It's not foreign at all. Does the stress of being called to feed come from the calling or the way the feed is set up, meaning, not enough feed, trough space, etc?If you're cattle are rebooted, yes. In reality calves are gaining weight, they just gain more when you change up how you deliver feed. All cattle behavior is a natural reaction to what we do with them. I never thought about stress during feeding until I started taking feed to a group of calve which had been grazing as a tight unit for three months. The stress of competing for feed for one day had them scattered across the pasture. That got me curious and (as I had three herds of 4-600) s
Sorry its taken so long to get back to answering it. Been trying to figure out how to answer it in a way which doesn't sound condescending. Short answer is yes, with the caveat IF you've done your prep right in conjunction with the change in stockmanship. Do that and the calves will be in the same place so your not running around trying to gather them. If the pasture is remote, put your feed on the pickup and pull your horse in a bumper pull pickup. put out your feed then pull your trailer somewhere away from the feed so they don't associate it with being fed. Then all you have to do is start the calves towards the feed (from the side of the cattle closest to the feed), and as soon as you are confident the lead is going to hit the feed you're done. If you stay and watch them, by the second or third day, as soon as the lead hits the feed, the rest come in bucking and playing and spread out to eat with no competing for feed.
I know it's hard to wrap your mind around, especially as a lot of it is contradictory to our instincts, but it does work. The following link is a Working Cows podcast interview of a student who has implemented it out of Lusk, Wyoming that might help wrap your mind around it.
Ep. 107 – Riki Kremers – Getting Started with Migratory Grazing
Riki Kremers is a rancher from East Central Wyoming. She is an excellent business woman who has seen great improvements in her land base as she and her family have implemented Instinctive Migratory…workingcows.net
I am big on cattle handling and reading animals. If you learn to communicate with them its far more productive.