Working Cattle Safely
Keep animal welfare in mind when working cattle.
Nora Schrag, veterinarian with the Kansas State University (K-State) College of Veterinary Medicine, says safety considerations are important when working cattle, looking at it from the point of view of the animal. Walk through the route being asked of the animals and check for errant nails, bolts, scraps of metal that animals could get caught on, even if it seemed fine last time, she recommends.
“Things change. These facilities are out in the weather, we use them, cattle bounce against things, and sometimes it’s not very obvious where it broke the last time. Then an animal hits it again and it’s very obvious. Pay attention to these things at the start, and the whole time you are working cattle,” she urges.
It also pays to try to handle cattle in the best possible way as they flow through the process. “You might point out to the crew that a certain corner is a bit tight, and they need to be careful as they go around that, or not put too many through a certain gate at once. These things make a big difference. It’s a lot easier to prevent injuries than to fix them later,” she says.
Any time you can handle cattle without them running or becoming upset, you minimize stress — and also keep them in a better frame of mind for cooperating next time. Schrag says if they associate being “captured” with yelling, running, whipping, dogs barking and biting, etc., they will balk at going into the corral or chute in the future. Handling cattle calmly and quietly makes it easier on you and on them, and trains them to be cooperative instead of evasive.
Also pay attention to the temperature when vaccinating cattle.
“If it will be a hot day, we prefer not to vaccinate if it gets above 85° F and 40% humidity,” she says. “I won’t vaccinate cattle if it gets above 95°. We are already stressing those cattle, and on a hot day we see more vaccine reactions.
“Think about what the day will be like, and what time of day you will be doing this,” she continues. “If we can start early morning and be done by 9 a.m., then it’s fine. But if we can’t get it done that quickly and we know it might get up toward 100° that day, we should choose a different day to vaccinate. If an animal has any sort of reaction at all to the vaccine, in addition to high temperatures, this can be very hard on them.”
Editor’s Note: Heather Smith Thomas is a cattlewomen and freelance writer from Salmon, Idaho.