See Low-Stress Livestock Handling In Action

Weaning is, in most cases, the most stressful event in the life of a young animal. Change in diet and nutrition, change in environment, and change in peer group all combine to stress a newly weaned youngster. Coupled with the loss of security and social stability from their mother, weaning can send many animals into a spiral of stress that can result in loss of condition at best, and at worst, make the young animal vulnerable to sickness and disease. With a little careful planning, much of the

A young animal learns what kind of things it should eat and do from its mother and its herd or “social group.”  This explains how animals of the same species can survive in extremely different environments. For example, a calf reared in the sage-covered deserts of southern Utah and one raised on grass in the bayous of Lousiana have completely different diets and habits. We all know that young animals learn from their mothers, but we may not realize how important, strong, and long-la

A number of years ago, I was speaking at a grazing conference to a group of dairy farmers about how their cows went about selecting what to eat from the vast array of plants found in most pastures.  I had just finished telling the group how cows use their senses of sight, smell, touch, and taste coupled with the influence of post-ingestive feedback mechanisms to guide their dietary selections.  I further suggested that I had personally  observed a cow happily munching away on grass tops, dandel

You did your best to prepare for the winter and ensure that you could feed all your stock.  But sometimes things go wrong. What do you do if it turns out you don’t have enough feed? Should you try to buy and bring in extra feed given how expensive that is and how it will affect your bottom line? Or is there another option? With the livestock markets the way they are and the cost of any purchased feed or hay, take a very close look at the animals you have right now and decide if you can justify