By Dana Charban
It can be a challenge to find good information on how to work your cattle effectively, but don’t we all want to make life a little easier? We’ve put together techniques to help you work your cattle without the hassle, and have made it as easy as learning your ABCs. These three things can make or break your cattle handling, and are just as easy to implement as they are to remember.
Acclimation
Cattle are smart animals with strong memories, and they are highly impacted by the situations they are exposed to. A great way to keep the stress of your livestock down when working them is by acclimating cattle to your handling system. This cattle handling trick is seldom considered, but can make all the difference when it comes time to process your livestock.
To acclimate your cattle is a simple task. Open every gate and door in your handling system and allow groups of cattle to move through the system without any stops and without putting pressure on them.
Why would you want to acclimate your herd?
- Acclimating creates draw.
- Acclimating improves flow.
- Acclimating minimizes stress.
Dr. Ron Gill of Texas A&M University emphasizes the importance of acclimating your cattle not only the first time they are being worked, but any time a change of any kind is made to your system. You don’t have to work every animal to acclimate your herd, simply choose a few groups and allow them to move through the handling system without stops for a few days in a row to get them used to moving through it. This will create flow and draw when they are mixed back into the larger herd, as these animals are comfortable in the system and do not have negative first experiences associated with it.
Click here to read the full article published by AGDAILY.
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via source AGDAILY | The ABCs of working cattle easily
For more information regarding news from the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, please contact Maggie Berger at maggielberger@tamu.edu or (979) 845-1542.