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Your Health

“When vaccinating, make sure the people doing it know how to handle vaccines, and make sure you have sharp needles (for less pain for the cattle and less jumping around in the chute). If a person accidentally gets pricked or vaccinated, be aware that some vaccines could be dangerous,” says Shannon Williams, Lemhi County Extension educator with the University of Idaho.

Safety When Handling Cattle

Keep workflow in mind
to ensure safety.

Agriculture is a hazardous occupation, and part of the risk is handling cattle. Shannon Williams, Lemhi County Extension educator with the University of Idaho, says it’s important to make sure corrals and facilities are in good repair and working properly before you bring in cattle.


“Take time to replace broken boards/poles, rehang a gate, remove boards or poles that might be lying along the fence, grease the equipment, clean the walkways. Make a plan for the day, and go over it with the crew. If you frequently work cattle with the same people, you know how they think and what they are going to do, and everything usually goes smoothly. If you bring in new people, they may not know which gate the cattle are coming in or will be going out, and [they] might not know where to be to not be in the way,” she says.


“Have sorting flags or sorting sticks for everyone helping with sorting, so they don’t resort to waving their arms and yelling. Low-stress, quiet cattle handling makes things safer for the animals and the people handling them. Work at cow speed (thinking in terms of cow time, not human time). Make sure you allow enough time for the job, so no one has to hurry,” Williams adds. If you can work cattle slowly so they don’t get upset and excited, it actually saves time and is safer in the long run.


If they can flow through the facility smoothly and quietly without being chased or getting out, time is saved and safety risks are avoided.


Says Williams, “When vaccinating, make sure the people doing it know how to handle vaccines, and make sure you have sharp needles (for less pain for the cattle and less jumping around in the chute). If a person accidentally gets pricked or vaccinated, be aware that some vaccines could be dangerous. If someone gets injected with blackleg vaccine, or a medication is splashed into their eyes, take them to the doctor — and take the vaccine\product box and label with you to have the serial number, etc., so the doctor can find out what the human risk might be. Have a first aid kit on hand. Know what to do in case of a medical emergency.”


“If there are younger kids helping or spectating, make sure you know where they are and that they are not standing in front of the chute or in a place where they might get hurt,” she says. “If some individual animals are flighty or aggressive, handle them with care, and give everyone a heads-up warning when that old rip comes through,” she says.

Use good cattle psychology, and make sure the people helping you know how to handle cattle properly. For helpers without much cattle experience, try giving them a job out of harm’s way, like recordkeeping, Williams suggests.


“One issue that can be difficult is when you have friends or neighbors helping and handling cattle in a manner that you don’t want them handled. Don’t hesitate to say something. Even though you might offend that person, the cattle are your livelihood and paycheck, and you can’t afford to have them made wild or unsafe by the way someone else is handling them,” she asserts.


Before the work starts, she recommends talking with the whole crew about the vaccine being used, how and where it is to be injected, task assignments and cattle traffic flow. If everyone knows the work flow, things will go more smoothly.


When sorting cattle in a corral or alleyway, be aware that if an animal kicks a gate or rams into a gate, it may fly back and hit someone. Fatalities have occurred when people were hit in the head by a fast-moving metal gate.


“If you have to load/haul cattle, don’t try to cram that extra animal into the trailer. If someone is fighting with the trailer gate, this can be dangerous. It’s also not good for the cattle to be crammed too tightly on the truck or trailer,” says Williams.


Always think ahead and be aware of potential hazards — and what might happen under various circumstances.

 

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Editor’s Note: Heather Smith Thomas is a cattlewoman and freelance writer from Salmon, Idaho.




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