Acclimating Cattle: The Importance

The safety and health of your cattle is crucial. In order to keep them safe, it’s important that acclimating them to your system gets done. Acclimating the cattle can help reduce their stress, which can improve their health and save time for handlers. Since time is valuable on the ranch, by having your handlers save time you are also help improving the vitality of the ranch and operation with acclimated cattle.

Despite some appearances, cattle are smart and can remember negative experiences. Memories are specific, so this is why it’s necessary that they are acclimated to their situation or equipment. Even if it is a small change, it will be viewed as new and can cause unnecessary stress for them.

Ranchers can have issues getting cattle into chutes, and this can be an issue when cattle have been worked through a self-catch headgate. If they have one negative experience where they were hit on the headgate too hard, it can create a problem that it has to deal with the rest of its life. Since many cattle handlers are short on time, they tend to rash cattle and don’t get them acclimated to the new chutes properly. Cattle need to be ready in order to work best.

It’s important to remember that cattle are naturally curious, and if they are given time to look at new things, then they won’t be as scared when they are introduced. It’s best to give the cattle some time to work through the system without catching them in the headgate so that they can learn the flow of the system. Then, when are you ready to work your cattle, they will already know the system and you will spend less time having to force them in. Spending a little time upfront can save you a lot of time down the road when it matters.

Ranchers that are able to acclimate their cattle and create a low-stress environment to do so, and have people that are experienced with cattle acclimation, can have better success rates. Not only is acclimating important, but it’s necessary to have appropriate facilities for cattle handling.

Equipment can play a role in how easy it is to acclimate cattle. Equipment should work with the psychology of the cattle and help minimize the risk of negative experiences that they will hold on to. New technology, such as rubber floors that will prevent slipping and a quiet cattle squeeze chute, will not only help make acclimation easy but any procedures that are done become easier as well.

Stress for cattle comes from anything they are forced to do. Experts recommend using the principals of sound stockmanship so that cattle think it’s their idea to move. When the cattle think it’s their idea, they are less prone to stress.

Having proper training for the cattle handlers will make the process smoother, and this training should be done regularly. A positive experience for acclimation will improve the cattle welfare and the efficiency of the ranch, and uphold standards for the cattle industry.

Start acclimating cattle through the system for a few days in a row until they can get the hang of it. Acclimation should be done when there are new cattle at the ranch, or if they are any changes to the handling system.