Cattle must not feel anxious about the working chute or it will become a continuing problem throughout their lives. These heifers don’t seem bothered by the working facilities.
possibly exhausted. This often re- sults in a refusal to eat, drink or settle down. One thing that you should not
do is abandon them in the pen and hope that they will soon relax and start to behave normally. Such an approach could easily lead to more stress, a refusal to eat or drink and a certain amount of sickness or, in some cases, death. At this point, what you need to
do is work with them. You should get them to focus their attention on you and respond to your presence. This takes their attention off their distress. It requires that you move them
around the pen or between pens, that you break up any constant cir- cling or panicked fence walking and that you direct them to the area of food and water, if necessary. Be sure, however, before you
start, to check that the footing in the pen is secure and there are not so many animals in the pen that they could crowd each other and become even more agitated. If they are weanlings, the situ-
tscra.org
ation is usually far more serious. This is probably the worst day of their lives. If they were taken from their mothers, hauled to a sale, chased, shouted at, and fi nally, taken to an unfamiliar facility, they surely need all the help they can get to settle down. In addition to working with them
just after they arrive, you will need to check on them at regular inter- vals each day until they re-estab- lish their normal patterns of eating, drinking and relating to each other. Once they are settled in, your
training can begin in earnest. Ob- serve them in the holding pen and first check on their flight zone. Sometimes you can be in their fl ight zone when you are still outside the pen. If that is the case, you will have
to work back and forth until you see how far from the pens you must stand before they are no longer bothered by your presence. Once this is established, you
have your “starting point.” You should then move about in this area much like you would inside the pen.
You cross the line of their fl ight zone and then quickly move back. You walk from side to side, varying your approach — each time moving a bit closer to the pen — until you can stand at the gate and the cattle remain calm. Upon entering the pen, you have
a primary task to accomplish. With fi rm but not dramatic body lan- guage, you must get them to move away from you and then relax your pressure when it is clear they have yielded. You do not want to appear to be chasing them. You simply want to have them respond to your request to move. The slightest shift or smallest step on their part will do at fi rst. If you succeed in this, you gain
an initial respect from them. How- ever, if you allow them to move you backward, you go to the bottom of their social hierarchy and must start over with slightly more pressure until they yield. As you continue to move the
cattle in this way, not only does their respect for you increase, but they begin to trust you will not at-
September 2013 The Cattleman 71
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