When working with cattle, then, it is so very important to be in the right frame of mind because cattle are more likely to respond well versus if you were not in the right frame of mind. In other words, if you are working cattle in an anything-but-calm emotional state, those animals are surely going to be anything but calm too. You may find that you can work with cattle–and this goes for any other animal, dogs, cats, goats, horses, or even chickens–if you allow yourself to have a clear head and a calm attitude. You may find that, by putting yourself in a calm state, you will be able to think more clearly and deliberately communicate your intentions to the animals you are working with. And the animals are less likely to be confused as well. Your behaviour has a huge influence on how even an individual cow, not to mention an entire herd, regardless of size, will perceive you. If your behaviour is such that you don’t care or are holding back too much, they’ll take advantage of that and not interested in doing as you ask. On the opposite spectrum, if you’re too aggressive and forceful, they also won’t be interested in listening to you. So, to be successful, pick the middle of the road: Be intentional in your actions, be deliberate, and be assertive, but never to the point of being aggressive and forceful.
Humans, as predatory animals, aren’t much different from other predatory animals in how we perceive ourselves and those around us. When working with animals, not just cattle, our instincts are to: Slow or stop animals Want animals to face us; give us eye-contact, not turn away (because, to us this means they’re “going to run away. “) Keep pushing or push from behind, even when animals are already on their way and know where they’re going. Circle around (classic predatory behaviour), to “cut off” or, as already mentioned, stop or slow down animals. To give chase because we think something is trying to run away. (This goes right back to instinctually wanting to slow or stop an animal. ) Not to back up, but rather stay put or just keep pushing forward, or even turn away. Cows and other prey animals (horses, goats, bison, sheep, chickens, elk, buffalo, and even pigs) think differently from us. Their instincts are to: Want to see what is pressuring them. Move in the direction they are headed (i. e. , if they want to go to that patch of woods, that’s where they’ll go; if they’re heading straight they’ll go straight). Follow other animals. Have very little patience. In other words, they won’t wait around for long if you’re trying to figure out how to move them, so they’ll just keep going or doing what they were going to do in the first place, or whatever first pops in their heads.
Some livestock handling methods recommend to “act like a predator” to successfully move cattle, but these methods may not always work, because it doesn’t build trust nor give your animals the means to believe that you are not there to hurt them or cause fear. Instinctively, predatory actions induce fear into prey animals, which goes hand-in-hand with mistrust. Just like you’d want your horse to trust you enough to allow you on his back, you should want your cattle to trust that you are going to move them to some place where they feel safe, and also move them in a way that they are all going to willingly go there. You can easily tell if your animals do not trust you and don’t want to do as you are “asking” by the way their heads are held (high up, ears pricked, bodies tense with that “look” like they’re ready to flee), and how they are hesitate and resistant to move.
Livestock like to go by us; They also like to go around us. Cattle always like to go back the same way they came from; they prefer to go back to the last place they felt safe.
This “bubble” is used as a means to move animals, done so in a way that it takes advantage of an animal’s zone of comfort as well as point of vision. Thus, when moving an animal, you should always be where the animal can see you. Cattle have a 330º field of vision. They don’t see very well right in front of their noses and can’t see directly behind them, so do not pressure them at either of these points. Instead, to take advantage of this pressure zone, you must apply pressure from either hip or either shoulder right up to the neck. A cow will move forward if you continually correct her, from the hip or by crossing in behind, whenever she needs to turn her head to see you. This is why it’s so important to make sure you are where you can be seen!! To turn an animal, go in the opposite direction of where you want the cow to go, just like you would with backing up a trailer. If an animal is turning to look at you, it’s because you’re not in a place where they can see you or feel you pressuring them to move. Either you need to move out farther to the side, or you need to move closer. Manipulating this bubble so that the animal goes to where you ask it takes patience and knowing how to move on your part. You will not always be moving forward, you will have to often either stop, move away, walk with the animals, or back up to release pressure off the animal.
To apply release is to slow down, stop, move away, walk with the animals, or back up, depending on the location of where animals are being handled and how they are responding to pressure. Doing these will not only relieve pressure on the animals for us to be able to make necessary adjustments, but also draw animals toward us, or slow down/stop the animals.
It’s important to give them time to think and gather themselves up–let them stretch, if you have cows to gather up and join up with their calves, take a few bites of grass, etc. –before getting them moving. Allow them to take a few steps ahead before you begin pressuring and guiding them to generate that good movement. Good movement means that animals will be moving freely and comfortably, acting and feeling relaxed with their heads bobbing as they walk along. When animals are going in the direction you want them to, stragglers will be drawn in to the main herd, and they will even stay where you “place” them if good movement was used to get them there. If they are flighty and high-headed, don’t feel the need to rush into things. Instead, go slowly and take your time. If they run away, let them. But you will need to keep moving and trail them where they go, never moving at them, directly behind them, nor curve around them. Make straight lines as a form of pressure-and-release until they settle down and realize you are not a threat. If animals are laying down and quietly chewing their cud, then you will need to get them up. To do this, walk to the hip or shoulder until they make the movement to get up, then immediately move away to the next animal. If there’s an animal already getting up before you get to it, move away from that and keep going until all animals are up and ready to go. It’s so important to never ever give that one little extra push when they’re already doing what you want them to do. Once they’re already up and/or moving away, then just let them. You can come back and correct where they’re going soon enough. The hardest part of getting them started is actually getting them started. The next problem is getting them going in a direction you want to go and leaving them alone as soon as they do so. The other challenging part is how far out, in a straight line, you need to go to get animals moving or to turn them without compromising movement or direction of travel. This will take much experimenting on your part and continual reading of how animals will respond.
When making zig-zags, it’s completely fine to cross behind an animal, and to make an angle to the hip, shoulder, belly or neck of the outside animal to get maximum influence of movement. Just remember, once the animal is going in the direction you want it to, leave it immediately. Think of moving a herd being like moving a wall by yourself. You have to walk to one edge and back to another to get movement going straight ahead. If you want to turn a certain way, little movement is needed on one end versus the other, depending on how sharp or wide a turn that needs to be made, and how much space you have to do it. To move a herd to the right, go left. To move a herd to the left, go right. This is no different when trying to turn an individual cow. In order to get her moving straight, zig-zags back and forth to guide her is what will get her going straight, relatively speaking. Depending on how far strung-out the herd is, the zig-zag pattern may vary from one step in one direction and another step the other, or several steps one way and several steps the other way. Use your animals (and your choice direction) as a guide to tell how many steps you need to make one way versus another.
You too must maintain that zig-zag pattern to keep that good movement going, as the points and steps above have already mentioned. There is no defined number of steps you need to cut in or out to maintain good movement and direction; this is far more of a matter of constant trial-and-error and learning to read your animals effectively. Good movement isn’t always nor necessarily slow and steady. If animals are feeling a little frisky and lively, they may run for a little ways, and you’ll have to do your part to keep up! And if they want to move slow, then let them move slow. You can also control their speed. If you angle a bit more harder into them, they will speed up. Angle less into them, they will slow down. A herd with good movement will always draw in the stragglers, no matter where they are. Animals will tell you if you are too close or too far behind. Too much turning may mean you need to back off and give them a little more space. But if they’re turning around to look at you, you may need to either move up closer, or move farther out. It’s less important to know where the gate is than it is to get them going in a direction you want them to go. Adjustments to direction may need to be made if there are certain objects in the way–ranging from a hill to a telephone pole–but generally the direction of travel should go back to where you are intending.
Your job is to guide the herd from the rear towards the gate opening, guiding from the corners and pressuring from the side. This T will be continually shifting according to the changes made by the herd. Remember, you are always working back and forth in a straight, zig-zag pattern. If the herd is not moving in a straight line to the gate, then shift your line so you continue to work in a straight line to the gate. Your “angle of attack” should always be move right to move the animals left and move left to get the animals to move right. Continue with this T to the gate even as they go through. It’s very important to never encircle the herd or create a horse-shoe because this could cause one or more animals to break away from the gate. Keep working in a straight line until all animals are through that gate. It’s also critically important to never post someone near the gate. This actually distracts the animals and causes some to break away. In other words, if you are worrying about animals not going through the gate, and feel the urge to go and “correct” some potential movement, then don’t. You are more likely to create the very problem you’re worried that’s going to happen; rather, you are more likely to make animals not go through the gate if you try to “correct” them versus if you just maintained your T to the gate movements until all animals are past that gate. The “T to the gate” is very similar to and can be also used when loading cattle onto a trailer in the middle of a pasture. It’s also used for any size of herd. But the larger the herd, the larger the T, and the more people that may be needed to form this T to the gate. This method, used properly, will eliminate the need for using fences as wings to funnel cattle into a gate or onto a trailer. Wings to a gate only act as a bottle-neck to crowd animals in, and can cause more trouble than they’re worth.
In other words, if you are worrying about animals not going through the gate, and feel the urge to go and “correct” some potential movement, then don’t. You are more likely to create the very problem you’re worried that’s going to happen; rather, you are more likely to make animals not go through the gate if you try to “correct” them versus if you just maintained your T to the gate movements until all animals are past that gate.
Stopping is another part of a training exercise that is important with working cattle. They are easier to handle when they (and you) understand the art and science behind starting and stopping movement.
Ignore the other animals that want to follow, unless one or more of them are a part of the group you want to gather up. The other “unwanted” cattle will soon figure out you do not want them with the group you’re herding; they will soon stop and go about their own business. If you are splitting out just one animal, and they are not used to you driving them, they may try to stop and “challenge” you or try to get back to the herd. If they are facing you in a challenge, just stop, and shift your weight from one foot to another to allow them to think. If they make a move to go around you, step in that direction to discourage that movement. Repeat until you teach the animal to understand that you mean no harm, and you just want them to walk with you, yet you are still the boss and are the one responsible for leading or herding them to where they should go. This may take a few minutes, but take your time, and keep watching and reading the animal. If they do break away back to the herd, then repeat the process again until you are able to successfully drive the cow, heifer, steer, or even bull without them trying to get around or challenge you. There is no need to worry if there’s one or two extra cattle in with the group that want to stay with the group. You can split them off later on, when they move from the front of the herd to the back. Once they get near the back you can adjust your movements so that you are no longer applying pressure for them to stay with the group you’ve already collected.
It’s important to never push from the back, but rather move from the front, through the gate from where you want the animals to go. When working in a smaller area there is less room for error and less time to react. But the basics still apply with controlling movement. In this instance, you can stand beside the gate, or move in towards the back if this is a long pen, and move a step forward or backward to stop or encourage movement through the gate. The wider the gate, though, the more in the opening of that gate you will need to stand. Standing by the gate and moving back and forth (or side to side, depending on the shape of the pen and where the animals are in that pen) will slow down the number of animals that enter the holding alley leading to the next pen. You are usually not wanting all animals to go through, but only a certain amount out of a larger herd at a time. There is almost no need to have someone going in behind the group to push them up. That is, unless there’s a big area behind them where they shouldn’t be. If there’s enough crowding going on that the pressure you apply when at the gate makes them go through that gate, then you are only needed at that gate and not needing someone else behind to move them up.
If you have a calf or cow that gets turned around in the alley, then just walk down the alley from the box or tub to get them back into the tub or box. Repeat your stance by the opening to the alley. If the calf balks before the squeeze, then once again, make a wide loop towards the squeeze or head-gate then walk up beside the alley to encourage movement forward.
