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Benefits of Humane Cattle Handling

There are multiple benefits of humane cattle handling when vaccinating, preg-checking, sorting, weaning, etc.

The past three decades have seen a growing educational movement in low-stress handling and humane treatment of cattle. Temple Grandin, Colorado State University, has been instrumental in developing many user-friendly facilities and in educating producers about low-stress handling.

She says there is still a wide gap between stockmen who handle cattle quietly and calmly and those who don’t.

“There are still some people who can’t stop yelling at cattle. The percentage of people who are good at handling cattle has probably tripled, but there are still a few who are just as bad as ever,” says Grandin. Those “bad actors” apparently don’t realize the many benefits of humane handling.

“Good handling requires patience — a little more walking and a little more time, and people tend to take shortcuts,” she says. Those shortcuts can lead to negative consequences.

If cattle are stressed and scared, they try to find an escape route and may run over someone. Stressed cattle go through the chute too fast and may slam into the headcatch. They are hard on equipment and hard on themselves, with more bruising and injuries.

“If a cow falls down coming out of the squeeze, or runs and crashes into the fence or gate, this is a clue that your handling is too stressful,” Grandin says.

Stress accidents and rough handling can lead to broken bones and other injuries that take time and expense for treatment and, in some instances, emergency slaughter of the animal. Carcasses that are badly bruised lead to excess trim. This all costs the producer money. Low-stress handling means healthier cattle and fewer human injuries. It’s always safer to work with cattle that are handled quietly and humanely.

Handling cattle should always be quiet, slow and low-key, not a rodeo contest.

“There are some people who should not handle cattle. They enjoy ‘cowboying’ them, and this is always counterproductive,” she says. Slow, humane handling is best for the cattle, and for the producer, in terms of the end product and profit or loss.

Some people feel that Grandin only emphasizes the negative things about cattle handling, but her reply is that cattle handlers have to get rid of the bad habits before they can start developing positive ones.

“Some of the indicators of calm handling (when evaluating cattle reactions in the chute) include soft brown eyes. If cows are relaxed, with soft brown eyes — when you are sorting, in the crowd pen and coming up the alley to the squeeze — your cattle are calm. Animal scientists have done studies that indicate when the eye whites show, the animal is getting fearful. You can measure the positive factors, like how many cattle walk instead of rush out of the chute and how many have soft brown eyes, but you need to get rid of all the negative things before you can measure something like soft brown eyes,” says Grandin.

There is financial advantage in handling cattle gently and quietly. There are fewer human injuries and fewer injuries to animals with low-stress handling. A big factor is less shrink when cattle are being sorted, worked or trucked. Studies in feedlots have shown that cattle gain better and have higher-quality meat when handled gently with minimal stress. This all adds up to more profit.

When there’s an option, buyers discount wild cattle or those that have historically been handled wrong. Those cattle will be discounted several cents a pound, because the buyers know sickness rates will go up and performance will be down. Flighty behavior is partly genetic and partly due to the way cattle have been handled. Humane, gentle handling can make flighty cattle less wild, and poor handling can make gentle cattle wild and dangerous. Wild cattle that are hard to handle tend to have behavioral issues down the supply chain, including poorer feed efficiency and dark cutters at harvest.

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



 

 

 

 

 

 





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