How to stop heifer from butting

[Elda]

Our heifer is 8 months old and won't stop butting us. How is the best way to stop her from doing this?

Elda

 

[glover36]

hit her

 

[*Cowgirl*]

hit her

Fly swatters work wonders.........

 

[L Weir]

Our heifer is 8 months old and won't stop butting us. How is the best way to stop her from doing this?

When does she do it? We have right now she butts us when we have the feed bucket in our hands. So I hit her on the head with the bucket or just yell at her and then shecstops.

 

[TheBullLady]

That would be my question too.. when does she butt you? Whenever you walk into the pen? At feeding time? When you're leading her? Several different approaches to take, depending on the situation.

At 8 months old she needs to be taught to stop before someone gets hurt.

 

[Aggie Chick]

I had the exact same problem with mine. She would get EXTREMELY aggressive and knock me around...my dad broke a piece of PVC over her head once and she stopped.

A light hit or a fly swatter wouldn't have done anything...just hit her hard whenever she does it....she'll stop.

 

[Herefordcross]

I would lean towards the flyswatter approach, it's a lot easier on them than bashing their head in with a piece of pipe or a 2x4

 

[Alice]

We like to use those flat, hollow paddles with the bbs or whatever it is in them...if we can find them. My nephews tend to put them down wherever they've been playing with them, so they're not always in the back of the polaris when we need them.

Several months ago, when we were keeping a herd of jerseys for a man, one of the bulls kepts buzzing me. I reached for the paddle and of course it wasn't there...so I stepped up into the polaris, and kicked the snot out of him...got him right in the nose. That worked, too. I was glad to see that bunch of cattle leave the farm.

Alice

 

[AAOK]

I like a loosely rolled newspaper. It's easy to keep in your back pocket, and easy to grab. A swat with a paper creates more noise than a Fly Swat or 2X4. Cows seem to learn quicker from noise repetition than from pain.

 

[Grand Chaser]

We have used alot of diffrent things depending on the time. Like when feeding the bucket, when walking the end of the showstick or the end of the rope on the nose, when cleaning the stall the plastic pitch fork. So i guess i just hit them with what ever is closest.

 

[glover36]

we use broken hockey sticks brown sticks and shovel sticksl ol

 

[coolpop]

I have a registered hereford heifer - she tries to butt me for attention or 1st at the feed. I tell her she's got another week to straighten up or she's outta here, that was 5 mths ago.

She has a healthy respect for my boot. I've had to put my boot in her nose a few times, now when the boot leaves the ground and the words "NO" are yelled, she knows exactly what's wrong and stops doing it.

 

[Keren]

As everyone has said, give her a good bash and she should stop. However, as an alternative if you don't want to get too violent, put a nose bug in her, and when she head butts rip upwards with both the halter and the nose bug as hard as you can.

 

[luvmymoo]

we've got a bunch of rambuctious (sp?) boys working around our farm so something is always broken- as a result we have found that the end of a broom/pitchfork handle- something thick and sturdy thats easy to hold on to does great with just a quick tap on the nose. after a few times they stop. Its actually how we halter break our show steers