Of course, the cattle won’t know what you’re trying to do the first few times you switch paddocks. Wait until they come into the pen for grain or water and then close the gate behind them. While they’re getting a drink, go out and close the old paddock gate and open the new one. Then go back, open the pen gate, call the cows, and walk slowly out of the lane to the new paddock, calling as you go. Eventually, they’ll follow, and, after a few repetitions, they’ll follow immediately. They may even try to push past you in the lane. If they do, spread your arms and give them a dirty look and a firm “cut it out” so they’ll learn that you’re the leader. If one gets really pushy, rap it on the nose with a stick. This is another important point: remember that cattle have a herd hierarchy, and you should be at the top of it.
If you’ve got one big pasture, aren’t feeding grain, and aren’t even around on a daily basis, it’s still a good idea to teach the cattle that when you show up and they come to your call, good things will happen. Call them, let them see the bucket, and then give them a treat in the holding pen. Use apples, carrots, or dried molasses. At first, just a few cattle will figure it out, but eventually they’ll all come. If there’s a holdout cow, you can either pen the others and wait until it shows up out of curiosity, or you can pen the others, go out in the pasture, and gently herd it in. It’ll usually be quite willing to go where it knows the others went.
After a few months of calling and leading, the herd will usually come when you call and follow when you lead. This minor investment of effort is worth its weight in gold when it comes time to bring the cattle in for handling.
If you want to really get ahead of the game, train your cattle to exit the holding pen through the crowding tub and chute, just as they will on handling days. Close the gate behind the herd when they’ve entered the pen, and open the chute. I have a board cut to fit over the top of the headgate and hold it open so there’s no chance of it slamming shut on a cow. This teaches the cattle that the chute is the way out, and it saves you a lot of trouble getting them into the chute on the day you really need them to go. They’ll go by themselves, and they’ll think it was their idea!
| All in the Timing Unless you’re an early riser, I recommend scheduling paddock switches for the late afternoon. I used to do it first thing in the morning, until Gretel the cow took to standing at the barnyard gate around five o’clock, bellowing for me to hurry up. Since the gate is directly across from our bedroom window and I don’t like getting up at the crack of dawn, I soon realized that I needed to change the routine. |
Getting Ready for Handling Days
Cattle are pretty specific about what they do and don’t like. As previously mentioned, they like firm, nonslippery footing, and they like moving uphill and toward light. They dislike going into dark, unknown spaces; they detest loud noises; and they are afraid of strange objects flapping in the wind or glinting in the sun. They will follow each other around a curve, but they’ll balk at going into a chute when they can see that the end is blocked. Keep these things in mind when you’re getting ready for handling days.
Presumably, your facility is already set up with curves and has good lighting. Now, walk around and make sure that there are no soda cans, flapping chains, or fluttering debris anywhere. Make sure that there are no broken boards on the floor of the chute. Oil the gates and levers on the crowding tub, alley, and headgate so they operate silently and smoothly.
If you know ahead of time how you’re going to move the cattle through the pens, tub, and chute, it’ll be much easier for you to communicate the plan to them. Have a Plan B in case they don’t like Plan A. If you need only the calves, for example, or only the open cows, figure out how you can quietly sort off the ones you want and turn out the rest. Decide where you can keep the syringes, needles, and vaccines so they’re handy but out of the way of random hooves. Have the ear tags numbered and ready, with extras in case one falls into a fresh cow pie.
A little advance training will help your cattle be more relaxed on handling days, such as visits from the vet.
Handling Days
Beef cattle are handled just a few times a year. In most areas, calves are castrated, and often vaccinated and ear-tagged, in the spring. If you’re using artificial insemination, you’ll need to get the cows in the chute whenever they’re in heat, and you’ll want them to be calm. In the fall, you’ll vaccinate the whole herd, and heifers will get their brucellosis vaccinations from the veterinarian. If you haven’t ear-tagged before, you’ll do this then. Two or three weeks later, the calves will need a booster vaccination. They’re also weaned then or shortly thereafter. In late fall, calves and cull cows are loaded into a truck or a trailer for a ride to the auction barn or new owners, and fat cattle for your own freezer are loaded and sent to the processor. You may also occasionally have to pen a cow or calf that is sick or injured so you can treat her.
To accomplish these things on a cattle-handling day, you’ll need to sort off the cows, calves, or steers you want to work with and then move them into the chute and headgate. You’ll catch them one by one in the headgate, where you’ll administer vaccines, put on ear tags, or give some other treatment, and then release them back to pasture. If you’re weaning the calves, you’ll need to sort them into separate pens or pastures—one for the cows and the other for their calves—as they come out of the headgate. The veterinarian, the artificial insemination technician, or the truck for loading cattle may be around on handling day, too, and because cattle are very aware of strangers, this will add to the stress they’re already feeling from the change in routine.
Once you have the cattle quietly penned and have given them half an hour or so to calm down, the quickest way to get the job done is to move slowly. The faster you move, the more agitated the cattle will become, and the tougher it will be to get them into the chute. Don’t yell. Research has shown that loud noise, including yelling, is more upsetting to cattle than getting slapped or prodded. Use flight zone and pressure points to move a few cattle at a time from the pen into the crowding tub. Don’t fill the tub more than half full because cattle don’t like to be tightly packed. Wait until at least two or three are facing into the chute, then slowly move in the crowding gate. The cattle should start filing into the chute. Sometimes, you’ll have to back off on the gate to let a cow turn in the right direction. You can wave a hand or herding stick gently in its face or pat a rump to get it to turn, but don’t yell and don’t hit. Things won’t go any faster, and for sure the cattle will be more difficult to work the next time.
Raise the gate at the end of the alley and let a single animal into the chute. In a perfect world, the cow will walk up to the headgate with just the right momentum to make the gate close on the animal’s neck. In the real world, cattle sometimes come in so gently that the gate doesn’t close or so hard that you’ll worry they’ve bruised their shoulders. With some of our old cows, I don’t bother putting them into the headgate if they’re calm enough to stand still while I give an injection.
For the cattle you need in the headgate that aren’t cooperating, one helpful trick is to walk quickly from their heads to their rumps, which usually makes them jump ahead. If the animals are reluctant to come down the alley, it may be because they see you standing at the end. Duck out of sight or walk quickly to the rear. Sometimes a pat on the rump or a tap with the stick on their hocks will do the trick. Be patient. In the end, staying calm will take less time than trying to rush them because too much pressure only makes cattle panicky and balky. A panicky cow may try anything to get away—running over a handler, trying to jump a fence, or trying to crawl under a gate.
In the full swing of things, you’ll have a cow in the headgate, a couple behind it in the alley, a couple in the crowding tub, and the rest still in the holding pen, waiting their turns. Take care of the first cow, release the headgate, and make sure that it gets safely out of your way into another pen or back to the pasture before resetting the headgate for the next patient. Look to see whether the next up is a calf or