CALF_News_December_2021_January_2022

17 CALF News • December 2021 | January 2022 • www.calfnews.net The Sky is the Limit The future is a connected market. An installed base of Allflex panel readers, handheld devices and paired visual and EID tags is an ecosystem of opportunity for you. Our Digital ID products connect thousands of ranches, feed yards and beef processors. Save time and money in feedlot operations. Gain on opportunities in your supply chains. Deliver data on program cattle. Verify specifications and prove the value of load lots. At Allflex® we help you bring it all together. www.allflexusa.com Bud Box Bud boxes are a great system if used correctly. Bring only enough cattle to fill the alley into the box. The key to a bud box is, the cattle should never stop moving until they are in the alley. The same goes with tub and sweep systems; bring in only enough cattle to fill the alley. If we use the tub as a holding pen, the cattle will not want to move and we are left with having to use an electric prod to get them to go. Backstops Backstops at the very back of an alley hinder cattle from entering; they don’t like seeing the stop. If a backstop must be there, having a pulley system that allows the handler to pull the device up out of the way allows cattle to enter the alley more readily. Pressure at the Chute Never pressure cattle when there’s no place to go. One critical area is directly behind the chute when the next steer to load is waiting behind the chute gate. Some handlers feel it is necessary to have that next calf “ready to go.” Backing off this calf is imperative; stress affects how cattle respond to vaccines, and giving an animal space at this point will reduce the number of turn-arounds. This is a heads-up to the chute man who may be anxious to hurry the help. Patience is a virtue. Keep Quiet Paramount to all else, yelling, whistling and loud music are out. Animal behaviorist Temple Grandin, Ph.D., has said that the human voice is more stressful to cattle than machine or metal. Cattle don’t know where the noise is coming from and become stressed. If you have to make noise, use “clicks or clucks.”Turn the radio off, you can dance after work. Don’t Be a Jerk Use tag cutters when removing ear tags. Ears have nerves, too. Education Is Everything Sjeklocha works regularly with feedlot crews, spending about 60 percent of his time in Kansas and the rest “all over.” He says training a crew depends on their experience and/or bad habits. He says that bad habits are harder to deal with (think about leaning over the snake). Language is not seen as a huge barrier, as someone can usually interpret if needed, and much of the education is showing rather than lecturing working tech- niques. He says he has also picked up some Spanish language along the way. Many feedlot cowboys are attending National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Cattlemen’s College, making a sizeable improvement in cattle manage- ment. These sessions are often done in both English and Spanish. In addition, NCBA has a Feedyard Welfare Assess- ment Program that feedyards can use to evaluate their cattle handling. About three years ago, in response to consumer concern, some packers and even retailers initiated feedlot welfare audits. Often, these audits are seen by cattle feeders as an asset rather than a threat. The importance of cattle welfare will never go away, it only grows and changes to benefit our livestock and society. 