Low Stress Movement of Animals with Miriam Parker
In this video Miriam Parker, Livestockwise, discusses the instinctive six strategies for cattle survival and how they can be used to encourage cattle to do what we want in a handling scenario.
These are instinctive things that all cattle do and by learning how to understand them we can move and handle cattle in a low stress way.
Flight Zone
This is the animal’s personal space. This is where the animal feels comfortable with other members of the herd and also with you. An animal will begin to move away when the handler crosses the edge of the flight zone. As you approach an animal it will back off, that tells you where the flight zone boundary is. Instinctively, it gives the prey species (the herbivore) a little bit of extra space from the predator. Flight zones can range from half a meter for a dairy cow up to several meters for sucker cattle. The flight zone can vary depending on the nature of cattle and also the nature of the handler.
Point of Balance
The point of balance is on the animals shoulder. When you stand on front of the animals shoulder it is going to instinctively send the animal backwards. If you stand behind the animals shoulder it will instinctively send the animal forward.
Bunching
When you handle animals you will find as they see you coming they will bunch together. That’s for security and safety, this is called a loose bunch.
Facing Up
As the bunch forms you may see one or two animals in the centre of the herd who will turn to face you. This is known as facing up. When moving animals we don’t want them turning to face us. We want to use the flight zone, the point of balance, and loose bunching to get them to move. When they turn to face us they see us as a threat.
Milling and Circling
When cattle on the outside of the group circle the group they are instinctively trying to confuse the predator. So, when we see this it means the animals are feeling under pressure.
Splitting from the group
If we keep pressure on continuously animals are likely to split from the group. In what low stress handling we want to be able to use the flight zone, the point of balance and loose bunching to get cattle to where we want them to go. The minute animals start to turn to face you, or start circling, or running off it means they are responding to our behaviour and we are acting too much like a predator.
Step in and step back
Learning to step in and step back is the key to low stress animal movement. We must behave like a 'fed lion'. Push into the flight zone but when the animals start to respond and move away from us we immediately step back. Then push forward again and step back and repeat, like a good sheepdog. What we do is pressure and release, pressure and release.