The Pros and Cons of Hand-Raising Cattle

When I bought my first two heifers, Patsy and Eddie, I had grand plans for them.  They would be my breeders and house cows.  They weren’t particularly friendly, but I was sure that wasn’t going to be a problem.  I took them a treat every day (carrots or silverbeet) and after a short time, they’d take it from my hand.  If I held my hand out to them, they’d sniff it and I could pat their noses.

It never really got more than that.  If I’m lucky and putting my hand through a fence, I can scratch a forehead but that’s the limit.

As we don’t have the full dairy set up with bails for them to go into where they can’t move away, milking them is never going to happen.  They’ve become even more shy since they’ve had their calves.

In March I bought two bobby calves.  Jersey Fresian cross heifers, one was a month old and the other was 2 weeks.  We lost the 2 week old calf, so I bought a steer the same age as the older calf.  I’m glad that these two were that little bit older when I got them as after a month of mixing milk powder and feeding them twice a day it was getting old.  Brownie was a lovely light reddish brown and Sirloyne was a darker chocolaty brown.  The kids named them, can you tell?

Brownie and Sirloyne

I used halters on them to move them from their original paddock to the weaning paddock.  They were pretty well behaved on the whole (after a little bit of work), but I don’t recommend doing this with two calves at once.  As soon as they saw the wide open spaces of the big paddock, they both bolted, crossing over first and sent me flying.  It took a couple of weeks for all the bruises I got from that tumble to heal.  I never really got the halters out after that, except to hold them still for their ear tags.

These two are great big pets.  I had to train them (much like a dog) not to headbutt us because when they weigh about the same and soon more than an adult, they knock you over or leave nasty bruises.

It’s handy that I can go right up to them and stroke them, I can pour a drench (in my case I use Apple Cider Vinegar) on them without the need for yards or a run.  I have no doubts that when Brownie gets big enough, she’ll make a great house cow and will be easily milked.  For all Sirloyne is getting a little stroppy (I’m assuming it’s the jersey side coming out) he’s still mostly manageable.

We’ve also got three yearling Angus cross steers.  They were hand-raised, but not treated as big pets like my other two.  They’re friendly enough and will follow me along a fence line if I’m on the other side and if they’re happy, I can give them a pat anywhere - not just a lucky quick stroke of a nose.

The problems come when I’m trying to move them.

Patsy and Eddie, not being quite so friendly, just need someone (better with two people) to walk up to them and keep walking.  Slowly driving them in the direction you want them to go.  As Hubby learned, it’s not a good idea to run when they do - they’ll just keep running and outpace you.

The hand-raised cattle aren’t so shy, they welcome someone walking up to them - it might mean a treat or a scratch on the forehead where they just can’t quite reach.  Otherwise they completely ignore you.  It’s very hard work shifting cattle when they’re really not interested in going anywhere.  Sometimes, an armload of hay can help - they’ll follow you then but it depends on the quality of the grass they’re walking through.

At the moment, I’ve got Brownie and Sirloyne grazing in our big unfenced paddock.  I’ve strung electric fencing across and I’m moving it slowly as they eat the tops off the long grass.  It was making it difficult for us to get to the back paddocks where we’re still clearing gorse so we bought a plastic handle for the end of the hotwire that just hooks onto the fence - at the end that is not attached to the electricity obviously.  You just unhook it, walk through and then hook it up again.

They’ve figured it out and tend to stick quite close to us when we do this in the hope that they can squeeze through too.  It’s getting to be quite a knack to slipping through and hooking it up again before they follow you through that gap.

I’ve been told not to completely trust them either. A lot of people get complacent about them and end up getting badly hurt.  I recently heard a story from a friend about his neighbour.  She was mauled by her housecow - which she’d raised from a calf.  She got so comfortable around her that she didn’t think and got in between the cow and her young calf.

I’m loving that my hand-raised cattle are so friendly, but cursing it at the same time.  Perhaps I need to work on halter training the next ones properly so that shifting them won’t be so much of a problem.  For now, I’ll have to just keep up with the armload of hay.