Effective Stockmanship Information

Effective Stockmanship is based on handling cattle giving consideration to five basic principles of cattle behavior. 3. Cattle want to be with, and will go to other cattle If those simple behavior principles are the focus of your handling livestock, effective stockmanship can be achieved. In todays harsh economic conditions and increasing scrutiny of the industry it is important to improve management skills that can improve performance and income without adding costs to the process. Stockmanship is one area in which this can be done to achieve improvements in animal welfare and performance. The great third benefit is the improvement in quality of life and sustainability of the ranching lifestyle. One good example of all of these behavioral principles is working cattle through a Bud Box. The following video demonstrates these five principles in practice. They are expressed in different order as listed above. As cattle enter the box they find they cannot continue moving forward so in order to remove that pressure they will start to turn around and as they do they will then be able to see the handler. At that point they will begin circling around you in the box and because they want to stay with and go to other cattle they will follow one another on to the truck. If given the opportunity cattle will be able to think their way out of the pressure they find themselves in.