Sell him now and get it over with before somebody gets hurt. I have 600lb calves who've never had a rope on them that are much calmer than that. You can't teach calm to a crazy animal at that age.
 
I want to say thanks for everyone's input on this Satan steer. I've sold him and found a very calm and gentail replacement.
 
Even though you have sold the steer I can give you some advice for the next time, first you need more than one calf when doing this it makes it easier to break them when there are 2 calves, they not like to be alone. We started with commercial calves who really only were around people for vaccinations castration and then weaning, so all their past experience with people were not really positive.
We hauled them home (10 Hour Drive) put them in a small pen and just hand fed and hung out around the pen for the first week, let them figure out we were not there to hurt them, when we came around they got fed so it was a good thing. The whole point of getting them used to us and not pushing them right off was to get them to not resort to fight or flight mode, as long as they are in fight or flight mode you are in an uphill battle. Get them to where they trust you then you can start working them, we would slip a halter on them while they were eating and then just tie them up after they finished eating, we would tie them loose enough so if they went down the would not choke themselves out but tight enough they could not really go anywhere (about 18 to 24 inches of slack rope). Once they stopped fighting the halter and start standing then we would start tying them with their head up for a while.
Once they got used to being tied and stopped fighting the rope we would start scratching them with a rake or showstick, hurts a lot less when the kick the leaf rake then when they kick you. When you get them to where you can scratch them and they don't blow up you can start trying to brush on them, once you can brush them you can think about rinsing and using the blower on them. We never really tried to start just walking them more like moving from one task to the next, as they get used to it we start doing more and more instead of pushing them out we start leading from pen to pen or tie out area to wash rack.
It is a very long project and making a little progress each day is a win, some days they might go backwards on you, but on those days you only try to get to a point you have already been, no new stuff on that day. Patience and time is all it takes in most cases, there are some that are more challenging than others and a few that never make it.
Good luck to your daughter on her project.
 

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