New cows

[AncientAcres]

I am new here just registered and have a question. I bought four bred cows and a pair this week and wanted to ask how long it will usually take before cows you just brought home calm down enough that you can walk out and look at them pretty close without them running off. I have been bottle feeding Holstein steers for a while but these are my first cows and I don't expect them to be as calm as the steers but would like to be able to get close enough to read ear tags and just check on how they are doing.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

 

[dun]

If you've been reading these boards for a while, you'll know my answer. Depends on the cows. Some will calm down right away, some will take longer, some may never calm down. That last bunch you need to get rid of because they will just spin up the others. To calm them down, spend time around them, feed them a little grain, and what has worked well for me is to read to them. Sit down and read out loud just about anything. Calm voice and they'll eventually get used to you. We have a local weekly swap paper. I've been known to sit on a stump and read it out loud. It's just words but a calm voice that they get used to will work wonders. Don;t hoorah them or chase or yell at them, move slow and easy around them, don;t walk them to make them move. Use herding pressure points to get them to go where you want them.

 

[AncientAcres]

Good advise, thank you.

 

[angus9259]

If you've been reading these boards for a while, you'll know my answer. Depends on the cows. Some will calm down right away, some will take longer, some may never calm down. That last bunch you need to get rid of because they will just spin up the others. To calm them down, spend time around them, feed them a little grain, and what has worked well for me is to read to them. Sit down and read out loud just about anything. Calm voice and they'll eventually get used to you. We have a local weekly swap paper. I've been known to sit on a stump and read it out loud. It's just words but a calm voice that they get used to will work wonders. Don;t hoorah them or chase or yell at them, move slow and easy around them, don;t walk them to make them move. Use herding pressure points to get them to go where you want them.

X2.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Bucket of sweet feed in the trough every morning will tell you right quick.
At the end of week if they are not waiting at the gate for me back to the sale barn they go.
I don't want anything I can't catch with a sack of cubes.

 

[AncientAcres]

The cows came from a neighbor so I was able to walk out in pasture with them them before I bought them and know they will calm down.

 

[Black and Good]

I always keep them up in the corral for a week or more if need be. I walk around them using my call to get them used to it. Then start bringing feed to them as I make my call. That normally works if not I'm starting to not like them as much as I did! LOL. B&G

 

[K5PWB]

I agree with Black and Good. Anything I bring home goes into the barn for at least a week before I release it out in the pasture. During this time, I feed them just enough to get them through half of a day. That way it forces me to go out there and feed in the mornings/evenings and they quickly start looking forward to seeing me. As in all things, I learned this the hard way.

I bought two very tame cows about 6 years ago. I could walk right up to them in the pasture they were in and they loaded up in the trailer without any problems. Once I got on the road, they started going nuts. When I got home, opened the trailer to let them out, they went full speed right through the fence. Two women that live together down the street put them in their pasture, which created another issue which is a story within itself.

I have always heard, once cattle know how to go through a fence, you won't be able to keep them in. So, I loaded them back in the trailer and took them to the sale barn and lost a little bit of money. The previous owner did not want them back.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I use a two acre lot that joins the pens with 7 strands of barb and four hot wires hotter than the hinges on the gate to heII

 

[TCRanch]

When we buy new bulls we put them with an older bull in a separate pasture. They're too young to really challenge him and the older bull "shows them the ropes"; they follow him everywhere, including over to us when we feed. Knock wood, it's always worked so far.