Beef Cattle Flight Zone and How to Sort

January 26, 2022 | News and Publications , Ranching , Ranching | Ranching , Ranching , Ranching , Ranching

Article and photos by Jill Dunkel

"People talk about dumb ol' cows, but that's not the case. Sometimes we're not astute enough to know where to be so they work effectively."

That's a mantra that Ron Gill preaches at his Effective Stockmanship clinics offered around the country.

"People try to make cattle handling really difficult and overthink the process of getting cattle to work for you," he explains. "The easier it is on the cattle, the easier it is on you. My goal is to teach people how to communicate with cattle where it's easy for cattle to understand what we are asking."

Ron is a professor and Extension livestock specialist at Texas A&M University. For the past several years, he's partnered with stockmen like Curt Pate to demonstrate low-stress cattle handling at producer meetings and events. His techniques focus on understanding the pressure points and importance of line of sight for livestock.

Cattle Flight Zone

The flight zone is the area around an animal where it feels enough pressure to respond by moving away from the pressure. When using the flight zone correctly, humans can use the area on the edge of the flight zone to move cattle or get them to stop. For example, stepping down the side of a steer from in front of the shoulder toward the hip creates forward movement. Stepping out of the flight zone removes pressure and stepping forward past the shoulder will cause steer to stop.

The goal is to have cattle respond, not react. He says that working from five core principles reduces stress and increases efficiency. These simple principles apply to gathering and working cattle horseback or on foot in corrals. The trick is knowing how to apply these five things to influence behavior and movement:

1. Cattle want to see you. If cattle can see you, they know where the pressure is coming from. It is key to handler positioning and cattle response.
2. Cattle want to go around you. When you put pressure on cattle, they will want to walk around you or circle you. They will walk off, but will eventually stop, turn and look, because they want to see you.
3. Cattle are herd animals. If you get one started, the rest will usually go.
4. Cattle want to remove pressure. If you put pressure on them, they take off. That's the flight zone.
5. Cattle can only process one main thought at a time. If you put pressure on them until they move, it's effective. If you push too hard, they'll think of something else and go somewhere else.

Drawing Cattle

Another concept Ron uses is draw.

"Cattle want to be able to see you," he explains. "If you're in front and step down their side, it will send them forward. Once it starts, that brings the next one and draws them to you. You let draw pull the flow of cattle, and your job is to stop it when you're ready."

Although handling cattle in corrals instead of the pasture is somewhat different due to confined spaces, Ron says the same principles apply. In a pasture, cattle have the ability to remove pressure by going away from it. In a corral, cattle cannot feel a release of pressure unless the flight zone is decreased enough by prior handling to allow them to be comfortable somewhere in the corrals. Cattle are smart, and if they are asked correctly, using pressure and release, they will usually do what is asked.

The Bud Box

For the past several years, Ron has used a facility design known as a "Bud Box," a term coined by those who followed the teachings of stockman Bud Williams. The Bud Box works on the theory that cattle want to remove pressure, which starts the flow around you and allows them to return the direction they came from. With this concept, cattle can be moved past the area you want them (a gate, alley, etc.). Then close a gate behind the cattle. As they turn around and search for the area where they came from, they will enter the gate or alley that is your chosen destination.

"Any time we can create cattle flow where they can go past where we need them to end up, it will make handling easier," Ron says.

Utilizing draw, Ron is able to sort off a specific number of cows as they walk past him down the alley. Stepping toward them stops the draw.

He follows the cows down the alley, closing the gate behind him and opening the gate where he wants the cows to go.

Ron has worked with ranchers to modify existing facilities to develop better flow for more effective handling.

"Sometimes we can be simple with the designs and have a good flow. You don't have to scrap an entire facility and start over. Small modifications can make a big difference," he says.

"When I visit a ranch, it's usually not hard to figure out where they are having trouble. It's where the hot shots are sitting. Or where the gates are bent. I start looking there to see if we can change something to improve the flow."

A lot of the people who get the reputation for being the top hands are the ones who can fix the wrecks, he adds. The really good hands are the ones who can keep them from happening.

"You can stop most wrecks from happening if you know where to be and anticipate what the cattle's response is going to be. If cattle are reacting instead of responding, then maybe we made too big of a move."

Ron says you don't have to gather cattle just to train them in low-stress handling techniques. Every time cattle are gathered for other purposes, you are training the herd.

"Each time you get cattle to flow by you, they get more comfortable with the concept," Ron says. "Each time they go down an alleyway, you're training them."

Ron modified this existing tub design by creating a pen past the entrance to the tub.

Opening the tub gate, the cattle flow around Ron and naturally enter the tub.

The cattle quietly flow through the tub-and-chute design with little pressure or resistance.

Knowing that cows want to go back where they came from and will naturally circle him, Ron steps into the Bud Box where they are waiting. The cattle flow around him and into the gate to load onto the trailer.

With little to no pressure, the cows load in the trailer.

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Source: https://www.aqha.com/-/cattle-handling-techniques

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