← Ranch It Up Radio Show & Podcast
Ranch It Up Radio Show & Podcast
Cattle Handling Practices Protecting People and Livestock & Commercial Heifer Marketing
00:27:00
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- [00:00]
A
We have been so excited to bring you this episode and it's going to cause every single one of you to paint pictures in your minds of your operation and how you process, handle and work cattle. The good and the bad. Crew, let's Ranch it Up. Good day everyone and thanks for riding with us on this all new episode of the Ranch it Up radio show. I'm Jeff Tigger Earhart. A big thank you goes out to our partners for today's episode. The American Galvie Association, Clear Springs Cattle Company and their annual bread for balance sale farm a trademark by Imogene ingredients livestockmarket.com ranchchannel.com the all new sales series found on ranchchannel.com Schnabel Ranch Simmentals in the Lazy J Bar Ranch Sirebuyer, Wassem Red Angus, Westway Feed Products and this fine radio station. The ranching and cattle business has many sectors per se, not just commercial cow, calf and stocker and feeders, etc. Talking about those components that make up animal production, I'm talking about genetics, nutrition, grass management, et cetera. This is what is really cool about being in the cow business. It doesn't matter if you have one or 100 cows. Principles and practices are the same. One of those is a fascination, I'm going to say, even a goal. And that is cattle handling. Safe cattle handling, stockmanship, natural stockmanship. Absolutely. Just Love this topic. Dr. Tom Knofsinger is with me today. Dr. Tom is with Production Animal Consultation. I got a chance to visit with Dr. Tom after a demonstration. I tell you what, y', all, I.
- [01:43]
B
Was hooked in your presentation. I wrote this down. It said it's my responsibility to be where I can give her guidance. And you were referring to how you were handling a couple cows in this demonstration that you were doing. Everybody listening knows that I am very, very fascinated with cattle handling. We are huge promoters of low stress cattle handling. But you have taken this to a whole other level of animal husbandry.
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A
I know we could spend days, weeks, months, years, and we really, you and.
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B
I could visit constantly and we still wouldn't have everything figured out of what you could say. But summarize for me a little bit about what your concept is, what you're trying to promote and teach and help with.
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C
I think the main thing is to increase your powers of observation. That changes your expectations. And when we see animals exhibiting behavior that's not positive for health and performance, then have the confidence that as a handler, as a caregiver, you can improve that performance. Pin distribution. We, if we have cattle come Into a feedlot. And we have 3% of them at the bunk and the rest of the cattle in the back corners of the pen. We used to think that was normal. That's not normal. There's lots of management practices through acclimation and bunk management and cattle training that will keep all of those cattle up near the bunk, up near the water, up near the bedding, and just lying there chewing their cuds with purpose and relaxing and willing to show exuberance if you move them.
- [03:22]
B
Okay, you said training cattle to come up to the bunk, up to the water, up to the bedding is exactly what you said. Tell me how you train cattle to come up to the bunk, go to the water, go to the bedding. Obviously they're hungry, thirsty, or want to lie down, but take it one step further.
- [03:37]
C
For me, there's probably the most time effective way to do that is just to greet the cattle at the scale or the unloading chute or at the processing barn. And instead of following the the drover's alley and letting them wander around and finally find their home pen gait. In contrast, we'd be at the front and we would never, never let new cattle go to their home pen without some qualified handler, quote, leading the cattle.
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B
Are you talking physically on my horse? I'm going to be in front? Is that what you're talking about?
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C
Yep.
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B
Literally.
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C
Yep. And so most people, most horses and a lot of handlers, when you first ask them to do this, they're really nervous because they can't see the animals.
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D
They.
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C
You can learn to feel them, you can learn to touch them. And horses get the point where you can move a hip, you can flex their rib, right? You can, you can control that flow. But it is. That is the newest stockmanship tool that has made the biggest impact. Because once they associate you with guidance and confidence and feed and water and rest, you're a hero tool.
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B
So let's use this scenario. I am moving these. We just got a new pin. That time of year, we're moving a lot of cattle. Destinations are changing. We talk a lot about that every week. So I get a new load of calves, fresh weaned calves, my feed yard. Alright, so you're saying when these come off of the trucks, you want one of my handlers in front to lead them to their new pen, their physical new destination, to start creating that association with that person comes feed, water and being comfortable. Then I gotta ask the dumb question, do we need somebody in the back pushing a little bit?
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C
No. No. Probably the first thing you would do is make a feed call, a phone call to the feed department and make sure that you had the most palatable, beautiful long stem hay in that bunk.
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B
Oh, okay.
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C
Taking cattle to a new pen that has an empty feed bunk, it should be against the law. There should be an ordinance against that. Okay. Why would you ask a calf to run up there and, and stick his head in a bunk full of concrete? So it's all a protocol. You. And if he doesn't have time to put out the feed, it's well worth your time to leave him standing on the scale. And you go find the feed and fill that bunk. Clean the water tank, put out the bedding. Prepare, prepare. There's many, many a homecoming, if you will. It would be my partners in Australia call it creating a five star resort. If you checked into the Hilton or the Marriott or Super 8 and there wasn't any sheets on the bed, the sink was filthy, there was clothes thrown all over and maybe water on the floor, you would think, hmm, these people aren't very excited about me being here.
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B
Right.
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C
And if I wanted to lay down and rest, I wouldn't relax to the point that I would. If there was a plate full of nice beautiful warm rib eye, some water I could hydrate and there's this beautiful clean bedding that I can relax and rest in. It's really important to create a five star resort. And the way you get the return on investment of preparing the five star resort is to lead the cattle.
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A
We are not done yet. We have part two with Dr. Tom Nofsinger. Like moving critters into a tub, for example. Park the truck, the feed wagon and give me another 22, 23 minutes of your time. It'll be worth it, I promise. The Ranch it Up radio show will be back right after this.
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- [07:27]
A
Simmental and Simangus bulls and heifers. That's Clear Springs Cattle company and their annual bread for balance sale. I know these cattle, the outfit and the people and this is one of the most impressive set of bul Clear Springs has ever offered. And the females talk about an opportunity. A select group is called the Fabulous Five for a reason. Ranch Channel.com and Bread4Balance.com has all the details. February 13th in Starbuck, Minnesota.
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A
Calf prices are good, but want to add another hundred bucks per calf? Here's the solution. Galvian Balancer females add an average maternal weaning weight advantage of 22.7 pounds per calf at a market price of 4.5 dollars a pound on five weight steers with a 22.7 pound weaning weight advantage, that's an additional $102.15 per calf. Galvie and Balance are females. They make it work.
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B
I apologize. I came in on the tail end of your presentation and you started talking about specific things of greeting that animal according to the left side, right side, and focusing on their eye.
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C
I think one of the first things Bud Williams taught us when he moved to Benkelman was that most handlers, most stockmen, tend to work too far back on the animal.
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B
Do you mean too far away from the animal or instead of being up towards the shoulder, they're focused more on a hip?
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C
Yeah, and a lot of us got comfortable doing that because we used to team rope when we were kids. And if you. And it's okay to team rope and it's fun to team rope, but if you're going to create confidence in an animal, that's the wrong place to be. So the gears are simple in cattle and we we've finally learned that the most effective handler position is where the animal most easily can get a full view of us.
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B
Which is where?
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C
Right in front of the eye.
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B
When you say right in front of the eye, explain in proximity, are you talking? Are you parallel with a shoulder? Are you at a 45 degree angle from that shoulder? Are you standing in front of the cow and she's looking directly at you?
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C
So you start in front. When I gathered cattle in a pasture, I used to trot around behind them, right? And I wanted them to go where I'd been, right? And when I trotted around behind them, their mines went opposite. I had to spend waste a lot of time turning their minds around and send their minds where I wanted them to go. Always approach animals the first time from directly in front. Say hello till you get a little bit of movement and then give them a choice and move over to the left side and just go by the eye. And the minute they step forward, it's important not to let her lose track of you. So you go out wherever you're most available to that vision. And we'll never know exactly what they see, but when they'll keep their head straight and walk with purpose, you're in pretty good spot. If you get back to the shoulder, you pull her eye and her mind back behind her, and you really, really create a lot of. A lot of stress. Try never ever to pull a cow's nose around.
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B
Is it because she wants to see where the heck you're at and what.
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C
The heck you're doing, even if you look like me. And so when you pull, when you pull her head around, your responsibility is to get up there where she can be straight and comfortable and balanced. There is a subtle difference between the trust and confidence of cattle and horses. Because as a veterinarian, I'd forgotten that the optic nerves cross, right?
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B
Yes, I'm aware.
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C
Whatever goes into the left eye goes over to the right or the cognitive side of the brain. In contrast, whatever goes into the right eye goes over to the left or the more reflexive side of the brain. And it's important to change eyes. Don't make them depend on you on the left eye all the time. You can teach them to work really well off both sides. But somebody said, why do horsemen always start a colt on the left side? Why do most people get on the left side of their horse? Well, somebody told me it was because the calvary had their sword over here, and it was just simpler. Have anything to do with the sword had to do with being where the animal wanted you.
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B
So with that said, the animals, and I'm not even going to say the word wand, I'm going to say, are more comfortable and accepting of us in their space on the left side. Is that what you're saying?
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C
Yes. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And they will choose to do that. What my point with being aware of that was is that if you give them that choice and you want to fortify that trust and you want to teach cattle how to move as a family, as a herd, how to exhibit all those herd movements, then you're in the correct position to create counterclockwise herd movement. And that that makes them so much more honest in their telling you their true state of health. It makes them so much easier to direct. And if they run off, they're just going to stop and look at just like deer. I use this when I hunt deer all the time. When a big old buck runs away, I used to try to get behind him or out of his Sight, you know they're going to stop up there. When he stops and he looks over at you, you just run out here and he'll just be enthralled by you. It straightens him out, makes him more comfortable. And you can do a lot of things with deer, elk, buffalo, all of those animals. Sheep are even more amazing.
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B
With what you've been saying, I'm going to create this scenario. We're moving. We have to treat these cattle, we have to confine them for some reason. Maybe not treating them, but we need to confine them to inspect them for some reason. Alright. What I'm talking about is I want to move them up into a tub, into a single alley, into a squeeze chute. Well, we can't lead them into that tub or can we?
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C
Oh yeah, you can.
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B
How do we do that?
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C
First of all, it's a lot easier if the cattle can see out of the tub. If we've got these big tall tubs that are solid sheeted. It would be simply. It'd be like driving your pickup into a barricade on the interstate. Why would you go there if you can see out through there and it looks like there's something you can investigate? You might not go 70 mile an hour, but you might just drive up there.
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A
Sure.
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C
So how we build facilities, the way we lead cattle into a tub or a bud box or a reverse tub is we go back and say hello to the group of cattle waiting. And if we want five, we don't go behind five animals. We ask two or three, one or two to go by us and then we just go with one or two until we know they're going. And then we just step out of the way and back up and there'll be 20 cattle want to follow those two. And that's how we, in their mind they're going because they want to and you can't stop them. In fact, if you do that every time we take 2 to get 5, 2 to take 10, 2 to get 30. And so how you work with the front of those is how we'd lead them in there. And when they do go in a tub, we would not ever push the crowd gate. We just shut the tub gate and then go to the hinge. And in most facilities that will draw the cattle right back down the alley.
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A
Is there truth and then I'm going.
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B
To let you go here. Is there truth that I've heard some people say that your working facilities, ultimately when they come out of the chute, you would like it ideally to be facing the exact pin that they came from. So those cattle have the feel that they're actually doing a 360 and they're facing and pointing the pin in which they came from. I've hear some people mention that.
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C
Or is that, duh, you need to do that before you run them through the chute. You just harness their instinct to go back where they've come from. And you don't know whether that come from was an hour ago or a second ago. That changes. There could be hundreds of pins out there and there's a general direction. But that instinct to go back where they've come from is, is, is recent. It's a recent experience. Yeah. It's not, it's not that they were down there last night and now they're going back there. No, it's, it's in the tub, it's in the bud box where you employ that or in the draw. If, if we're sorting cattle, we, and they're all up there, rather than ask them to come by and be sorted. They don't want, they don't know what you want. So we, we let them all come by once, then we just turn around and let them all come by second time. Now they're already trained. I need to start coming by and you can.
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B
That makes all the sense in the world.
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C
In and by. In and by.
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A
Dr. Tom Knofsinger with production animal Consultation. So got y' all thinking a little bit, didn't we? Lots of interesting concepts there. If you ever get the chance to see Tom or his crew demonstrate in person or maybe online somewhere, I highly encourage you to take the time to observe and listen. Speaking of time, it is time for a quick break here on the Ranch it Up radio show. When we come back, bringing commercial heifers into the bull production sale. And these are the ones everybody is after, it seems. More when we come back, the Red Angus outfit with everything you need was some Red Angus. 70 elite Red Angus bulls and 130 of those highly sought after commercial open heifers. Mark the date. Thursday, February 19, Richerton, North Dakota. Sale info available@ranch channel.com and wasomred angus.com.
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Welcome to Sirebuyer, the nation's number one destination for buying and selling breeding genetics. Sirebuyer features the top Angus bulls across the country. If you're looking for the best place in breeding genetics, you've just found it.
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A
Coming soon to ranchchannel.com the sales series, the evolution of how producers connect with elite livestock and proven operations from top end bulls. Heifers and horses to land equipment, products and programs shaping the future of agriculture. The Sales series where smart ranching starts. Find out more by emailing inforanchchannel.com.
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D
If you're buying or selling cattle, make your first stop. Livestockmarket.com Livestock market features private treaty sales, online auctions and live production sale bidding. You'll also find horses, sheep, goats and hay. Check out the free Livestock Market mag wherever you pick up Tractor house and download the Livestock Market mobile app. Today.
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Make the right choice with Schnabel Ranch Simmentals and Lazy J Bar Ranch Simmentals Sim Angus and Red Angus bulls and heifers with genomics on every critter. Schnabel Ranch Simmentals and Lazy J bar Ranch Saturday, February 21st at Hub City Livestock in Aberdeen, South Dakota. All sale information available@ranch Channel.com Foreign. Welcome back to the Ranch it up radio show. It has become very popular for seed stock providers to offer heifers in their sale commercial heifers in large quantities that are out of their genetics. Chris Wasum with Wasson Red Angus is with us today. Chris, I know you're getting ready for your sale that's coming up here in a few weeks. We'll get into some of those details here in just a bit. But how important has it become to to offer these groups of commercial heifers from your customers that use your genetics in their herds?
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F
You know, it's fairly important. I think it gives people an understanding on what what the potential of buying one of our herd bulls can do for your operation or your program for that matter. We try to focus a lot on performance and but without giving up any type of maternal line. So seeing these heifers come into the sale, we lay eyes on every one of these heifers before commit to them. So we know they're strong maternal line and they're backed by some performance type cattle as well. So you know, we've had calls this fall before weaning time when those video sales were going on. I was getting calls from from a lot of different folks looking for Red Angus open heifers off the cow. And I tell you what, they were, they were out there but a lot of guys just could not afford them. I'm telling you these get these things are sought after and we get a lot of calls on them. So it's a good representation of what our genetics can do for different operations out there.
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A
When producers are penciling out should I buy heifers or sell heifers, I'm not going to be the one that says they need to pull the trigger in either direction. But I will say this. I know it's speculating what calves will sell for in 2026 and 2027 and 2028, but if prices remain strong in just a couple years and you have that heifer paid for, just saying it's an investment into your herd and into the future.
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F
Absolutely. It, you know, it's like you said, it's an investment. A lot of us are in this thing for the long run and if we can place a good cow on the place and keep that cow in the herd for, you know, say 10, 12 years, I mean, yeah, she's going to make you money over the long run. And if you're going to do that, buy something, you know what it is, where it came from, you know it's going to perform and I mean, cut your losses there. And rather than, you know, just picking something up you don't know nothing about.
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A
Your sale is coming up February 19th. 70 Red Angus bulls. 130 of those open commercial Red Angus heifers that we were just talking about. So how important is genomic testing in your operation?
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F
You know, the genomic testing that we do here, it not only on the, on the bull side but also on the female side. It, it gives us an advantage. It increases our accuracy of our EPDs. For one, like the bulls that we're selling in our sale, it's almost like they had a set of calves on the ground already to make those EPDs more accurate. And we found that even some of our commercial customers, they're using, they're implementing some DNA testing through igenity with their heifers and they use those tools to select replacement females to keep within their herd, which they can basically put a set of numbers to those commercial cattle and they can better judge to figure out which females fit their program the best and call the ones that maybe, maybe aren't quite up to snuff with what they're trying to do with their herd.
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A
Chris Wasum and Wasum Red Angus. Now you can catch the full interview and all the details. We go into lots of details by visiting the sale series on ranch channel.com Their sale is February 19th at the Wick Sale Facility in Richerton, North Dakota. 70 Red Angus bulls and 130 of those commercial heifers will be selling bid and buy online through DV Auction preview the cattle and sale catalog by visiting ranchchannel.com and the absolute best pre bull sale fee that I have ever been.
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At is your new Year Resolution to organize your cattle records. Here's something that could help hey hey. I'm Shea Wanner and I host the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast. Terrell Miller, founder of CattleMax, recently shared his tips and tools for helping ranchers get organized this year. Here's a portion of our conversation.
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H
One of our customers favorite features this time of year is what we call our End of Year Organizer feature and it does just what you need. And that is it gathers all that information up and makes it easy to share with the accountant. One of the really neat things about software like CattleMax is you're entering the data throughout the year as it happens. You buy cow in January, if you sell some calves in March, if you buy a piece of equipment in April, and then you sell some hay. All these things that go on throughout the year. When it comes time for the end of year, you can go to the End of year organizer and CattleMax generates a PDF or spreadsheet that has exactly what you said. All of the animals we purchased this year, what was our death loss? These animals that were purchased that died, were they raised? Because that's treated differently for taxes. All of that information information is sort of put together in a packet that's very easy to share with the accountant, so it saves the rancher time and.
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Money with all ready to tune into the full conversation, Check out the casual Cattle Conversations podcast on your favorite podcast player as soon as you're done listening to the Ranch it up radio show.
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A
The Ranch Channel Sales calendar for this upcoming week Super Bowl Sunday, February 8th Wrestler Land and Cattle Red Angus bulls, Commercial heifers very powerful two year old sons out of Crackerjack and destiny that Sunday, February 8th at the ranch in Cooperstown, North Dakota. Then on Monday the 9th faucet's Elm Creek Ranch horned and polled yearling and 2 year old Hereford bulls and F1 baldy heifers at the ranch re hit South Dakota Clear Springs Cattle Company and their annual bread for balance sale. Friday, February 13th Starbuck, Minnesota Simmental and Simangus Genetics bulls open and bred Heifers and the Fabulous Five. And then Saturday February 14th Prairie Hills Galvee at the Ranch Gladstone, North Dakota. They've got red and Black Galvie and Balancer and Red Angus bulls. That same day CK Cattle and Weger cattle, Simmental, Simangus and Angus bulls and Heifers Highmore, South Dakota. Now for the ladies, those are a couple bull sales on Valentine's Day where you can get a T shirt that says I went to a bull sale and all I got from my sweetheart was a bull in this T shirt.
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B
So there you go.
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A
Lots more sales jumping on as we speak, literally from across the country. So get all the details. The catalogs, the videos, bidding and buying information is available right now on ranch channel.com and now that's going to wrap it up for today. A big thanks goes out to our crew. Dr. Tom Knofsinger with production animal consultation, Chris Wasam with Wasson Red Angus, Kirk Donsbok, Stonex Financial incorporated. Having the week off this week, Shea Wanner with casual cattle conversations and the boss lady, Rebecca Wanner, AKA Beck. How about our partners for today's episode? The American Galvie Association, Clear Springs Cattle Company and their annual bread for balance sale Pharma 10 by Imogene Ingredients Livestockmarket.com Ranchchannel.com the all new sales series found on Ranchchannel.com Schnabel Ranch Simmentals and Lazy J Bar Ranch sire buyer Wassem Red Angus, Westway feed products in this fine radio station and crew. So glad you all came with us one more time as we ranch it up. Be sure to follow and like us on Facebook at ranch it up show. Our email is ranchituphowmail.com youm can call and text 24. 7. That phone number is 707-Ranch 20 at 707-726-2420. Spread the good word and join us again next week where it's always Tigger and Beck approved. Stay ranchy and ranch it up.