CATTLE WHISPERING
STOCKMANSHIP
stay calm, get movement, then direction
When you need to move thousand pound animals from here to there that do not speak English you learn real quick how important communication is. Stockmanship is the knowledgeable and skillful handling of livestock in a safe, efficient, effective, and low-stress manner. It is both an art and a science. It has a founder named Bud Williams whom we have studied and continue to try and emulate. At its core stockmanship is about peacefully learning how to communicate with cattle based on what they understand. Most of the animal handling you have likely seen in person or on TV is not stockmanship. Stockmanship is a very nuanced skill and one that we work hard to develop.
STOCKMANSHIP AN ART
AND A SCIENCE
WHY STOCKMANSHIP?
it's better for everyone
Using good animal handling techniques is important for many reasons. For starters, happy calm, animals just gain weight better and stay healthier easier. It is also important for our style of management to have a certain amount of calm control over the animals. When you are moving animals almost every day and using small electric fence to keep them in, everyone has to be calm to make it work. Fences in general are suggestions to cattle so a peaceful happy setting helps keep them where we want them. Additionally when we work with the animals in corrals, it is safer for everyone and the cattle to have them happy and peaceful. Lastly, it's just the right thing to do.
WORKING WITH THE FLIGHT ZONE
A central part of stockmanship is working with the flight zone. We develop a relationship with the animal by stepping in to the edge of the zone and pressuring the animal and then letting the animal release that pressure every time without continuing to advance until the animal has released the pressure.