Stockmanship Matters

Originally Published in the Gulf Coast Cattleman Magazine

There are many aspects of agriculture that have changed drastically over the centuries. When we think about farming it’s easy to see changes from hand tools to horse-drawn plows to modern-day tractors. But what about when we look at beef cattle production? We’ve certainly learned more about animal health, breeding/feeding cattle to reach prime marbling, and utilizing technology like sexed semen, IVF, and AI to make the best mating decisions. But, what about stockmanship and animal handling techniques? On some operations, the day-to-day handling of animals looks much like it always has. As Chris LeDoux would say, “He’s still out there riding fences.” Yes, there are still those who saddle up each morning, while others have moved to the “convenience” of replacing the horse with a 4-wheeler. Likewise, when it comes to branding time, some will use a calf table or chute, while others prefer to rope calves. The question our industry needs to be asking is not, “What is the most convenient approach to handling livestock?,” but rather, “What is best for the livestock?” It is this question that led Oregon State University faculty to conduct a study of cortisol levels across different handling methods at branding.

“We evaluated cortisol levels in 48 calves across four of the most common restraint methods,” said Chris Schachtschneider, an OSU assistant professor and Extension specialist. “We chose to test for cortisol because it’s known as the ‘stress hormone’ – its levels in the body can indicate the discomfort of an individual animal. We took blood samples a week before branding – our baseline cortisol level. We then sorted cow-calf pairs into four treatment groups.”

Schachtschneider said in the first three groups they sorted calves off of cows, separating the calves from their dams during the branding process. They then used a calf table, heel-only roping, and head-and-heel roping to restrain calves. Instead of sorting calves off of cows in the fourth group, they head-and-heel roped out of a rodear where cows and calves are left together. The rodear is how cowboys would’ve branded/doctored before corrals were prominent. Cows and calves are held in a group by cowboys horseback often using the corner of a pasture to hold two sides. Today this method is more common on large spreads out west where corrals are miles away or unavailable.

“It’s important to note, the handling crew was the same throughout the study to minimize handler bias,” Schachtschneider said. “They were all experts in the fields of stockmanship, horsemanship and ranch roping.”

The research team included Sergio Arispe, Oregon State University assistant professor and Extension livestock specialist, Wade Black and Jared Higby from Treasure Valley Community College, and Schachtschneider.

“Wade Black is a very handy roper,” Schachtschneider said. “He recruited the rest of the crew and said they were better than him. I was definitely the lowball on the crew and I think I missed two or three times. That’s the level of stockmanship and horsemanship we were working with.”

Good stockmanship and horsemanship are imperative to keeping stress levels low when working cattle.

“In fact, I’ve gotten comments that our treatment cortisol levels were lower than the baseline levels in other studies,” Schachtschneider said. “We’ve been told we must have been doing something right because these cattle were in a really good frame of mind across the board.”

Schachtschneider wasn’t bragging, but rather emphasizing the importance of proper handling and good stockmanship. Throughout the study calves were properly restrained, branded, vaccinated, castrated, and disbudded before collecting a second round of blood samples. Those samples were then processed at Texas A&M University. They determined the post-branding cortisol levels in the three groups where calves were separated from their dams almost doubled. While the post-branding cortisol levels in the group where calves stayed with their dams in the rodear were lower than their counterparts.

Now, it’s important to note that due to too many variables the data collected in this study was not peer reviewed and was not published in a scientific paper. However, this initial study did provide preliminary data to suggest what future next studies need to be and to bolster researchers’ understanding on the topic.  

“The data suggests that the physical acts of branding, vaccinating, castrating, and disbudding may not be as stressful to calves as the emotional stress from being separated from their mothers,” Schachtschneider said. “We know that livestock have evolved to better tolerate pain than humans in order to escape predators, even after being bitten, cut or scratched. But the psychological stress of separation on calves of this size is not something that occurs in nature.”

Schachtschneider said they are now working on an extension of this study to gain more definitive answers on which handling and restraint methods are best for cattle. Wade Black, the head equine instructor at TVCC and 2021 Road to the Horse Champion, said the take home from the initial study is the importance of good stockmanship and horsemanship when handling cattle.

“I use the study in my program at TVCC,” Black said. “A huge part of the program is teaching how to train and sell horses. So I’ve used some of the things we learned in the study to bring science into the stockmanship and horsemanship my students are learning. This program is about gaining the hands-on, practical skills to then go into the industry and preform well. There are a lot of skills that need to be developed in our industry.”

Black and his wife, Amaia, have developed a non-profit Training Quality Assurance program that teaches, tests and certifies stockmanship and horsemanship. Black said the program is similar to Beef Quality Assurance, but serves to ensure an individual’s stockmanship and horse training abilities. In addition to the associate’s degree programs at TVCC, they offer industry certifications for Colt Starting, Assistant Horse Trainers, Day Work and Performance Horse Sales. TQA also offers a youth development program which gives families a chance to build critical ranch skills while spending time together.

“TQA is kindergarten through college,” Black said. “We target five things: horsemanship, stockmanship, roping, team work, and time. We teach branding, pasture doctoring, tying off…It’s everything you’d need to know to go to get hired and go to work on a ranch. It’s 100 percent skill based and designed to give these kids the abilities they need to go hire on to an operation. Plus, it’s fun! The statistics of ranchers who are 60 to 70 years old who are about to retire is staggering. There is no one coming in behind them. Very few people have those skills today. So I thought, why not create a sport where kids grow up doing this? If I can coach my kid’s football, wrestling and all these different things, why not teach them these lifelong skills? We’ll make it fun, give them a belt buckle, and then they have a skill to go into a career someday.

“Up here, we have ranch ropings where a lot of people want to throw really fancy loops,” Black said. “Nothing against that, but to me that doesn’t really promote roping cattle to the producer who is not currently heading and heeling calves. Because they’re throwing fancy shots and the calf isn’t in the best situation. But in our deal, we focus on how quick, how smooth, and how efficient can we get these cattle on the ground with the least amount of stress. Just like we did in the study at OSU. Our competitions through TQA focus on that side of roping. If you want people to be good at something, make it a sport, give them opportunities to practice, make it competitive, and give them a prize. Do those things, and people get better at these skills. That’s what’s exciting to me.”

To learn more about TQA, visit: https://trainingqualityassurance.org. In TCVV’s Horse Training A.A.S. program, Black’s students at TCVV practice hands-on learning from starting colts their first year of school to using those colts on local ranches day working and branding calves during their second year. Black said he runs the program like a real training business and while there is some classroom work, most of the program focuses on time spent with the animals. TCVV also offers more traditional programs in Equine Science A.S. and Equine Business A.A.S, which aim to prepare students to go on to a bachelor’s degree at a four-year university. Black said there are plenty of animal science college programs across the country, but there is also a major lack of hands-on experience.

Schachtschneider echoed Black’s concern for the lack of stockmanship coming into the industry.

“The most influential thing ranchers can take away from what we are learning is that there is a need for the continual improvement of our stockmanship skills,” Schachtschneider said. “The better we understand how to effectively move our animals and handle them in ways they are calm and quiet throughout the process, the easier everything is going to be.”

Schachtschneider said feedlots offering stockmanship training have witnessed significant declines in morbidity rates. We know that better handling results in lower stress and higher gains. But what is better handling or how do we better current handling methods? Schachtschneider said the first step may be to recognize that we are predators and cattle are prey, something he learned from Black’s father, Martin Black.

“Biologically speaking, we are predators and horses and cattle are prey,” Schachtschneider said. “There’s an inherently antagonistic relationship there. Prey should not want to work with predators. What we need to do is to stop acting like predators. Everything that we naturally want to do is more than likely the exact opposite of what we should do when handling cattle. We can change the way we interact with these animals so there is no longer a predator-prey relationship. A big part of that is using pressure and release methods appropriately and understanding how cattle think.”

This isn’t about honoring the traditions of old. This isn’t about trying out the latest and greatest technology. It’s about finding the balance between the two. It’s about testing what we’ve done for generations with the knowledge and technology available today. It’s about learning what’s really best for our animals, our industry, and our consumers. Then putting those practices into play day after day and honing those skills. It’s about educating ourselves, our children, and our employees. It’s about becoming better stockmen, better horsemen, and better stewards of the animals God has given us. Let us not settle for our current abilities and understanding, but ever strive to know better and in turn do better.

Temple Grandin, designer of livestock handling facilities and professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, is known for her life’s work in bovine behavior. She is quoted saying, “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” That’s what stockmanship is all about. That should be our focus as an industry.