Halter Breaking - several at the same time?

[UncleLA]

I have halter broke a calf or two each year for the last 10-15 years, but as everyone knows it is very time consuming. I have borrowed donkeys before, and then I have done it on my own. Halter breaking one is not that big of a deal, but when you have two or more at the same time, it is extremely time consuming.

My question................how do all the big boys who sell lots of halter broke show cattle get so many trained at one time?

Curious!

 

[Galloways1]

we usually put halters on the calves and let them drag them around a few days. Then we start tying them up everyday for short periods of time and rinse/comb them out. some people don't like the calves dragging ropes, because some can get head strong and always want to "lead" you. We find it takes the initial fight and pulling out of them if we do this. They don't fear being stopped by the rope.

 

[VCC]

I have seen them run into a alleyway that runs to the rinsing squeeze, The alleyway is just wide enough for one calf at a time, made out of sucker rod with rails only 8 inches apart at the bottom and 12 up higher, they would run 5 or 6 into the alleyway and tie them there for an hour or 2 prior to running into the squeeze to rinse and blow out, for a few days, they are in there fairly tight so they really have nowhere to go, they can fight the halter but not really go anywhere. After a few days of that they start tie them up in a coral after rinsing and blowing.
A slow methodical process but they were working 40 to 50 head, so it is a little bit each day for the breaking.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We bring them all in to a smallish pen, and use a show stick to scratch them everywhere. We use the show stick to put the halter on from a distance, and once they all have the halter on we tie them to one of the panels that make up the pen. We do that for several days, before they are usually 60 days old. We try to take them out of the pen on the halter, and work on give and take. Just a few times. We then stop working them until they are 4 or 5 months old. Then start the process all over again. They are much easier to work with then, since they had an earlier experience. We put grain in front of them once they are caught and tied up to the fence. It works well for us. The most we have halter broke at once is 8 head.

 

[Chris H]

We bring them all in to a smallish pen, and use a show stick to scratch them everywhere. We use the show stick to put the halter on from a distance, and once they all have the halter on we tie them to one of the panels that make up the pen. We do that for several days, before they are usually 60 days old. We try to take them out of the pen on the halter, and work on give and take. Just a few times. We then stop working them until they are 4 or 5 months old. Then start the process all over again. They are much easier to work with then, since they had an earlier experience. We put grain in front of them once they are caught and tied up to the fence. It works well for us. The most we have halter broke at once is 8 head.

That's similar to how we do, except this year we didn't tie them for several days. We'd catch & release until we could walk up and put the halter on. We'd use the stick to scratch them, they'd stop, and we'd walk up & put on the halter. We started leading before we tied. It seems to work real well if you do this every day for several days in a row.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Last time I run them through the chute, I put a halter on, and let them drag it for a week. Then run them in the barn, and tie them up for a hour, and just let them fight it. Do that a couple times, then get the brush, and start brushing.
Try to get the steers broke in Sept.- Nov., and heifers Nov.- Feb, and bulls start in May- June. Get them spaced out so you don't get overloaded.

 

[pdfangus]

my son has a method that only takes about a half hour on each calf.....
I have not seen him go through it all the way....
my grandson is going to take a half dozen to the fair in a few weeks....
below is a picture he posted yesterday of Fisher working his calves.
it is one of five photos he posted....

https://www.facebook.com/pdfangus#!...04576202189.2104672.1480907829&type=1&theater

 

[Beef Man]

I-__ We used to halterbreak all of our bull calves and replacement heifers. Did'nt have time to mess with them, we just run 8---10 into a boxstall in the barn got in there and put rope halters on them and tied them up to the manger. Had to lead them out to water and after about 3 days they were pretty well halter broke. Did this for many years and had 5 kids that also did this with their show steers. If you do a good job these cattle never forget it and you can catch them and handle them years later.We did like to do them before they get to be full yearlings as they can get to be a real handfull the older they get. 6--700 lbs. is about all I can handle anymore. I'm remembering those years and enjoying good memories, as some of my help in those times are gone. That's also the way we put on hornweights and changed them.