11-11 IAN No Stress
Hey cattlemen. Would you like to make more money on your herd while at the same time improving their quality? Try something akin to what natural childbirth people advocate as in Lamaze.
I was reading the most amazing thing the other day. The headline was Nervous and aggressive cattle are a pain in the wallet. Well, I can’t hear something like that without looking deep within my soul. When I’m around nervous and aggressive people it kind of puts me on guard. Stress hormones like cortisol start to flow. Heart rate goes up, blood-pressure increases, you get into that fight or flight mentality. Clearly that’s not good for your health. Well, to underscore the connection between man and beast it turns out that cattle are not at their best when they are nervous and aggressive. There is an operation in Iowa called the Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity Cooperative. Their principal objective is to provide information to beef producers they can use in managing and marketing their product. Here’s a little tidbit from their manager Darrell Busby. “Calmer cattle are faster gaining cattle and they are higher quality grade cattle and they are more profitable. They make about $56 more per head in the feedlot then the wild cattle do.” Home home on the range, sung softly might work.
