Page 4 - MWC 03-11-2021

The Midwest Cattleman · March 11, 2021 · P4
of our customers are being lobbied prod on every single animal going
and lied to by some – feeding the through the chute. Every single
do some research. If not for your perception and the narrative that one…. We want cattle to have
own sake, your pocketbook, or your there are those of us who simply good dispositions, but then we hire
welfare, then do it for your cattle’s don’t really care about the welfare people who don’t give a ‘rip’ and end
welfare. There is a perception in of our animals. up making them crazy. Let’s make
this industry that there are those of I am ready to stand beside you our goals plain. Let’s raise our stan-
us who don’t really care about the and argue the opposite with any- dards! Shall we?
welfare of their animals. I refuse one, provided that I don’t have to Get your corral system right and
to believe it; I am ready to refute it stand beside you at a headgate or cattle will move smoother, gentler,
and then I see a new corral with all at the loading chute and have you and plenty fast enough. The world
square pens and all square corners! prove me wrong. Use your head. has changed. Train your crew ac-
In full disclosure, I too have built Put the thing away – put it down! I cordingly. You’re responsible for ev-
corral pens that have some square know that sometimes you need cat- erything they do. Never forget, per-
pens and corners. ‘Lord, please for- tle to move, but if you need them to ception, for your customer, is reality,
If something is on your mind, give the sins of my youth!’ They move fast – slow down!
and without the customer, we’re all
just tell me. Most people appreci- are a disaster. Calm cattle put in a Not long ago, I watched a truck out of business.
ate straight talk. square pen and then put under a lit- driver (I refuse to call him a cow-
I do – just give it to me straight. tle sorting pressure… immediately boy or a cattleman) use an electric KwC
Tell me what’s on your mind. become agitated, nervous, and more
We’re all big boys and girls here difficult to work with. I can imme- Temple Grandin
– we can handle it. diately see differences in the same
The conversation we need to cattle when they go from a curved Dr. Temple Gran- other people weren’t
have is about two things. Some pen without corners to the square din is always of a mind seeing this. And then I
might think both are very minor pen. You have too if you have paid to understand other learned later on in life
and unimportant. Let me assure attention. Maybe some have just minds. Human and oth- that some people are vi-
you that, if you’re a cow, they’re very never had the experience of work- erwise. sual thinkers, thinking
important. And ‘happy’ cows are ing cattle in a planned, curved per- She did not talk until photo-realistic pictures
more profitable cows – every time. manent system without a single she was almost 4 years like me, or an object vi-
If you haven’t figured that out yet, corner. It works smoother, gentler, old, but now she is an sualizer. Then you have
you need to be in another business. and much faster. Just one more accomplished public the more mathematical
Also, if you’re not aware that our word on square pens or square cor- speaker and one of the world’s most type of person who is a pattern vi-
entire industry is under attack and ners… STOP! well-known people with autism. sualizer.”
under a microscope you need to pick She was not exposed to the beef When designing cattle-handling
up your game or perhaps pick an- Cattle prods cattle industry until age 15, but her facilities, she noticed: “The visual
Topic number two: Cattle prods. understanding of animal behavior thinkers invent all of the clever me-
other game. Again, in full disclosure, I own and led to greatly improved conditions chanical equipment, and the more
Corrals have used just about every kind of for the animals. mathematically inclined engineers
The first subject is corrals. Why these devices ever made. They all, While vaccinating cattle in Ar- will do things like boilers, refriger-
are we still building cattle corrals electric or not, have a place, but izona as a teen, she noticed that ation, stresses on pre-stressed con-
like we don’t know what in the we cannot ignore that our world some of the livestock could be dis- crete, [the] kind of stuff the visual
world we’re doing? Why? is changing. We all have proba- tracted by something so mundane thinkers don’t understand … you
No one likes to see a new corral bly worked chute-side with some- as a car parked next to a fence. need both kinds of minds.”
more than I, but when I drive by one – some short sighted, short on “And it was obvious to me to look Dr. Grandin, a professor of an-
and see a brand new one that is full brains, ‘novice’ who didn’t get the at what the cattle were seeing. And imal sciences at Colorado State
of square corners, I just wonder who memo. I recently came very, very at the time I thought everybody’s a University who holds U.S. Patent
in the world has not figured out that close to taking a device away from visual thinker,” Dr. Grandin said in No. 5,906,540 for her animal stun-
square corners in a cattle corral do one ‘animal husbandry’ deficient one of the USPTO’s Journeys of In- ning system, is also a best-selling
not work? Only someone who has ‘dimwit’ in order to demonstrate novation interviews. In a 2010 TED author whose contributions to au-
never worked a cow in a corral be- to him what the other end felt like. Talk, she likened her mind to Goo- tism awareness and the livestock
fore and who has never heard of Train your people! Every critic and gle Images: “It’s literally movies in industry were captured in an HBO
Temple Grandin. animal rights ‘extremist’ has a cam- my head.” Emmy Award-winning movie about
Who is Temple Grandin? era in their pocket. We need to be “I didn’t realize that my thinking her life.
From her website: “Dr. Grandin ‘extreme’ too… ‘extremely’ careful. was different,” she told the USPTO,
is a designer of livestock handling “Stop the stupid stuff!” “and I couldn’t understand why inventorsdigest.com
facilities and a Professor of Animal Let me suggest that cattle can be
Science at Colorado State Univer- trained to move at merely the sound
sity. Facilities she has designed are of an ECP. Give animals a warn- Standing
located in the United States, Cana- ing. Create a sound on metal that Apart W
W Weekly Dairy Sale!eekly Dairy Sale!eekly Dairy Sale!
Stock Cow & Bull Sale!
Stock Cow & Bull Sale!
Feeder Cattle Sale!
Feeder Cattle Sale!
Feeder Cattle Sale!
da, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New they can hear plainly. Maybe on the Stock Cow & Bull Sale! Sale starts at 1ale starts at 11:00 a.m. every 1:00 a.m. every TTues. ues. 1:00 a.m. every Tues. Starts at 8 a.m. every Wed.
S Sale starts at 1
Starts at 9 a.m. every Mon.
Starts at 9 a.m. every Mon.
Starts at 8 a.m. every Wed.
Starts at 8 a.m. every Wed.
S Special Sale 4th Tues. of each month.
Zealand, and other countries. In chute inches from their ears. It’s from the Herd Can Be Starts at 9 a.m. every Mon. Special Sale 4th pecial Sale 4th TTues. of each month.ues. of each month.
North America, almost half of the a signal. You’re saying… “Here it A Very
cattle are handled in a center track comes.” Use it only when you have Good Thing
restrainer system that she designed to and then use it sparingly. The
for meat plants. Curved chute and guy who handles the animal next
race systems she has designed for will thank you, or should thank you,
cattle are used worldwide and her because his job is now safer.
writings on the flight zone and It’s not just the electric type. Use
other principles of grazing animal all kinds with care. Bruises cost
behavior have helped many people money. Weight loss costs someone
to reduce stress on their animals money. You can tell a lot about
4 417-869-9500
during handling.” someone by how they treat their 417-869-950017-869-9500
So, you can weld one piece of pipe animals. You can also tell by the Exit 70 • I-44 & Hwy MM • xit 70 • I-44 & Hwy MM • ApprApprox. ox. Approx.
E Exit 70 • I-44 & Hwy MM •
3 3 Mi. W. of Springfield & 1 MNi. E of
to another. Whoop de-do. Let me way they treat someone else’s. We 3 Mi. Mi. WW. of Springfield & 1 MNi. E of . of Springfield & 1 MNi. E of
James Riverames River Hwy Hwy
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suggest that before you do, you… cannot ignore the fact that many