How do you call the cows

[simme]

If you go by the example of the high-tech younger generation, you would never call your cows. Just send a text or snapchat.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

The only way Bob's theory of calling/feeding cattle would be stressful on the cattle would be IF you did not feed enough and IF you did not have enough SPACE for them all to get a mouthful. Other than that, he is way off base and like I said, selling snake oil to newbies.
ALL THE C/C producers that have responded about calling their cattle, are NOT stressing their cattle. We use it as a calm TOOL. Cattle stay calm. Like I said, my COWS never get grain, just a new pasture. I don't care which way their heads are pointed when they are out grazing. They get turned into a paddock large enough to feed them for 2-5 days. They can go any direction they want. They are not stressed or being inefficient. They are grazing happily and affectively - until I call them again!
Quit trying to TEACH us something that is non-beneficial to us. If someone is interested in your foo foo dust, they can buy your book or hire you to come to their place. This is not the place for you to keep driving YOUR ideas of how WE should be running our cattle.

 

[TCRanch]

Very nicely done video...

I wish I knew enough to do one like it.

And the cattle look great. too...

Thanks! Creekstone had an amazing film crew, complete with drones, cameras on their trucks, even a stylist. Two days of filming, just at our ranch, condensed to a few minutes.

 

[blackladies]

Usually just a simple c'mon cows or let's go cows. Will throw in a c'mon fatties every now and then. Not to hard to get up and in the corral or wherever I need them. Have a couple that follow me wherever I go whether I want them or not. Makes sneaking in for hunting more difficult.

 

[blackladies]

As for the whole stressed out thing and losing weight. Just give them a beer to relax.

 

[Ky hills]

@Jeanne - Simme Valley is right most all of us that have been involved in the hands on day to day of cattle have developed our own ways of doing things with the best interests of our cattle and ourselves in mind, and we don't take to well to other people trying to teach us that were wrong.
I know that I could do something's better or different, but I'm well aware of that and no one has to point them out.
To me if cattle are used to you and used to coming to feed, or being moved to new pasture then it makes handling them easier for you and them.
When I want to separate a certain cow, generally it's very easy often just open the barn door when they are up, and several come in and sort them back out.
Seems like very little stress as opposed to running them and pushing them into a place they are not wanting to go after multiple attempts.
Somebody that has a large spread and wants some pointers, may benefit from some of that other stuff, but it's not for everybody.
To me it's just another opinion and just another person or entity trying to make money off of the farmer.

 

[gcreekrch]

@Jeanne - Simme Valley is right most all of us that have been involved in the hands on day to day of cattle have developed our own ways of doing things with the best interests of our cattle and ourselves in mind, and we don't take to well to other people trying to teach us that were wrong.
I know that I could do something's better or different, but I'm well aware of that and no one has to point them out.
To me if cattle are used to you and used to coming to feed, or being moved to new pasture then it makes handling them easier for you and them.
When I want to separate a certain cow, generally it's very easy often just open the barn door when they are up, and several come in and sort them back out.
Seems like very little stress as opposed to running them and pushing them into a place they are not wanting to go after multiple attempts.
Somebody that has a large spread and wants some pointers, may benefit from some of that other stuff, but it's not for everybody.
To me it's just another opinion and just another person or entity trying to make money off of the farmer.

Ol Bob might learn a thing or two watching me pair out with a quad. Or watching me take a calving heifer in need of help to the barn on foot, hands in pockets and not take a running step. I'm not looking for handouts either but I have won several bets saying I can't do things.

 

[TCRanch]

When I want to separate a certain cow, generally it's very easy often just open the barn door when they are up, and several come in and sort them back out.

Generally, way easier to get a group. Especially because if a cow needs treatment, she's more likely to stick with a group. They're herd animals!

 

[Ky hills]

Generally, way easier to get a group. Especially because if a cow needs treatment, she's more likely to stick with a group. They're herd animals!

Yep, I try to work out all but a small group before trying to bring them in the barn, almost always there will be one in the group willing to lead the other in with little or no encouragement. They work better as a group. We do have a few individuals that are docile enough that they don't need extra encouragement open a door or gate and here they come. Makes it real nice and stress free for us, and likely them too.

Ol Bob might learn a thing or two watching me pair out with a quad. Or watching me take a calving heifer in need of help to the barn on foot, hands in pockets and not take a running step. I'm not looking for handouts either but I have won several bets saying I can't do things.

I've brought a cow or heifer to the barn quite a few times just me on foot. Can't say I kept my hands in my pocket, and I've had to break into a run sometimes to head them from turning back. I have done it though with just a walk.
One time when I was still a teenager, my bull was in the back field trying to get to a neighbors cow. I left the truck back there close to dark and finally got that 2500 lb, 11 frame Charolais bull turned and headed towards the barn. I drive him calmly and uneventfully up and down hills over a half mile with nobody else around. Then when we got on the last leg of walk ready to go uphill toward the barn lot, a work hand was up there hollering at me. I've always been hard of hearing so no idea what he was saying I was just hoping it didn't cause the bull to turn back. Come to find out he was hollering that I was walking right by a skunk. I was focused on the bull and never saw it.

 

[gcreekrch]

Yep, I try to work out all but a small group before trying to bring them in the barn, almost always there will be one in the group willing to lead the other in with little or no encouragement. They work better as a group. We do have a few individuals that are docile enough that they don't need extra encouragement open a door or gate and here they come. Makes it real nice and stress free for us, and likely them too.

I've brought a cow or heifer to the barn quite a few times just me on foot. Can't say I kept my hands in my pocket, and I've had to break into a run sometimes to head them from turning back. I have done it though with just a walk.
One time when I was still a teenager, my bull was in the back field trying to get to a neighbors cow. I left the truck back there close to dark and finally got that 2500 lb, 11 frame Charolais bull turned and headed towards the barn. I drive him calmly and uneventfully up and down hills over a half mile with nobody else around. Then when we got on the last leg of walk ready to go uphill toward the barn lot, a work hand was up there hollering at me. I've always been hard of hearing so no idea what he was saying I was just hoping it didn't cause the bull to turn back. Come to find out he was hollering that I was walking right by a skunk. I was focused on the bull and never saw it.

One should never lose focus!

 

[Dixie2542]

Haaayyyyuup, come on girls. If they hear it they are coming on the run! I have pulled them out of a 4 lane highway in 7:30 a.m rush hour traffic with it. Thought the police were going to hug me.

Ours sound something very similar, and it helped me one time from getting taken on a ride from the auction barn. Was actually at the sale that day and went to collect my check early since I didn't have any culls to sell late. When I looked down the list of ours sold, one of ours said it was around 310#'s. I went back to the counter and asked what the heck is this? All of ours were over 500#s, long black steers, the owner tried to blow me off (I was a lot younger then) but I was insistent that wasn't my calf. Finally he said a couple tags came off and took me back to the pens to where one of them was (it was mine). He was insistent we weren't going to find it and this one probably wasn't him, but a couple of yells/calls later from me at the pen fence that calf turned around and directly started mooing back at me. Shut that action guy up real quick and never said a word changing that check....

 

[Twin G]

I use a pierce cattle siren. The first cows I bought were already used to a siren. It works great. I had a couple cows get into the road when I wasn't home one day. A friend found them and was able to walk them straight down the road into my gate with his siren. He called me and said, 'you got some cake whores'

 

[Chuckie]

Come on Girls. Even the bulls are, "Come on Girls!"

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I started this thread. I am 70 years old and learned to call in the cows to the dairy barn when I was a small child growing up in Minnesota. I also had a call I used to call in the horses when I wanted to go for a ride. I was curious if others did the same. I wasn't expecting it to be particularly controversial.

When we moved to our ranch in Oregon, it just seemed natural to call the cows to us, but it did take some time before they recognized my call as a good thing. When we first moved here over 30 years ago, we would use horses to find and gather the cows. It would have been easier at the time, if I'd had a good cow dog or two. The cattle could easily avoid us by circling back into the timber. We run the cattle on a ranch that is about 1000 acres and over the years we have divided it into 10 pastures with lots of places in most pastures for cattle to hide. About half is forest and there are very few flat spots. When winter came, we had to feed hay and I would do my call whenever we put out hay. Pretty soon they learned to come to that call, and from then on the call works whether they get a flake of hay or not. These cows have never seen grain and most of the year the call is used in order to call the cows out of the woods or a hidden draw, so they can be moved to another pasture. Each generation of cows learns the call from the past generation. I seldom need to give them a reward because they are usually rewarded with access to a new pasture. It even works to call them into the corrals when we need to work them. The corrals are in the middle of the ranch and the cattle often move through them when changing pastures, so they come in willingly without a reward. Calling the cows may not work for everyone, but on this ranch an ATV is not an option because of the terrain and calling them in sure saves time compared to catching and saddling up a horse. Besides that, a good horse these days can cost more than an ATV and that doesn't even include feed, hoof maintenance and the labor involved in their upkeep.

When I fed my mules and horses I would always whistle a loud distinct whistle, did it forever. Several times shyt hit the fan in a wilderness area miles from the trailer due to who knows. That whistle saved me every time. Once outside Yellowstone a grizzly sent them all scampering, 3 broken halters and a bad knot later, here they come snorting like crazy happy to see dad!

 

[Bob Kinford]

Well, Bob, I learn about MY cattle behavior because I'm with them every day. And that segues into how I act/react when I help friends with their cattle. So, one place/region, similar breeds of cattle, similar facilities. Except some of my friends' cattle are bat shyt crazy and could possibly benefit from your expertise. The majority of time, it's just me. And I know everything about every one of my cows, calves, bulls & retained heifers. I do have a crew on horseback when I work the herd & wean the calves. But they're phenomenal: quiet, round 'em up & move slowly, no flapping of arms, very uniform, etc. There are no hot shots in the corral, alley or chute. There is no yelling. But there is a lot of laughter because working cattle is FUN, and my crew has been with me forever.

Gonna share a little video with you. The majority of filming was at our ranch (when it was 90 degrees and rotten hot). Do my cattle look stressed? They're used to ranch tours and selfies with world renowned chefs & distributors. And yup, I'm carrying around a bucket. That's what works in my world. And I have no intention of ever rounding up 500 head of bison (they still have them in KS).

Great marketing video, and better than most ranches. From the scope of your experience (especially when compared to your neighbor's cows) your cattle are pretty stress free, but my parameters go a bit deeper. When I see a picture of people feeding cows out of their hand (or someone standing on a horse, cracking a whip) my mind automatically asks the question "Are they really that gentle/broke, or are they overly desensitized with no sense of boundaries?"

My signs of stress in cattle include how they graze.

If they aren't stressed, they will not only be grazing in a density which fits the feed conditions, they will also be all facing in the same general direction as they graze.

How do they behave when they go through a gate? Are they waiting for you at the gate, or do they keep grazing/ ruminating waiting for you to approach them to head to the gate? Do they put their heads down and graze together? Do they start grazing, but do so in as many directions as you have cows? Do they keep moving, with cattle spreading out to different parts of the pasture as they do?

These are all things which affect animal performance, and grazing behavior. It affects how they select what to eat (and when) and even where on a plant they bite. There is a cascading effect from there. But unless you challenge your paradigms, you won't see it (much like people who still claim Bud Williams didn't know how to work cattle.)

 

[Warren Allison]

Great marketing video, and better than most ranches. From the scope of your experience (especially when compared to your neighbor's cows) your cattle are pretty stress free, but my parameters go a bit deeper. When I see a picture of people feeding cows out of their hand (or someone standing on a horse, cracking a whip) my mind automatically asks the question "Are they really that gentle/broke, or are they overly desensitized with no sense of boundaries?"

My signs of stress in cattle include how they graze.

If they aren't stressed, they will not only be grazing in a density which fits the feed conditions, they will also be all facing in the same general direction as they graze.

How do they behave when they go through a gate? Are they waiting for you at the gate, or do they keep grazing/ ruminating waiting for you to approach them to head to the gate? Do they put their heads down and graze together? Do they start grazing, but do so in as many directions as you have cows? Do they keep moving, with cattle spreading out to different parts of the pasture as they do?

These are all things which affect animal performance, and grazing behavior. It affects how they select what to eat (and when) and even where on a plant they bite. There is a cascading effect from there. But unless you challenge your paradigms, you won't see it (much like people who still claim Bud Williams didn't know how to work cattle.)

Don't be discouraged at all the negative comments you are getting, and you are getting them from some very successful cattle men/women. You are getting them from people that probably have not watched the video, and for sure have never tried this. History is full of people who become very good at doing not the best thing. There was a time when the best world -reknowned doctors thought that bleeding a sick person was the very best cure for anything, and doctors became very good at it. Any doctor that questioned this was ridiculed, called a heretic, run out of town, etc. Many a great sea captain /explorer knew the earth was flat too. Look what abuse Columbus received, even after Magellan circumnavigated the earth.

 

[Travlr]

Great marketing video, and better than most ranches. From the scope of your experience (especially when compared to your neighbor's cows) your cattle are pretty stress free, but my parameters go a bit deeper. When I see a picture of people feeding cows out of their hand (or someone standing on a horse, cracking a whip) my mind automatically asks the question "Are they really that gentle/broke, or are they overly desensitized with no sense of boundaries?"

My signs of stress in cattle include how they graze.

If they aren't stressed, they will not only be grazing in a density which fits the feed conditions, they will also be all facing in the same general direction as they graze.

How do they behave when they go through a gate? Are they waiting for you at the gate, or do they keep grazing/ ruminating waiting for you to approach them to head to the gate? Do they put their heads down and graze together? Do they start grazing, but do so in as many directions as you have cows? Do they keep moving, with cattle spreading out to different parts of the pasture as they do?

These are all things which affect animal performance, and grazing behavior. It affects how they select what to eat (and when) and even where on a plant they bite. There is a cascading effect from there. But unless you challenge your paradigms, you won't see it (much like people who still claim Bud Williams didn't know how to work cattle.)

Ya know... I have a brother that many people see as a mechanical genius. He can overcomplicate the simplest things and has the ability to speak at length about how he solved problems nobody realized were a problem.

Reading what you are writing, my thoughts go to whether the cattle are working for you... or you are working for the cattle. I know there is a balance to be reached, but I also know people can overthink and over complicate a fart if they see it as a cause... and they cultivate superior "knowledge" as virtue.

Look... you might know something. I have no idea, because you aren't being very specific with all of your allusions. But at this point it sounds more like bull**it than reality.

 

[Ebenezer]

Had a world renown speaker to come though this fall even thought I had heard him and also had spoken on a program that he was on years and years ago. He had the public front and the private side. Really was a nicer guy in public than to me and family behind the scene. Maybe he has mellowed or maybe not. I just went to be a part of the group this time. He effectively insulted most folks there who are small family farmers with limited land and limited resources. He pulled out his statistics of western cowboys who can manage 1200+ pair and anyone who is not doing that is lazy, not real cattlemen or wasting time. It went on and on and I finally got up on about his 44th point and left for home. He has books, PR all over the place, speaks at high end events and is a media guru. The comments I heard from some of the folks who heard his presentation were not good and were actually bad. But his fame grows and grows.

A media guru has to be different and takes the facts and makes them his/her's by twists. Otherwise, the speech, the book, the article or the video is always a Plain Jane. Currently, the one that peeves me the most are the Bonsma gurus who turn Dr. Bonsma's effort to raise beef in decent sized animals with annual production data and keep/cull to their duck butt little tallow type "grass fed" cattle. Talk about trying to turn a silk purse into a sow's ear - they are doing it and making money off of their made up junk. Modern day P. T. Barnams.

 

[Ebenezer]

Don't be discouraged at all the negative comments you are getting, and you are getting them from some very successful cattle men/women. You are getting them from people that probably have not watched the video, and for sure have never tried this. History is full of people who become very good at doing not the best thing. There was a time when the best world -reknowned doctors thought that bleeding a sick person was the very best cure for anything, and doctors became very good at it. Any doctor that questioned this was ridiculed, called a heretic, run out of town, etc. Many a great sea captain /explorer knew the earth was flat too. Look what abuse Columbus received, even after Magellan circumnavigated the earth.

That's a bit like your trash to treasure cattle - folks used to do that around here decades ago but finally got beef cows. Your way of making money on junk cattle is close to the edge of the flat earth. If you want a competition, bring some of your 39cents/pound calves up to some of the barns here and see how the money rolls in.

 

[Silver]

Great marketing video, and better than most ranches. From the scope of your experience (especially when compared to your neighbor's cows) your cattle are pretty stress free, but my parameters go a bit deeper. When I see a picture of people feeding cows out of their hand (or someone standing on a horse, cracking a whip) my mind automatically asks the question "Are they really that gentle/broke, or are they overly desensitized with no sense of boundaries?"

My signs of stress in cattle include how they graze.

If they aren't stressed, they will not only be grazing in a density which fits the feed conditions, they will also be all facing in the same general direction as they graze.

How do they behave when they go through a gate? Are they waiting for you at the gate, or do they keep grazing/ ruminating waiting for you to approach them to head to the gate? Do they put their heads down and graze together? Do they start grazing, but do so in as many directions as you have cows? Do they keep moving, with cattle spreading out to different parts of the pasture as they do?

These are all things which affect animal performance, and grazing behavior. It affects how they select what to eat (and when) and even where on a plant they bite. There is a cascading effect from there. But unless you challenge your paradigms, you won't see it (much like people who still claim Bud Williams didn't know how to work cattle.)

Sounds like you are starting to figure some things out. I would recommend taking in a Temple Grandin seminar or two if you haven't already.