Cattle Handling Basics

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Cattle Handling Basics

• Keith Vander Velde, Mahlon Peterson, Dave Wachter
  
• UW Extension Beef Focus Team Members

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The Flight Zone

• Size affected by
• frequency of contact with people
• animals handling history
• amount of calmness in the environment
• Breed Hereford vs Chianina
• Determined by
• walk up to cattle slowly
• youre on the edge of the flight zone when the
  cattle turn away from you

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The Flight Zone

• deep penetration into zone causes panic
• move out if animal becomes aggressive
• flight zone is larger when approaching head-on

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Improving Handling

• Be gentle and quiet
• keep lighting evenly distributed - avoid shadows
  or bright spots/glare
• keep floor level and free of puddles, bumps, and
  dips
• remove all flapping or moving objects
• add solid sides to chutes, pens, ramps
• this prevents outside distractions

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Improved Handling

• Keep dogs away from working area unless they are
  useful to operation
• Replace whips and clubs with paddle sticks
• Use sand or gravel to avoid slips and reduce dust
• Remove sharp objects from alleys that could
  damage hides or cause bruises

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Improving Handling

• Crowding pens should be solid - or animals will
  turn back
• cattle panic at dead ends
• construct sliding gates with bars or heavy mesh
  wire
• take advantage of animals natural circling
  tendency by using curved chutes
• have exits to handling chutes point home

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Crowd Pen Design

• Circular crowd pen and curved chute reduce
  handling time by 50
• radius for crowd pen should be 12 feet
• should have 1 straight fence and a second at a 30
  degree angle

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Chute Design

• should be curved
• takes advantage of natural circling behavior
• prevents animal from seeing the end of chute
• 12 - 16 ft radius for the bend in the chute
• curve too close to crowding pen looks like a dead
  end
• place curve at least 3 body lengths ahead of
  crowding pen opening

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Curved Chute Guidelines

• Curved chute takes advantage of natural circling
  tendency of cattle.
• Curve too close to crowding pen looks like a dead
  end
• Place curve at least 3 body lengths ahead of
  crowding pen opening

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Chute Specs
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Facility Construction Choices

• Wood vs. Metal
• Wood reduces noise
• Wood is less expensive
• Metal is more portable
• Metal has longer use period-lasts longer

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Remember Our Objectives

• Work or Treat animals
• Reduce stress
• Reduce time
• Work large groups as individuals
• Avoid injury to you and your livestock

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Lets Use What We Have Available

• Design Your System based on what is currently
  available
• Use existing buildings for walls of fences and
  crowding alleys
• Use lumber that is stored or not in use

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Adjust Our Thought Process

• Think in terms of circles and rounded corners

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Adjust Our Thought Process

• Not Rectangles

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Adjust Our Thought Process

• Or squares

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Construction Basics

• Avoid square corners
• Cattle will bunch up
• Push hard against fence
• Kick
• Become excited

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Thank You for Your Attention