Rotational grazing & cattle behaviour

[Willstanton]

We move cattle often sometimes everyday but more often I try to stretch it to between 3 and 5 days. I like having them trained but I don't like the behaviour of them all carrying on whenever the motorbike starts up. I'm thinking about going to automatic lift up hotwires so they don't associate fresh feed with me or the Atv. Anyone got any opinions on where I've gone wrong with their behaviour? Sometimes I've run them slightly short of feed but mostly they have plenty but still go nuts whenever I show up. Cheers

 

[Dave]

I did that for years. I thought their behavior was great. They would follow me anywhere. When I first got married my wife was amazed. She had owned a big ranch on the Oregon/Nevada line with tens of thousnds of BLM acres. Cattle were gathered and driven horse back. The first time we moved cattle together I told her to just bring up the rear making sure any stragglers kept up. She thought I was the pied piper of cattle handling.

 

[Nesikep]

it doesn't matter if you move them daily or monthly, they know the routine for when they get fresh food.. Just irrigation pipes rattling here will set them off

 

[wbvs58]

You just gotta be a bit thick skinned and ignore them. They will try and con you big time that they need new grass.

Ken

 

[SmokinM]

Yeah mine are such liars I swear I think they are running for office most of the time. While it can be annoying when you are out trying to do something else it is priceless when they are not where they are supposed to be. I would love to saddle a horse and go out and move my cattle around but the truth is it is much easier when I can stand just about anywhere on my 90 acres and holler and they come to me in a few minutes. Talking about this with another cattle farmer the other day and he said it is easier to pull a rope than push it. Thats a pretty good way to describe it.

I used to lease a farm right beside a busy main 4 lane road. Get a call one morning at 7:00 a.m my cows are in the road. Right at rush hour! I bail in the truck and haul freight. When I get there the cops have traffic stopped and the backup is getting close to a mile or so. I roll down the window and holler my feed call and every one of the 40 fall in behind the truck and right back thru the gate. Traffic moving again in less than 2 min.. I get them settled and come back out the one cop said " man was I happy to see that!" They are used to having real rodeos trying to round up cattle and drive them back to home. They were not looking forward to that with all that traffic.

 

[b.duke]

i have one group of cows.. they are really good cows... but man.. they do not like to rotate graze.. they like there 'spot' they'll come to cubes.. but only about 100'.. then they just stare.

hard to get the calves weaned. all my other cows come waiting to move into a new pen. i'd sell them but they raise the best looking nicest calves you'd ever want.

 

[Brute 23]

I did that for years. I thought their behavior was great. They would follow me anywhere. When I first got married my wife was amazed. She had owned a big ranch on the Oregon/Nevada line with tens of thousnds of BLM acres. Cattle were gathered and driven horse back. The first time we moved cattle together I told her to just bring up the rear making sure any stragglers kept up. She thought I was the pied piper of cattle handling.

Did you tell her you can get women to do the same thing?

 

[Dave]

Did you tell her you can get women to do the same thing?

I didn't disclose any of my past history with women. Some things are best left unsaid.

 

[SmokinM]

I told y'all that story this morning. Today I am trail riding on top of a mountain 5 hrs. from home and my phone rings and I recognize the number as the Sheriffs office in that county. My wife and daughter were traveling thru there today so I answer. The dispatcher asks if I own a brown cow with a white face that might be out in the area of that farm. No ma'am haven't had cattle on that farm in 5 years. Boy was I glad too! I guess that story jinxed me but was a good reminder of why I am glad I gave it up.

 

[ClinchValley86]

I think most are surprised at how dog gentle my cattle are... all but 1. And she's staying for now.

Gotta ignore them. Right now they're having to eat stuff they have been able to walk past the last 6 months. So they're not the happiest.

I've been feeding a week, grazing a week, feeding a week, grazing, and so on.

About out of grass to rotate on. Might have 5 weeks left.

If you don't jump when they call, they'll kinda chill on it. If they're hungry, then they're going to ball.

 

[LocustDaleCattleCompany]

We move cattle often sometimes everyday but more often I try to stretch it to between 3 and 5 days. I like having them trained but I don't like the behaviour of them all carrying on whenever the motorbike starts up. I'm thinking about going to automatic lift up hotwires so they don't associate fresh feed with me or the Atv. Anyone got any opinions on where I've gone wrong with their behaviour? Sometimes I've run them slightly short of feed but mostly they have plenty but still go nuts whenever I show up. Cheers

I was having the exact same conversation with my worker today about how they get stirred up every time we come to check them. I agree with others; a short memory and a blind eye go a long way with dealing with this behavior. We went into two separate pastures today to get ready to move hot wires for weaned heifers and steers and they get all wound up waiting for us to take down the old wire. We go in and check on all herds multiple times a day so they see us plenty but when they hear our Kawasaki Mule it's the dinner bell to them. Look on the bright side, at least it's not hard to move them right?

Heifers right after we moved them this morning.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Like the others have said, much better to be able to CALL them, then to have to push them. I rotate about every 2-5 days also. Start out every day early spring. Yes, they bawl when they see us, but not too bad if they have grazing left. For 60 days, I'm in and out of the herd maybe 3-4 times a day for heat checks. Mine might be more used to visitors when they are not being moved. I would much rather hear them bawling, then having to chase them for any reason.

 

[Silver]

I guess it depend on your situation. I want cows that I can push. But I don't want to have to push them out of the way. It's nice to work with cows that are horse and/or dog broke. But I'm not rotational grazing bucket cattle either.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Rotational grazing is not bucket feeding cattle.

 

[wbvs58]

My paddocks are not straight forward, lots of obstacles like rocky outcrops and treed areas where if you go up one side some cattle will be the other side. Dogs do help but much easier to call them to the gate.

Ken

 

[Silver]

Rotational grazing is not bucket feeding cattle.

If you call them and they come the difference between "bucket cattle" and "fresh paddock" cattle is just semantics.

 

[1982vett]

Rotational grazing is not bucket feeding cattle.

However, it is a hands on approach.

Had a car run through a fence this morning. Been cool and drizzling all day. Had to shut the gate to water. Not a big deal cause I can open and close gates to get them back to water. However, my skittish west texas cows refused to cooperate today. They aren't hard to pen because the push easy. But they do need to know where the gates are. They do kinda follow the feed bag cows if they aren't afraid of getting trapped. They definitly aren't hands on cows.
Will try again tomorrow. Hoping for better weather.

 

[Travlr]

We move cattle often sometimes everyday but more often I try to stretch it to between 3 and 5 days. I like having them trained but I don't like the behaviour of them all carrying on whenever the motorbike starts up. I'm thinking about going to automatic lift up hotwires so they don't associate fresh feed with me or the Atv. Anyone got any opinions on where I've gone wrong with their behaviour? Sometimes I've run them slightly short of feed but mostly they have plenty but still go nuts whenever I show up. Cheers

My cattle all came when I called them, and I never gave them more than a coffee can or two full of grain. All I wanted to feed was the leaders and just give them a taste. And the leaders came, so the rest learned to come too. They wouldn't come to the truck or the ATV because I never fed them with those. All my pastures were pie shaped and if I was feeding anything they were coming to the hub of the pastures where they got fed. Made it real easy to rotate pastures.

 

[Willstanton]

Thanks for all the replies. We've never fed these cows grain. They get hay but it's already generally in place. I've got them on some pretty rain damaged swath grazing at the moment and they're not too excited about cleaning it up so I'm wearing earplugs each move! They're fat just missing fresh feed.

 

[RDFF]

IMO, there's nothing better than being able to just call 'em up to you, walk ahead of 'em, and have 'em follow. I used to have a Border Collie dog that would always work on that far side of the herd from me, continuously working to bring the herd up to me (that's the natural bred in instinct of the breed). That was when we had "herding cattle"... that were used to being pushed. The dog taught me the value of NOT having to go around back and try to "chase" cattle. Now that I'm rotational grazing, I no longer have a dog.

Last Friday we penned and sorted through 275 head, weaning calves onto a semi, sorting off preg cows that are going to calve soon onto a semi, etc. To get them into the corral.... I just rolled hay into it ONLY, then went back with the tractor and a bale on it back to the cows a mile away... and called them from inside the cab to follow me. Drove just ahead of the lead cows, right up through the corral, and shut the gate on the "out end" when I got through. Mile long cow train coming behind, guy with a pickup playing drag. They got about halfway to the corral, and I see (from a half mile away) they're trying to push them too hard at the back. He had the two truckers (who DON'T know how to work cattle BTW) with him... they had gotten out on foot and were trying to keep them together and moving too fast... waving their arms, yelling at 'em... which just got the cows wary and wondering what's up. I jumped in the tractor and ran back down the road (alongside of the field where the cows were) about a quarter mile toward them. Yelled over at them to back off and give 'em time/room. Left the tractor sitting on the road, walked ahead of the lagging group, calling them... and telling (scolding???) the truckers to back off and walk out to the side much wider if they felt they had to be out there.... The cows settled down, and followed me right up into the corral, without further incident.

If we had tried to PUSH them into that corral, I guarantee we would have had a wreck.