Lesson 2: General Stockmanship concepts

There are a few general concepts about cow behavior stock handlers should keep in mind. Livestock derive information from the environment through their five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. Cows do not use language to communicate with people so stock handlers must communicate with cows by stimulating the senses of the animal. The two most important senses a cow uses to understand what is going on in her environment are sight and hearing.

Cows consistently look at what is pressuring them. Because the eyes and ears of the cow are positioned on the side of the skull, cows have excellent peripheral vision and hearing. There is a narrow blind spot directly behind her rump. A good general rule is that if the handler can see the cow’s eyeball she can probably see the handler. Therefore, the human should approach the animal from a position where her eyeball can be seen, in this manner she can probably see and hear the handler. Surprising livestock is never a good idea, so let them see the handler if possible and if not, let them gently hear who approaches them.

Cows tend to move in an arc around whatever they perceive as pressure. This allows them to keep an eye on what is pressuring them as they move around or away from it. Cows tend to follow other cows. These two concepts are invaluable when emptying a cattle pen or loading a transport with cattle. If the handler can create positive motion at the front of the herd and then avoid doing anything to slow or stop the flow, cows will tend to move in the direction they are facing while following the cow in front of them. If, for example, handlers are moving animals into the parlor, the task will be accomplished more efficiently if the handler induces the animals to face the opening into the parlor. If the handler causes the animals to turn back toward the crowd gate, flow stops and the cattle tend to bunch. Handlers need to pay close attention to their position in relationship to the direction of cow movement. It is most important not to over-pressure or to apply pressure in an unpredictable manner to the animal. Extreme examples of over-pressure are shouting, arm waiving, and hitting animals or using electric prods to get them to move. Cows do not respond positively when over-pressured, they exhibit agitation and may run away from the over-pressure potentially leading to harm. These examples of over-pressure would be called high-stress cow handling techniques.

Pressuring a cow properly involves the right approach angle, speed, and timing. There is no complicated or magic formula. The cow’s behavior will inform the handler if the angle, speed, and timing were correct. If she didn’t respond as the handler intended, then the handler should back along the same line as the approach, change the angle and the speed of approach. However, one concept has universal importance in moving cattle and it is that driving cattle from directly behind them, in their blind spot, causes the animal to turn and face the handler in order to get at least one eye on the pressure. That handling mistake stops the forward motion of cattle because a cow tends not to walk far with her head turned. Cows seem to follow their eyes.

Cows walk at about two-miles per hour (mph) while people tend to walk about three to four mph. Handlers walking at their normal pace and parallel with cows will eventually overtake the cow, first slowing them and then stopping forward motion altogether. Handlers need to recognize this and slow their walking speed in order to move at the same pace as calm cows. Since it generally takes more pressure to start a cow moving than it does to keep her moving, once cow motion begins the handler should slow or pause momentarily in order to create some distance between themselves and the moving cow. The handler then continues to apply only the pressure needed to keep the cow moving calmly. Over-pressuring in order to start motion or during movement frequently causes cows to over-react and run. This is often seen when moving heifers.

Walking parallel against the flow of cows tends to speed them. This works because cows want to go the direction they are facing and they want to get away from the human pressure; especially the human face and eyes. Walking parallel against the flow of cattle can help load or unload a chute, transport, or parlor, and is valuable when encouraging cows to exit the return alley. If more than one person is in the vicinity of the same animal or group of animals, it is best that one person pressure at a time. With two or more handlers, it is very easy to apply conflicting pressures to the cattle. Understandably, this would result in conflicting stimuli to the cows and results in poor communication to the animal. Consistent handling methods allow the cows to know what will happen next and that seems to have a calming effect on herd animals.

A good time to work animals is when they first arrive to a new pen or facility. Examples of this are during weaning of heifers from hutches into group pens or immediately after springing heifers arrive at a facility new to them. Spending 10-20 minutes allows handlers to develop a calm relationship with the new cattle while introducing the animals to the new environment. This also creates a great opportunity to examine those animals for any health problems.

As people learn to apply stockmanship skills on cattle operations a frequent question arises about what to do with new cattle? As simple as it may sound, the answer is that the behavior of the animals will tell handlers what should done with them. For example, if cattle run, back and forth or circle non-stop, the handlers need to slow that motion. If the cows bunch in a corner and have no movement, a handler or at most a few handlers should create slow movement that involves teaching new cattle to accept human pressure. This also helps animals learn the boundaries of their new confinement while teaching them where food and water exists. Each time cattle are worked properly they learn and become easier to work the next time. That is to say that animals learn calm handling if handled calmly. When livestock operations only consider working cattle if specific tasks are to be accomplished (such as vaccinating) a negative impression of handling can be imprinted in the cows’ memory. Naturally, negative interactions can make cows become harder to handle over time. Frequently, we find that the older cows in a herd can be difficult to move. We must understand that their current behavior is the sum total of the interactions with humans over her lifetime; positive and negative. Dairy stockmanship is about reconnecting people with dairy cows for positive outcomes and it is fundamentally about learning how cows respond to the behaviors of people in a dynamic environment.