Problem Heifer

[LHayes]

My daughter got her first Brahman heifer 5 months ago. When we first brought her to the Ag barn from the breeder we had her tied up in the arena while we set up her pen. She was going crazy, thrashing herself around, like someone was picking her up and throwing her. She ended up busting blood vessles under her chin and we had to leave the halther off for about 3 weeks so she could heal. During this time we brushed her, pet her, and loved on her. After she healed, trying to get the halter on her was a struggle. After finally getting the halter on, we would leave it on while we would train her. But every time she would get out of the halter. So we tied a knot in the halter so it would not loose, she still got out. We tried an adjustable halter, and she managed to get out of that one as well. Then in trying to work with her - impossible. She faught us every time. Being extremely stubborn and hard headed, which I do know they are known for. but we have not been able to do anything with her. We have yet been able to lead her. while trying to tame and train her we offered her encouragement by talking to her, petting her, and giving her range cubes. After a while of being unsuccessful in working with her at the Ag barn, we took her to a friends house. They have other show heifers and they are always at their barn. this also has been very unsuccessful. Recently she almost broke my dauhters boyfriends arm by acting crazy and slamming his arm in to a pole. She butted his mom and lifted her off the ground. She slammed her into a wall. She kicked his dad 3x and drug him while trying to work with her. we were unable to take her to a recent show because we feel that she is too dangerous, not to mention not trained. while feeding all the cows i tried to corral her into the pen where her food was. She didnt want to move and so when I grabbed the lead rope she went crazy. She also tried to butt me and turned as if planning to kick me. When she finally went into her pen I brushed her to let her know I am not her enemy. She will be your best friend until you try to tell her what to do. And when she doesnt want to do anything, she turns crazy and has become dangerous. We tried peace pellets and calf calm as a last resort and neither affected her at all. My daugher is now scared of her. I called the breeder for help and he offered to swap her out. we have decided to do this, even though we are extremely upsset about it. she is a part of our family now. But I cant afford to keep such an expensive "pet" that my daughter is scared of. We have tried everything that everybody has advised us to do. Nothing seems to work. It seems that she has decided she wants to be a pasture cow instead of a show cow. People that have been around cattle for a while are al baffled by her behavior. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. we are at such a loss. But we are now on a time crunch. we only have 3 weeks to get another heifer into my daughters name so she can participate in the next major show. please help!

 

[Isomade]

Get rid of her. You don't want to put your daughter in a dangerous situation.

 

[dun]

Just like people (exwives in particular) there are some that just can't be handled/trained/gentled. May be genetic, may be something that happened to her, but the results are the same. Get rid of her NOW!

 

[novatech]

Just like people (exwives in particular) there are some that just can't be handled/trained/gentled. May be genetic, may be something that happened to her, but the results are the same. Get rid of her NOW!

I have found that with Brahman this is especially true.
The other thing that has happened here is that when the heifer was originally tied up it was a very painful experience. Brahman have very good memories. She now associates the halter with pain. There may be nothing one can do at this point to undo the wrong.

 

[Crazy Farmgirl]

I agree with the others that it's too late for this heifer, she needs to go!

Has your daughter shown cattle before? Do you have someone with experience who can help with the "how to's"? Sound to me like somethings were done wrong and led to this heifer becoming an unruly beast. You also stated that you have 3 weeks to get the new one and train it to show...that is a very short time to get a cow from "wild" to willing...I'd be very picky about temperment and get someone with lots of experience to help out from the get go. Good Luck.

 

[dun]

Just like people (exwives in particular) there are some that just can't be handled/trained/gentled. May be genetic, may be something that happened to her, but the results are the same. Get rid of her NOW!

I have found that with Brahman this is especially true.
The other thing that has happened here is that when the heifer was originally tied up it was a very painful experience. Brahman have very good memories. She now associates the halter with pain. There may be nothing one can do at this point to undo the wrong.

Very true with Brahman inluenced animals. One negative experience or forcing will almost agauantee you'll not get them into that situation again. SLOOOOOOOOOW and easy and they're really pretty calm and easy to work with

 

[CKC1586]

Get rid of her. You don't want to put your daughter in a dangerous situation.

Yup, she does not want to be a show girl and you are not going to convince her otherwise.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I doubt it would work with her .. but we used to train our show steers to lead by tying them to a donkey or mule... They walked when the donkey wanted to ate when he wanted to and drank when he wanted to .. and what ever else the donkey wanted to do... After a couple weeks you could walk them in a thread...

 

[LHayes]

I never realized tying her up would be such a bad experience, and it breaks my heart to think thats what caused her to be the way she is. But thats the only thing I can think of that is why she acts the way she does. Which makes me think she was crazy to begin with because she was totally out of control while she was tied up. We will not have only 3 weeks to get another one trained. We have to register for the next show in 3 weeks, but the show is not until March. Although my daughter has never shown cattle before, her boyfriend and his family have and they have been the ones helping and teaching us through this whole process. Ive been told about tying her to a donkey, but I dont want to hurt her or have the donkey abuse her. Not exactly the responses I wanted to hear, but as heart breaking as is to have to get rid of her, at least makes me feel more confident in the decision of getting rid of her. Thank you.

 

[dun]

Has her boyfriend or his family worked with Bramans before?

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I never realized tying her up would be such a bad experience, and it breaks my heart to think thats what caused her to be the way she is. But thats the only thing I can think of that is why she acts the way she does. Which makes me think she was crazy to begin with because she was totally out of control while she was tied up. We will not have only 3 weeks to get another one trained. We have to register for the next show in 3 weeks, but the show is not until March. Although my daughter has never shown cattle before, her boyfriend and his family have and they have been the ones helping and teaching us through this whole process. Ive been told about tying her to a donkey, but I dont want to hurt her or have the donkey abuse her. Not exactly the responses I wanted to hear, but as heart breaking as is to have to get rid of her, at least makes me feel more confident in the decision of getting rid of her. Thank you.

Even "dumb animals" can remember a bad experience, and she will probably associate anything to do with a halter as a bad deal. I agree with the others here -- this heifer is a bad accident waiting to happen and someone is going to get hurt. Continuing with your program, that started 5 mos. ago, you'll just distill the fear and apprehension in both the heifer and your daughter. Sell her; find something different/more manageable, that doesn't scare the crap out of your daughter and intimidate others. If your daughter gets boogered up enough about this, she won't want to show ANYTHING, ever. Just MHO. Good luck!

 

[chippie]

Ditto above.

I realize that everything went downhill because of her first experience (wreck) in being tied up. However (and I am not saying that you beat your animal or are cruel to it), you can not make one like you or respect you by babying it and making a pet out of it, especially cattle.

They do not think like a dog.

Good luck and I hope that you find a heifer that will work for your daughter. If you can, find one that has already been worked with.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Boy's showed and won their class with Brimmer girl's forget about the donkey. This is a slow process. You have to earn there trust that is not going to do it. Boy's would set for hour's outside the stall the heifer had to come to them for water and feed. After the intial step it was repeated in the stall. Those heifer's turned into pure pet's for them. The halter training started in the stall by just wearing the halter.
Step two was a lead rope inside the barn to the feed bucket. Those girl's would follow those kid's like a puppy.
You are not going to force a Brimmer with good result's. They made sure to keep them in a quite environment without strangers until trust was established. Then they would walk them in the lot with stanger's looking on.

 

[novatech]

Boy's showed and won their class with Brimmer girl's forget about the donkey. This is a slow process. You have to earn there trust that is not going to do it. Boy's would set for hour's outside the stall the heifer had to come to them for water and feed. After the intial step it was repeated in the stall. Those heifer's turned into pure pet's for them. The halter training started in the stall by just wearing the halter.
Step two was a lead rope inside the barn to the feed bucket. Those girl's would follow those kid's like a puppy.
You are not going to force a Brimmer with good result's. They made sure to keep them in a quite environment without strangers until trust was established. Then they would walk them in the lot with stanger's looking on.

You are dead on. I tried with the halter tied to a post and inner-tube. I eventually got there but the heifer never was calm. After that I started them out in the pasture. I would sit with the cattle. The calves, being curious would eventually come to me. By weaning time it was a no brain-er to halter and start teaching them to lead. I never pulled them but when they took a step they got a short scratch on the neck.
Having said this, I can always tell the ones that will not train or trust you way before they are weaned, I believe this is genetic and should not be considered for breeding purposes much less a show calf.
Brahman, more than any other breed have a deeply instilled trait of survival and protection. They should not be considered for the novice cattlemen or child for the first show calf until the handler either has the acquired experience or has been adequately trained themselves. I have been handling Brahman for over 50 years and I am still learning.

 

[Nesikep]

I agree with people on this one, I'd highly recommend looking for a more docile animal to show, she IS an accident waiting to happen, especially if she's not really calm when you bring her to a show and there's all sorts of noise around, strange people, etc.

Caustic's idea is one that will probably work given enough time... but it will take a lot of dedication and patience to do it... Something i do on 400lb ish calves is I have a 30' rope around their neck tide so it's impossible for it to get tight, and then leave them in a field with a bunch of cows, but nothing the rope can tangle on... After some time, she and other cows will have stepped on the rope and held it fast while she pulled on it, and she'll get used to it... I don't know how it would work for this particular heifer, but you could just have a bell around her neck which might get her used to percussive noise as well...

any way you go about it (if you're really set on this animal) it's going to take hundreds of hours.. and I'm not exaggerating... For my herd which is pretty calm, I probably spend 500-1000 hours a year with them... I consider it relaxing, and I like the results

Again,... I highly recommend a better animal to start with...

Oh, How old is your daughter? sounds like she's in her mid-late teens (boyfriend)... she has to be more stubborn than this heifer!