Katherine's Country: it’s important to build trust with your animals

There are things we can do to keep animal welfare absolutely top notch on our farms. The very first one is the farmer’s mindset and the commitment to think about it, research it and upskill where you can. `

Young farmers are taking the commitment to animal welfare more seriously because they have and are studying the ongoing research. We do not advocate the use of sticks on our farms. I’ve often spoken about this before.

Most cattle can be handled and moved about the farmyard without sticks. Of course, I will hold one if we are moving animals and I have to stand in a gap to make my arm longer and as a pointer for direction. Animals take cues quite easily if you are calm and talk firmly and gently to them.

The well renowned Dr Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado University is famous for her ground-breaking approach to decoding animal behaviour. She has shared her insights on animal behaviour across the world. Animals remember in pictures and learn by smell and touch. They respond to the people who work with them and hopefully, a trusting relationship ensues. Think of the times that a cow might be in trouble and how she will allow the farmer to get close to assist her. That bond between farmer and animal begins at birth. Careful handling, plenty of touch, a little push to indicate where you want them to go is enough.

Trust with your animal

Every farmer knows the point in an animal’s peripheral vision that will decide her direction. It takes a while to get it. If you walk towards animals filing into a crush, they will walk forward. You’d often hear a shout in our yard when there’s a race being filled of “will somebody walk please.” Colm has brought much of this learning to us since his Nuffield Scholarship.

Once you’ve built trust with your animals, you don’t want to break it because it is a golden tool that will ensure the safety and welfare of both the animal and the farmer. The necessary things we have to do can be challenging to that relationship. De-horning is the first big relationship buster.

Over the years I’ve watched this job develop. I remember horns being sawn off bullocks years ago and the figure of eight twines placed around the head to stop the bleeding. The twines would be cut a few days later. Then there were snips followed by electric de-horners. Today’s ones are run on gas canisters. Nobody likes to hear a calf roar when being dehorned.

Reduce stress

For the last few years Colm and Philip have used local anaesthetic to reduce the stress on calves. As the calves were getting bigger I was asking Colm when he was de-horning them. “The vets will be doing it this year to reduce the trauma on the heifers completely,” he told me.

On the day appointed, Philip O’Callaghan and Hrvoje Bezmalinovic from Blarney vets landed on. Colm, Sinead O’Donnell, our farm apprentice and myself were on hand. The calves were pushed into bunches and given a sedative. One by one they folded their legs and lay down. It’s was uncanny seeing 50 or so heifers flattened at a time. I was wondering if they’d all wake up again.

Once you’ve built trust with your animals, you don’t want to break it because it is a golden tool that will ensure the safety and welfare of both the animal and the farmer. The necessary things we have to do can be challenging to that relationship. De-horning is the first big relationship buster

The vets worked fast, administering local anaesthetic around the horns. Then the three men dehorned the animals. Colm has been dehorning for over ten years and he was encouraging the vets not to use too much force. The key is having the iron well hot to cauterise the blood flow to the horn. He feels that about ten seconds is enough and there is no need to root out a horn. Then Sinead applied the antiseptic spray. You’d hear an odd noise as the calves came to and wondered what happened. Most made for the feeder for feeding which was a wonderful sign of no trauma. The most spectacular result of all was that no trust between farmers and calves was broken.

They were as friendly as ever and there was no shying away.

A great result indeed. It did cost but we feel it was a worthwhile investment.

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