[Music] and that'll make it work much smoother now let's go in the field with kurd and get some practical knowledge about handling cattle when we're on foot let's have a look so the very basics of cattle handling are understanding flight zones and balance points when we talk about flight zone that's the distance that causes an animal to flee but what we want to do is create a movement at the right angle with the right amount of intensity intensity to get that animal to move off smoothly the balance point is where you place yourself on the side of the animal to get them to move forward or slow down or stop or turn away so when we're talking about what to use to get into those zones a four-wheeler a horse or foot there are different ideas different thoughts that should apply on foot is probably the easiest and the best but not always the most appropriate for the situation when we talk about a four-wheeler it has real easy capability to go forward fast slow or medium and stop and back up but you can't take it sideways some horses are real good to go fast forward and you can't stop them or whatever so however well your horse is trained you can get that to whatever level you'd like to take it the more experience you have as a Stockman you learn to read the animals and immediately change to what they will work best at they will tell you by their reaction to you how to change to fit what they need then you can increase your angles sharpen your angles slow your speed down or speed it up once we get cattle trusting us it's real important not to make loud noises fast moves or whatever to disrupt or to break that trust well we got the cattle in the Corr and they came in good and in a calm state of mind now we've transferred from horseback to a foot and so we've got to think of those main things again safety for the humans and the cattle we have to keep the animals calm in a thinking workable manner that uh doesn't increase their stress as they get closer to the Chute or the truck or whatever well a real basic principle here that's something a lot of people don't realize is before you sort the cattle it's getting the cattle ready for sorting that's a really really important concept it's real important for a cow an animal that they learn that when they go through a gate they're not not afraid to go through the gate they go through the gate and they get freedom and the pressure comes away this causes cattle to want to work for you when you force cattle into places where they have to go into more pressure then you have to fight with the cattle so to say to get them to do it we're trying to change this around to where we teach the cattle how to work for us rather than against us in other words when they go through the gate it's a good thing the pressure gets uh taken off now some things we need to think about are when we're working with these cattle they're going to be worked on the left side of their body and the right side of their body so they need to get used to seeing me from their right eye and their left eye the other thing when we're talking about balance point if I have to get way down Behind These cattle to get them to move get way towards their tail that puts me out of position to control their movement so the first thing I'll try to teach these cattle is is to walk away from me nice and smooth so I'll just get them to try to come out of this corner and I'll just I'll I'll I'll line them up here and I'll I'll just keep working my way into this corner and pretty soon I'll be far enough down it'll draw their eye to the right and these cattle will uh they'll step off and they'll see that gate right now they're just bunched up in the corner so I have to get down I'm not behind him I'm beside him because I'm want him to go out that gate to my right there now I'm in a position where I can I can actually send this heer and now I can step here and send another heer and I'll just try to get them where they understand where I'm at good now I can send my heers I can just step now I'll step forward just a little ways and start controlling their flow the farther I get forward the more control I have of the way they go by me and they're learning to walk by me on their right side I'll just walk up with them and they learn by going by me they get to go to Freedom you'll see they feel kind of good Getting By Me every time you change carals put them in an alley make sure you're thinking about these things you're training the animals for the next step you're not just simply taking them through a gate you're training them for the next part of what you're going to do and that'll really help you getting cattle ready for these things now I'll go ahead and uh I'll take them up and put them in the alley uh today um CT's going to demonstrate sorting in the alley this is an area where many people get hurt so it's really important learn how to handle cattle correctly the first step is no yelling and screaming got to get rid of all the rough stuff and if you bring the cattle in from pasture and they get a little bit excited you need to let them settle down in the Cs for 20 or 30 minutes this is where the principles of stockmanship really applied we're working in an alley if the cattle can't take me if their flight zone is real big it gets real dangerous in the alley and cattle start to panic themselves by jumping on top of each other and stepping on each other then they then they quit thinking and they start reacting the other thing is the alley can be the most stressful place on cattle there is because they cannot get away from the pressure of their other other animals stepping on them or squeezing them and they go into a panic mode real bad the other thing I'd like to say is the width of the alley this I could work horseback if I had the horse that I could handle properly which my horse I've been riding he would work just fine in this alley it's a 14t alley cattle can feel real comfortable coming by a horse on 14t sometimes if you have cattle panicked and wild you can't stop them in a 14t alley when you're on foot and that's when it gets dangerous or the cattle learn that they can get by you so a lot of times if you're working on foot a 12ft alley is the best but if you have a 14 your cattle have to be very calm an eight or a 10ft alley sometimes cattle don't want to come by you and you have to get so deep in them to get them by you then they start panicking and running by you so these are just some things that you'll keep in mind as we are working with these cattle this will be a nice demonstration of not having much movement I got them up right here so I'll have to do quite a bit here and I'll go ahead and touch my bull this is the place where I start getting my hands on these animals I'll make sure their foot's heavy before I put my hand on them so they don't get kicked but I'll just I don't have any movement going here so I might use a little bit of noise to step my movement up but that's all right if if it takes me quite a bit to get them to move up there they won't be wild and crazy when I get them up there in the corner and they can think their way out of this deal and this is about the only noise I will use is the I call that the rattlesnake noise and these cattle are in Rattlesnake country so they ought to be used to that and I'll let these cattle by touching them and turning my hip away from them it kind of helps them to move up and this actually prepares them for the shoot once they get there and I I'll have to really I'm going to have to really step up my pressure by going back and forth here to get these guys to move up into the pressure here and by putting my hand on these cattle I'm preparing them for when they get in the shoot but I don't touch them unless I know they're not going to kick me or I'm pretty sure of it so I'll send them on up and of course I'll have to uh really put a lot of pressure trying to get them to go right up against the all the activity up in the front so it should be easy to get them to come back by me now I'm going go ahead and get my gate and I like to sort cattle I like to uh sort cattle by myself if I'm just sorting them two ways so right here I can use those same Concepts and I'll I'll I'll go ahead and let some of them spill by me as I'm coming up and I'll send these cattle right on up now I'm kind of close to my gate but I'll I'll just keep working here now I got to back up back up if I just stop straight I'll let this heer come and I'm going to send her right on around me and send her on back drive her on back step it in front of my bull I'll step back step back stop her send her back up now I got a few that can flow on by me I don't want to get too much movement too fast so I just step back hook these cattle on stop them step in turn them back the thing we have to really be aware of when we're sorting cattle in this way is the ability to step back and give them time to go so right here I'll walk backwards backwards stop her turn her and send her across send her to the back back I'll draw step forward to send them by step back stop her put my hands up stop her stop her now I should be able to step forward send her right back to the back let this one come by me I got another green tag coming I'll stop her turn her walk her back by now right here a couple of moves with my feet should send this girl back it didn't I'll send these two right on across get here now if I get too far in I'll get down behind my cattle and I'll have to panic them to stop them I missed one cow already I can see I'll let the bull come on by I'll step back when I finish up I want these cattle to be calm I'd like her to look at me and have me on on their mind when I finish things up now if you'd like to learn more about low stress cattle handling and the beef quality assurance program just go to the website bqa.org