4H Steer Problems--advice??

[Jan in CO]

Here's the story: Granddaughter is raising two catch a calf steers. One, Bubba, is about to go to the county fair in late July. He's a puppy. Very tame, although a bit on the stubborn side. Almost 1200 pounds now. She got the second calf, through another catch a calf program in early May. He was almost a year old, 800 pounds, and seems never to have been touched by human hands! Wild as can be, and Ash is having a terrible time trying to tame him. We had to treat him for scours when he first arrived, he wouldn't eat for days, and it was a real picnic getting him tied up to treat him. Any advice on how to get this guy tamed down enough to show? She has to put him in two shows before January '08, and is getting very discouraged.

I've told her to just work with him like you do with a colt/filly. To pick up the halter rope, and gently tug on it until he takes a step, then let off the rope, repeat, and so forth, until he is close enough to scratch his head, talking to him quietly all the time. I'm not a cow person, have only raised bottle calves, so what else can she do? Is it even possible to 'tame' one this old to the point of being led around on a halter and lead rope? He's an Angus if that makes any difference, as far as breed temperments.

Jan in Co

[MayLOC]

Hi Jan,

It's never "too late" . Food gets you a long ways with livestock. Your granddaughter will need a lot of time and patience to get the job done, but definitely possible. Just being in the pen with him every day and her being the one to feed him will make huge improvements. Maybe get him to where he will eat cake and she can use that as a treat and work towards hand feeding. When I was younger, I halter broke one of my steers when he was wild and that size by using cake to entice him; worked well, as they go crazy for that stuff. good luck.

[Jan in CO]

Good idea! I hadn't considered cake, but she has a bag of it, so I'll suggest it to her. She's just so discouraged, and wanted to 'give him back' and forget the whole thing because he's so wild. She's had a rope halter on him, letting him drag the lead end around since he came here, and I've been keeping an eye on him to be sure it didn't injure his nose. The other calf, also an Angus, but black as opposed to this red one, has grown so fast on much less feed than last year's calf, that he will probably be overfinished by fair time, sigh. At least she'll get a good price for him. The wild one will be sold at just market price, a different program. Jan in Co

[Jcran]

When I was at university, a bazillion years ago, our "steer project" kids had a pretty neat way of halter-breaking calves. They would be tethered to a standard donkey (calves not kids ). That donkey would just stand there while the calves bucked and lost their marbles, then dragged the calves wherever the donkey wanted to go. It didn't seem to take long. That being said, the calves were smaller and the donkeys old pros. But it was a thing to behold. Those donkeys are pretty darned STRONG.

[Misty]

Jan, we have used the donkey before and it works wonders. Do you have a donkey available? Give them about 6feet of lead between them. It is amazing. That steer will learn to drink when the donkey drinks, eat when the donkey eats and so on. After that tie him up short. Have your granddaughter take the show stick and just scratch his but with it and talk to him. Keep that calf tied up for an hour or so every day.
You can get an old rubber tire tube and fasten it to the wall and tie that halter to it. Every time he pulls back, it will pull him forward. Good luck and I feel your pain. We had one like that year before last.

[tallpines]

My kids use to tie their calves behind the riding lawn mower while they mowed the lawn.
The calves seemed to get the hang of being led real quickly.

However, their calves were more in the 300 - 400 pound range when they did this.

[hintonlady]

Having raise dsteers for 4H and FFA I was faced with the same problem.

The halter breaking process is limited by the size of calf and strength of trainer. I was pretty strong at 14 and could handle anything up to about 600 lbs. After that it will take another person, depending on school of thought.

There are farmers and ranchers both have very distinct and opposing styles.

Ranchers are cowboys, cowpokes and cowpunchers by nature. They usually put the animal in a chute, halter it and let it go. Then the trainer holds on for dear life until said steer is tired of pulling and bucking like in a rodeo. Wear gloves and NEVER wrap halter around the hands. Sometimes having the extra length in rope behind the butt helps with leverage when pulling. (behind butt of person or cow depending on technique) When not kicking so much a good twist of the tail so it goes toward head moves them forward. This style is more agressive in nature but gets the job done within a few days. Stubborn animals are tied to a strong fence or post with very little slack. After a few days of being tied for an hour or two they learn that the rope is in control. At the size steer you have this would only be good if there were some bigger tough folks to help pull the rope, like a tug of war.

The farmer way seems less physical. They preffer not to excite the animals and usually persuade them with treats. An effective tool is to lure a haltered animal a few feet at a time after a bucket of feed. (always shake feed in bucket even when not training, they learn to come to it) If the animal is minimally tame this trick is useful after it is willing to eat out of hand and be petted a bit. Each day lure the animal a bit further than day prior. Eventually you give treats less and less until they learn to get a treat at the end of a walk only. By treats I mean just the daily ration a nibble at a time, their hunger helps. Don't over do it, you don't want too much finish.