Socializing a cow….

….our friend Regina Tesnow of Tomina Farms in Kentucky has seemed to have a particular knack of gentling her cows.  It helps to start with the wonderfully docile Devon but Regina takes it from there, as she explains in a recent letter to a newcomer to the breed:

Now, how to get cows to go where you want them.   Find a food that they LOVE and you are comfortable feeding.   I use Beef Builder.

I do not feed Beef Builder; I simply use it as a training treat and kept under 1.5 pounds a day it will not damage their ruminant stomach, but believe me they will come when called if every time they get a mouthful of Beef Builder. 

When we built our cattle chute and added the tub and then the squeeze chute we trained the cows to go through the chute by putting Beef Builder at the other end  Every day for two weeks we called them and made sure they knew the Beef Builder was there, take all other route choices away from them and they will go through the chute to get to the Beef Builder.   Soon it is just routine and they are comfortable because nothing bad has happened to them and they got Beef Builder.   Then we added the tub and same thing and now the squeeze chute, same thing. 

Our cows go through without hesitation or stress and it is a slow, quiet, peaceful process. When something bad does happen to them in the squeeze chute (dehorning, shots, etc.) we make sure they get Beef Builder IMMEDIATELY on the other side. 

We do a lot of bathing and that is done in the squeeze chute and our cows love the bath.   It cools them down, itches their fly bites.  You are taming them and teaching them it’s ok to be touched all over, and hygiene wise it keeps flies off!

So they are getting a combination of things happening to them in the chutes that always end on a good note – Beef Builder.   Basically it is a simple reward system that gives them time to become comfortable with a new place and teaches them whatever is going on there is Beef Builder on the other side and “I’m in”!