Update on the 3 Heifers (our belles)

[indexters]

Hello all. The belles are settling in nicely. DH is not thrilled, but my daughter wants to call them Annabelle, Bluebelle, and Clairabelle. I think it is cute and voted for it. Makes future naming easy. Just need to make a decision on the farm/herd name to finish the registration papers.

We have them taking the alfalfa cubes from our hands and I can touch them a very little. Thinking of putting the halters on this weekend. Any recommendations as to how others have accomplished this would be appreciated. And maybe I will get a few pics to post soon.

[Dahdo]

Love the names.

I have been halter training my 2- and 3-year old heifers the past month and we have made good progress--thanks to much good advice I received here. To get the halter on the first couple of times I made a 12x24 pen around their feeder out of panels and lured them in with alfalfa. I am using a rope halter, but even with that, they squirmed enough that I couldn't get it on. But I had seen the vet use a lariat to get control of their heads, then slip on the halter so I tried it and it worked great. You have to slip the loop over their heads and then just work them into a corner, pulling up slack as you go. When I get close, and put some tension on the rope, they kind of give up. I slip the halter on and get adjusted, then slip the lariat off, and we're ready to train. My 3-year old is to the point where I can get the halter on her without the pen or lariat, but the 2-year old stays well away when she sees the halter or lariat. In fact, I have a hard time tricking her into the pen now. Good luck-Dave

[ctownson]

This is from an earlier thread - you can search for the entire thread if you want to read all the entries:

She looks very nice Dave! In terms of halter breaking, I can only tell you how I do it and the system works for me. You will find lots of differing opinions on how to best do this so take my recommendation for what it is worth. I get a halter on them - this might be a challenge physically given her size. Get her into a chute or a confined area to get the halter on her properly. We use a nylon rope halter that adjusts very quickly - these are inexpensive and one size fits all. After getting this done, tie her up to a fence post or some other structure. Make sure she cannot get tangled up in the rope or have any chance of strangling herself. A couple of feet of play in the halter rope is about right. Then, let her pull and struggle against the rope for an hour. Have some water nearby but out of reach. After an hour, untie her and walk her to the water (this may be a physical challenge so be careful). She may or may not drink at this point. Repeat the process. Repeat the process. Repeat the process. She will eventually drink, which serves as a reward. Pet her and talk to her throughout the entire process. I dedicate an entire day to this when I do it and have seen incredible progress within a few hours. You can do other work while she is tied, just be able to check on her to insure safety. Again, this is the system I use and it works for me. I NEVER let the cow escape from me on the halter so it can be a physical challenge with an older heifer like this one. At the end of the day the goal is for the heifer to know that once a halter is on, she cannot get away from you under any circumstances.


Read more: dextercattle.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=2022&page=1#ixzz1nLB1yfJZ

[lakeportfarms]

To encourage them to accept the halter, it helps to get them in a small pen, then get them to approach you for treats (we use apple slices because we have a 300 tree apple orchard that we pasture them in) Alfalfa cubes are 13 bucks a bag and they work well too. Anyway, once you have them wanting the treat, get THEM to follow you in order to get it. Once they've become comfortable taking treats, hold the rope halter out and to take the treat they have to put their nose through it. Repeat a hundred times without trying to tie the halter. Don't give them the treat unless they do exactly what you want them to do! Then you can work on tying the halter, followed by a treat. It takes time, but using that technique we have cows that can moo on command, turn a complete circle for us on command, and give kisses when we ask them. Our guests love it!

[indexters]

Thanks for the replies. I don't have much time right now as spring seems to have arrived early this year and we are also putting up fence. But had to have the vet out today, so one heifer has a halter, now just two more to go. Will be working on that now.