By Portia Stewart

Using the words “stubborn” and “cattle” together might be a bit redundant. But thoughtful pressure and keen cattle sense go a long way when you’re moving cattle, as stockmenship trainers Ron Gill, Ph.D, and Curt Pate demonstrated at the 2019 NCBA Cattle Convention. Gill and Pate shared advice on how to gather the herd and at the Stockmanship and Stewardship Demonstration Arena, sponsored by Merck Animal Heath.

First, an important point. Gill, a professor and Extension livestock specialist at Texas A&M University, says you’ll know your cattle and what they’re used to. While they demonstrate on foot and with horses, this doesn’t prevent you from using other methods, including ATVs or UTVs, if you take time to get your livestock used to being around this equipment. The key is how you use the tool you’ve got, he says.

Here’s a look at a few of Gill’s and Pate’s top tips we learned to move cattle.

1. Make sure no kids are left behind. Gill says you’ll make your job easier if you gather early and let the cows and calves mother up. “If you go out and start making some motion and movement around the cow, they tend to go back to the kid,” he says. These pairs need to learn that when you show up and get them to move they’re supposed to go together.

“My goal every time I gather cows and calves is to not have those calves at the back when we go through the gate. And that’s hard to do, to get those gals to keep those calves with them as we go out to pasture,” Gill says. “But when it does happen, it makes you feel pretty good.”

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via source The Drovers  | You Herd Right; 8 Tips to Gather the Herd 

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.