The
first
thing
we
need
to
learn
in
order
to
handle
cattle
in
a
less
stressful way is how cattle act in a herd. Unfortunately, this is one
of the hardest things to comprehend because most of us have never seen
cattle acting as a herd. This is because we create so much stress in
moving our cattle from pasture to pasture that we
basically blow the herd instinct out of them. We try to do
things which we conceive make them easier to move which actually causes
a great deal of stress. The very meaning of the word “herd” is a group
of animals which remain together, which is
what we never see. Fortunately, they still do some things on their own
which we can observe to show us the error of our ways. Cattle will
folllow each other with little effort as long as we start them in the
right way, as demonstrated in the following video. These cattle had
come in fresh two weeks before this video was taken. They had never
been through this gate, or into this pasture before, and the dog
"helping" me was just starting out, and deaf on top of it. Even though
she makes several mistakes, the steers not only go through the gate,
but don't scatter after going through.
Most of us want our cattle all going together in
a bunch and drive them from behind. When cattle are scattered in a
pasture, we can create we motion by traveling back and forth in a
straight line across the back of the pasture. However, that is only
to start them not to drive them the whole move. You will notice in
most cases, that moving cattle in this manner if you are going up a
steep hill (or getting closer to the pens, or going through a gate) the
cattle wind up bunching up and slowing down. This is because they don’t like to be pushed into a crowd anymore than
you do and cattle need to have a leader. Fifteen or twenty animals
across the front of three hundred steers is
not a lead. Even if you happen to think it is,
those steers will not remain there for long when you are creating your
motion from the back. When creating motion in this manner you get what
I refer to as “tank track” milling. I have watched cattle being moved in this manner change the “lead” six
times in less than a quarter mile. Rather than going through the gate
on their own, the “herd” stops and people will do a “controlled mill”
by creating motion on one side and moving it to the front and
(hopefully) through the gate.
There
are
different
analogies
to
describe
this
situation.
The
first
one
that
comes
to
mind is pushing our trailer instead of pulling it. Wouldn’t it be hard for us to see where we are
going? Yet that is what we are asking our cattle to do. Go forward
blindly and hopefully push the front cattle
with them enough to have a place to go.
Another
analogy
would
be
going
somewhere
in
heavy
traffic.
Imagine
going
to
the
Stockshow
in Denver. If you are going
early in the morning before rush hour traffic hits you have plenty of
room on the road and truck along at 70 mph with no stress. What happens
in as rush hour gets closer? You may still be doing 70mph, but you are
now in bumper to bumper traffic and can’t
see the brake lights of the second vehicle in front of you. You may get
to the Stockshow in the same amount of time, but how are you feeling?
Pretty stressed out, no?
What
makes
you
think
that
your
cattle
can get crowded in like that
without stressing out?
It
is
even
worse
if
you
are
moving
pairs.
Imagine
being
in
a
strange
city. Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, just take your pick.
You have no idea of how to get where you need to go, but you have
a friend you are going to follow. Now imagine it is rush hour, bumper
to bumper, 70 mph and you loose track
of your friend and have way to call him to let him know where you are
(and that idiot behind you keeps honking his horn.) How much stress are
you under now? Bet you would be under enough stress you would be
tempted to just turn around and go back to the ranch!
Now
that you
have an idea of why your cattle are stressed and don’t hang around
together like a herd should, you can learn how do handle them to make
them a herd. The biggest mistake people make in this is expecting it to
work like magic in only one move. It takes time, and the less you move
your cattle the longer it will take. The more often you move
your
cattle the faster they will begin to act as a herd.
The steers
in
this
picture
were moved three
times before they began grazing together like in this picture.
They were purchased at a sale barn from
several different owners and had no idea they were supposed to be a
herd until they had been handled in a manner that allowed them to feel
as a herd. Notice how all of them are facing the same direction while
grazing? When the herd changes where it is grazing (or decides to
go to water), the lead steer will begin walking. After he leaves, the
rest will follow, but string out in single file to do so. When
he stops to graze, the rest will begin stopping when they reach him.
When you begin moving cattle so that they act as a herd, you will
discover that each group of cattle will have its own lead animal. The
other thing you will begin to notice is that nearly always, the same
group of animals will be bringing up the drag. This is because each
herd will establish its own “pecking” order.
You
have
spent
years
teaching
your
cattle
to not be
a herd. If you are running a stocker operation, your calves have
probably come from several different herds and don’t
realize they are supposed to be a herd. This means you have to reverse
your actions and teach them to be a herd.Just
as
in
teaching
any
person
or
animal this
takes time and repetition. There will be signs showing if you are headed in the right direction or not with
every move. The biggest and most
immediate sign will be how your cattle act when they go
into a new pasture. Rather than fanning out in all directions to graze
they will, at least for a short amount of time,
remain together, grazing in the same direction. Each time
you move them correctly, they will remain together for a little longer
amount of time. Eventually they will stay together as a herd,
like in the above picture.
You
need
to
be
aware
of
the
fact
that if you push
them from the back, even for a short amount of distance, you will undo
everything you have accomplished. Just as it takes longer to undo what
a bad rider instills in a horse, it will take several moves to
undo what one bad move has taken away from the herd instinct of
you cattle.
The
whole
secret
to
letting (not forcing) your
cattle act as a herd is to use cattle instinct to your advantage rather
than against you. If you get your motion going and keep it going from
the back, you are working against yourself and not keeping the cattle
as stress free as possible. Think about it for a second. Most
of the time you are moving your cattle to fresh feed, so why should
that be stressful to them? It should not, in
fact your cattle (if they are
being handled in a way they are
relaxed in) should want to move for you.
Keep in mind you will have to work at this and it will take several
moves before they start moving for you with little or no effort. To
keep them relaxed:
Do
not
push
them
from
the
back
Let
a
lead
establish
itself
(and
remember
a
lead
is
1
or
2
head
in the
front, NOT 15 or 20 head abreast !!!)
Keep
them
loose
–
They
will
want
to
keep
several
feet
to
several
yards
between
them while moving
Keep your motion going from the front to back.
If
you
have
cattle
wandering
off
in
the
wrong
direction,
try
to
approach
them
from
the front. They will go by you and try to catch up to the
other cattle (often at a trot or lope) without you having to “push”
them.
Do
not
turn
the
cattle
from
back
to
front
by
riding
between
them
and
the
fence. This only turns the back of the herd first, which slows the
forward motion of the herd and ususally begins other problems. Turn the
lead first and the rest of the herd will turn as they approach
you.
The first couple of times you may have to ride hard
to get them
lined out as it is not established in them to follow one another (as we
have spent their entire lives keeping them from doing so). Once they
begin figuring it out you may have to go at a trot just to keep up with
them and get them turned into the right gate. In the following video I
picked these steers up in a 640 acre stubble field. They had been there
for approximately three weeks, and all but five head were together (and
those five head were only about 200 yards away). I had driven the
cattle out the first gate and across a field to the fence along a
county road. This video will show me turn the cattle off the road and
leave as 723 steers go through the gate with no one and noting to turn
them. This was the second gate of a six gate, three mile move I made
with these steers and no help.
These
methods
work
especially
well
with
pairs
if
you
want
to
keep
them
paired
throughout the move. A few years ago I was working on a
large registered outfit. We were always moving pairs in groups of 350
or more. For some reason these guys were always wadding
them from the back. Moves which should have taken a few hours would
turn into a long day (or several days). One move was dreaded because
the cattle would ball up at the bottom of a mountain and turn the wrong
way and would not be paired. The funny thing
about this was although there was a 10-foot gate right in the road they
were
trailed
down, they wanted
to turn the cattle left to take them through a 30-foot gate followed by
another turn to the right. One day we gathered that pasture and I
talked one of the guys at the bottom of
the pasture into opening that narrow gate. I had a couple of interns
with me who allowed the cattle to string out, and I just stayed at the
front until about 50 yards from the gate, and let them go. The cattle
ran through the gate with calves at side, through three more gates and
into the trap where we wanted them. A few calves missed the gate,
bawled and their mothers came back for them. Needless to say the guy
who had argued about them not going through the gate thought it was
“lucky” and had nothing to do with letting them string out.
I want to mention
one other thing that causes a lot of stress here. It is something
nearly everyone does from time to time to make things easier, but that
causes a lot of stress. That is farmering down and leading your cattle
with a feed wagon. Cattle have their own pecking order. When you
stop in the middle of a pasture with a load of feed the same cattle are
there at the truck every day and the same cattle are always out on the
fringes. Alphas first on feed and the lower down the pecking order, the
longer they have to wait to get on feed. When you start moving cattle
with feed, they will line up in the same way. The cattle next to the
load will be trying to nibble as they go. The ones on the back are
waiting to get to feed. It would be like going to a restaurant and
fighting with a bunch of NFL linebackers to see who gets to eat first
(and adding to the frustration by having your prime rib moving away
from you just fast enough that you can’t get to it) After awhile you
lose interest and go to some fast food joint.
This
scenario
is
even
more
stressful
if
you
are
moving
pairs.
The
calves
will
automatically drop to the back rather than fight for feed
with the cows. They lose track of their mothers, want to go back to
where they came from and the wreck is on. Just let them move out, keep your motion going from front to back with the
cattle going past you and you will never have problems moving your
pairs, no matter how young they are. With yearling cattle,
this method will instill the instinct for the cattle to follow one
another. Once the cattle get the idea one person can move
some pretty large groups of cattle. I regularly move from 300 to
more than 700 head of steers with only a deaf dog for help and
few problems (Anyone who claims to never
have a problem probably never does anything.)
