Folks, Learn to use a halter.

This is at least as important as learning to milk.

Buy a simple rope halter, or two, they’re cheap, usually under $10 at any TSC or feed store or online livestock store. Pick your favorite color, but don’t get too attached. Buy a cow, put the halter on before you let her out of the trailer. And get to work teaching her how to follow it.

If you’re new and clueless, go watch a stock show. Walk down the isles and just watch how cattle are handled up close. They’re all over the country and often have very few visitors.

So now that you’ve seen kids still in diapers wearing hats that hide their whole face leading cows that weigh over 1000lbs, you know that it’s possible to train your 800lb milk cow. Don’t give me the line that show cattle are halterbroke as 3wk old calves, it’s not true. Most aren’t worked until they’re at least 300lbs, sometimes not till 600lbs.

I was a clueless kid too. But after spending a week at a county fair I decided to train our beef calves. I put the halter on wrong, got rope burn on both hands, probably wore a few holes in my jeans getting dragged through the field, and definitely found the fresh cowpies and thistles scattered in the pasture!

But, even a clueless kid with some persistence is successful. Those calves trained, trained to ride, and trained to show. Internet was barely available at the library back then, much less our home. And I never did find any books on cow training. Facebook group resources weren’t a thing. And not being part of public school, I didn’t have access to FFA. I sure did learn a lot watching those cows show at the fair though, mostly just what was expected of a cow. I never did do real well with beef cattle—growing hair, buying genetics, proper clipping, and Ariat jeans evaded me. But the calves behaved!

Ask your feed store about local shows if you don’t know of any. If you don’t have a feed store because you only buy organic feed from Azure Standard, move out of your comfort zone and and find a local feed store. They can be an invaluable resource into the livestock world you’re stepping into. Pasture seed? They can get it. Find a bull in your county? Good chance. What to use on XYZ on your cow? Free advice. Basic handling tools? Best price around. Hay for your livestock? They’ll know.

You had the opportunity to purchase a gentle cow, or at least one that wasn’t bat crazy—hopefully you took advantage of that opportunity. There’s as much difference in calm and crazy as there is halterbroke and untrained. A  naturally calm cow will halterbreak, even though she’ll temporarily act crazy. A crazy cow needs to be burgered, don’t hope her calf will be much better, temperament is heritable. And some that aren’t crazy are still too “hands off” to make a good family cow.

Now, back to the halter. Look at how the halter goes on the cow. The lead should draw tight under her chin with you leading on her left side. This might be confusing at first, but you’ll both get used to it and be able to put on on the dark with your eyes closed. Ignore the green ring in her nose here--it's for weaning and has nothing to do with haltering.

If you have the option, I’d tie her inside the trailer for 30-60 minutes before letting her out. If you don’t, 10 minutes will do. It does make a difference. Remember that the more she fights the trailer, the post, the tree—it’s all energy she’s spending with you NOT on the end of the rope. It’s wearing her down, but not you.

The only time I WOULD NOT immediately halterbreak a new cow, is when she’s with a week or so of calving AND has a very swollen udder. It’s the udder that will bruise or get hurt by her violence of training, not the calf. That calf is in a huge sack of water and well protected. And if he’s born a week early, it’s no worse than our babies being a week early.

Ok, she’s done her trailer time and it’s time to let her out. Have your trailer backed to her pen. If you don’t have a pen, go back to that local feed store and get 8-10 cattle panels and some T posts and a post stomper and a few metal clips to make a gate closure. Build a pen. You could go as cheap as 4 panels, but it’s a lot more versatile if it’s big enough to hold her a couple days without churning the ground into mud. You should have a post at the end of each panel and one in the middle. Homegrown cedar posts will work well too. Build it around a sapling or tree if you have the option, it’ll be both a tie post, and shade.

Another note—if she’s in milk and you’re not sure how easy she will be to catch and tie after you let her out of the trailer, milk her out in the trailer. With your hands. It’s one less thing to stress about.

At home, Alan will back up within a few feet of our milk stand, and unload the new cows “right there”, so he can milk right away. Sometimes it still takes 40 minutes to get her moved/fought into position. Yes, our system could be better, but it’s our typical lack of infrastructure.

No, I’m not going to post videos of halterbreaking new cows and the reasons are multiple.

1. My hands are busy and I need to fully focus on the work I’m doing.

2. My many available children, same thing, they need to be out of the way, or very attentive to the work at hand, not watching camera angles.

3. It can be very rough, in your inexperienced opinion it may even be cruel.

4. It’s often rapid fire or total stand still—not much fun to watch a cow mull at the end of her rope for 15 minutes on video.

5. It’s culturally unacceptable to handle livestock as they need to be handled. In a country where pets are considered equal to human life, and discipline is criminalized, I’m not about to willingly open myself up to that kind of harassment.

You’ll have to make do with the written descriptions and still photos or make your own videos.

The next blog you read should be “3 Days…How to Train Your Cow”