"Training" calves??

[Z&J Cattle]

My dad and I just bought a group of 500# heifers to feed out this winter. We go 11 last week and are going back tomorrow in hopes to get another 14-15. Anyway, I have a friend that says he "trains" his calves to come up to feed when called. When he brings the new calves in, after he turns them out to pasture, he hollers for them, and of course, at first they don't come up because they don't know what the hollering is for. So, he walks down and drives them up to the troughs so that they learn that when he hollers, groceries are waiting. He feeds them in the corral every single day so that if he needs to doctor on one, he has them caught when they come in to feed. I have started trying to do this this week. I guess today was the third day in a row. They never even look up when I holler for them. Have they just not learned what is going on yet? How long might I expect it to take before they catch on and come on in? When we ran momma cows, 8 out of 10 times, I could holler and they would come full sprint from across the farm. Will the calves get like this pretty soon? On a side note, when they do get to the trough, about half of them go straight to the trough and dig in. The other half just kinda stand around doing nothing. I'm wondering if the half that digs right in were already bunk broke before we bought them? Do any of ya'll practice this type of routine?

 

[CattleHand]

Haha in that case we train ours to come to the sound of the trucks engine. They will jsut learn oh here comes that truck which means we are getting fed and they will come on up. There was a topic once on what different words or sounds people made to call their cattle it was interesting how it was divided amoung the regions. Bottom line is they will learn when food is coming and they tend not to pass that up if they are fed regularly.

 

[grubbie]

We do the same with our replacement heifers. They will come around. After a couple months most of our heifers will take cake from our hand, then they are easy to handle for the rest of their lives. Shake the bag and holler and they come running.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Patience Z&J, it'll take them a little while for the whole herd to learn what your cattle calls mean. We did the same with the steers we used to have, took them steers about a full week before they knew what a bucket of chop (chopped barley) meant and what "come caaaalllff!!!" meant too. And you know, every herd is different, some of the steer herds take longer'n a week to learn, and others learn it within just a few days.

So patience is key. You just keep doing what you're doing and the whole group'll end up figgering things out in the end by copying their herdmates.

 

[K2011]

What I would do is drive TO them and put out the grain/feed and holler what ever you want to say...we yell "COME ON!" and once they get a real 'taste' for the feed and associate that with your yell then you should start to be able to move closer and closer to the pen until you have them in the pen...

 

[Keren]

Yep, patience grasshopper. They will get the idea.

I call mine by rattling the pellets in a bucket, and yelling "Hey girls, here girls, come girls". Mind you most of the time I dont have to call because once the spot me and hear the bucket they are already there.

Do you have enough trough space for all of them to eat happily at the same time? If you have shy feeders they will not want to get in to feed if they have to be crowded by the other calves.

And they will eventually learn to eat the feed just by watching the others.

 

[ONEGICOP]

If you have a big enough space to keep them up for 3 or 4 days and feed them on a pretty regular schedule it should make it easier for you. We use a pen that's about 100 yard long by 40 yards wide to start them out. When we feed we call them and shake a feed sack even though they are close enough to see whats going on. They start to associate the time, calling and feed sack with chow time. Once you turn them out to a bigger area they will still respond.

 

[jcarkie]

it takes a while longer with purchased animals. you have to do it every day it may take a while to gain their trust. when i am going to work cattle or move them i start a week ahead of time training them to come in. the ones we raise learn real quick, i like them to come when i call because some days i don't have time to go find them, i walk. my son who has a 4-wheeler has cattle at his place that won't come to me when i call, he goes and hollers and they run over him. mine are the same way with him.

 

[msscamp]

My dad and I just bought a group of 500# heifers to feed out this winter. We go 11 last week and are going back tomorrow in hopes to get another 14-15. Anyway, I have a friend that says he "trains" his calves to come up to feed when called. When he brings the new calves in, after he turns them out to pasture, he hollers for them, and of course, at first they don't come up because they don't know what the hollering is for. So, he walks down and drives them up to the troughs so that they learn that when he hollers, groceries are waiting. He feeds them in the corral every single day so that if he needs to doctor on one, he has them caught when they come in to feed. I have started trying to do this this week. I guess today was the third day in a row. They never even look up when I holler for them. Have they just not learned what is going on yet? How long might I expect it to take before they catch on and come on in? When we ran momma cows, 8 out of 10 times, I could holler and they would come full sprint from across the farm. Will the calves get like this pretty soon? On a side note, when they do get to the trough, about half of them go straight to the trough and dig in. The other half just kinda stand around doing nothing. I'm wondering if the half that digs right in were already bunk broke before we bought them? Do any of ya'll practice this type of routine?

Generally speaking - this type of training tends to work better if you've penned them for a week or so, and they have a direct link between the sound of the feed wagon(goat/pick-up/whatever you are feeding with) and the feed. It can be done without feeding, but it will take longer and require a fair bit more work to accomplish the same thing. Just my experience.

 

[dun]

We used to keep an old open cow that knew the ropes. She would become the leader and very little time was required for a bunch of calves to follow her wherever we wanted them.

 

[backhoeboogie]

What I would do is drive TO them and put out the grain/feed and holler what ever you want to say...we yell "COME ON!" and once they get a real 'taste' for the feed and associate that with your yell then you should start to be able to move closer and closer to the pen until you have them in the pen...

I yell the same thing.

That bunch of heifers I bought were backgrounded and then hauled down with the herd. Half of them seemed pretty wild still. I was concerned with changing pastures. A week ago I moved them. I opened the gates and yelled "Come On". The old gals came a running and all the new ones jumped on board with them. I don't know why but they did. Everything went through the gates, down the lane the right direction, and into the next pasture. It was amazing.

My two year old grandson can yell "come on" and the cows come to him. He called them to grandma's car back in may and got it all dented up.

 

[Razorback21]

I pen my new ones up for about 10 days and they learn what is in those white buckets real quick. I just repeat the same process every day until I turn them out to a lot right next to the pen. I bring the white bucket, they right in to eat! After a few days, they join the rest of the herd in the pasture, and I don't even have to yell for them. I show them a white bucket and they follow me anywhere. Been doing that 14 years or so, works the same with every bunch.

 

[Brute 23]

We do the same thing, especially with replacements. Just takes a little time. Don't dump alot of feed in them right off the bat. Give them a little time to adjust to the new place.