We have a month old hereford bull calf that my son wants to try and show in the local fair. As you can tell, we know little if nothing about this. He was fairly gentle for the first few days of life, but then he turned very skiddish. We haven't put a halter on him yet. Should we just wait until he's weaned before we start really messing around with him? I'm not sure he'd be very easy to catch unless we left a pretty long lead rope on him...
When to start with halter/lead???
- Thread starter Arkieman
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SKF Show Cattle
Well-known member
Start working with him now it is much easier to break them while they are small. We start ours right away.
idylglade1
Well-known member
just be darn careful i myself wanted to show a stear even though yours is a bull he can drug me about 20 yards and i was knocked out with a brocken tail bone 2 broke ribs a busted shoulder and blood on the brai none of that was fun cause im still not recovered
*Cowgirl*
Well-known member
I like to start (if possible) around 3 days. Start ASAP. If you've never done this before find a mentor. Don't worry too much though. A month old probably won't be big enough to drag you much any where.
karlie45
Well-known member
We start at latest at weaning and have never had a problem. Most cases, we start at one month old, with daily contact untill then. So if you start now, you should be well off.
Arkieman
Well-known member
When you guys say "start", what do you mean? Leading him around? If so, how do you catch him on a daily basis? We're trying to move him and momma to another pasture and the little sucker won't even follow his momma into the catch pen!! He's a slick little rascal! It looks like we're gonna have to rope him just to get them moved. Would you tie a drag rope onto the halter? We used to tie weed-eater cord onto beagles that were hard to catch. The weed-eater cord will not get caught/snagged on anything. Any tips?
That calf needs to learn to trust you, so what I personally would do is pen the calf and mom up for a while. Do not if at all possible use a rope to get him in the pen. He will remember the trauma of bein roped and drug around. Then when you come with a halter he will remember and not let you near him. If you can pen mom and he won't go, if it is safe, leave him out for a while. He gets hungry enough he will decide the pen is a good place to be.
As long as mom is calm and will let you in the pen to feed, then when you do go in to feed just hang around in the pen for a bit if possible. Just let him get used to you being around, as he calms down and gets more curious then work on getting closer until he will let you touch him. Then you can progress to halter. I would suggest a rope halter and at that age you won't find a regular halter that small.
Cattle remember pain and bad experiences, so you need to work quietly, slowly and make this as stress free for him as possible. Depending on how quickly he quiets down and starts to trust you they could be in the pen for a month atleast. So the quicker you can get them penned the better off you are gonna be.
Remember safety first, if mom is protective this probably won't work. .
Good Luck.
As long as mom is calm and will let you in the pen to feed, then when you do go in to feed just hang around in the pen for a bit if possible. Just let him get used to you being around, as he calms down and gets more curious then work on getting closer until he will let you touch him. Then you can progress to halter. I would suggest a rope halter and at that age you won't find a regular halter that small.
Cattle remember pain and bad experiences, so you need to work quietly, slowly and make this as stress free for him as possible. Depending on how quickly he quiets down and starts to trust you they could be in the pen for a month atleast. So the quicker you can get them penned the better off you are gonna be.
Remember safety first, if mom is protective this probably won't work. .
Good Luck.
Arkieman
Well-known member
Thanks Cheyenne, we did have a breakthrough this morning. We have a catchpen set up so we can move them. Well, even though mom would go in - he wouldn't. Well, this morning he went in with mom and started eating some hay. If he continues to do this we'll try and move him. At the other location we have a corral that we can keep them up in. We have a leather halter that will fit, do you think we should try and put it on him during the move. He'll already be under some stress from the move, might as well put the halter on??? Thanks for the suggestions..
ilfarmer92
Well-known member
Arkieman":szqp2bwm said:
no no, use a ROPE HALTER. you can buy them from sullivans for less than 5 dollars and they will be there quickly depending on where you live. Good luck with him, Herefords are very nice, being that he is 1 month old- I dont see you having alot of trouble with him. How is him momma? If she is very touchy you may want to separate them. Sometimes it a good move sometimes not- we've done both.
Use a rope halter as suggested. Besides Sullivans most farm/ranch stores carry rope halters. A month old calf will grow so quickly that before you know it the halter is way too tight and will cause bad problems. If you put a rope halter on him and let him drag and step on the lead he will learn to stop. However, if he is not very close to the house for you to supervise don't leave it on him without supervision. He could get tangled up, mom could step on it and hurt him etc.
I think though that the best bet would be to get them penned and let him start to trust you and you be able to pet him before trying to halter him. See how he acts in the pen and when you enter the pen to feed. Also will depend on momma and how protective she is.
If he is eating hay, maybe try hand feeding him before putting any in the bunk. Or start with a little sweet feed. Let him know that momma isn't the only food source and that he isn't going to get hurt by eating from your hand.
Halter breaking calves takes trust from the calf and patience from you. You have to earn his trust first.
Good luck.
I think though that the best bet would be to get them penned and let him start to trust you and you be able to pet him before trying to halter him. See how he acts in the pen and when you enter the pen to feed. Also will depend on momma and how protective she is.
If he is eating hay, maybe try hand feeding him before putting any in the bunk. Or start with a little sweet feed. Let him know that momma isn't the only food source and that he isn't going to get hurt by eating from your hand.
Halter breaking calves takes trust from the calf and patience from you. You have to earn his trust first.
Good luck.
ilfarmer92
Well-known member
I also want to add that around 1 month we start our show calves on creep feed. They dont eat alot of it at first, but we've seen a huge difference in what they look like when they are 8-12 months rather than the ones that didnt get started early on feed.
Good point ilfarmer92, when I said sweet feed I should have said calf starter/creep feed.
Our market steer is our bottle calf from last year and he has been on feed since he started eating it. Friends of ours weighed in their steers the same age as ours, at the same time we did and our steer has 200 lbs on their heaviest steer. We have 200 days to put 500 lbs on our steer and they have 200 days to put on 700+ lbs. I would be worried if I had to push ours that hard.
Getting him trained to the bucket will be a benefit also.
Our market steer is our bottle calf from last year and he has been on feed since he started eating it. Friends of ours weighed in their steers the same age as ours, at the same time we did and our steer has 200 lbs on their heaviest steer. We have 200 days to put 500 lbs on our steer and they have 200 days to put on 700+ lbs. I would be worried if I had to push ours that hard.
Getting him trained to the bucket will be a benefit also.
