Need advice - Breaking a calf

[Cyfarmer]

Ok - a little back ground. I am not new to breaking calves - been doing it for years. When I was a kid broke 3-5 per year for 10 years for the fair, and now as a dad have helped to break 6-8 each year for the last few years. Have broke 100 plus calves in my lifetime. So this is not my first rodeo. I have a Trading Favors steer that is probably the best calf we have ever owned. He was purchased in a pasture sale in SD, so probably did not have much human contact prior to us purchasing. We started by working with him just as we did all of our other calves this year. We put into a small pen, catch them by hand (no headgate chute), and lead around for a while then turn loose. We have done this repeatedly, and over time the calves do really well with understanding the process. Until this steer. He is always very nervous acting, and has a somewhat aggressive nature about him. When it is just my daughter and I, we get along OK, but he is far from show ready. When anyone else is in sight he goes bonkers, and acts like it is his first time being haltered. Recently we have been keeping him tied up and leading him to water, of which he does OK if we are alone, but you bring anyone else in and he goes nuts. We have a radio going in the barn. We have tried calm and cool pellets for horses. He is obviously not going to any show unless something drastic improves. Not worth getting anyone hurt, but he would really do well at our fair in July if we can get him calmed down.      Sorry for the length, but am at wits end.
I am open to suggestions - are some calves just unbreakable? - Have never run into this before.
Thanks
Cyfarmer

 

[angus214]

My son had one like that last year. I said I didnt want him to show it but my husband said we will start hauling him and see if he gets better. We took him to a few shows and my husband handled him. He would wash, brush, blow and clip him just like the others. After two trips he was fine.

 

[rf21970]

I would say some calves are unbreakable. I have similar experience as you. Broke and showed my own steers as a kid, helped my brother and a co-worker's kids in between that time and my boys got 4-h age. They are now 14 and 17. So like you, I've broken 100+. We have always done it the hard way. Never started with a calf less than 550#, usually 6-700#. Halter placed on them in a chute and then tied for however long it took. My very first calf was a lot like you describe. We were able to show him, but he sure made it rough on me and my dad. 25 years and 100+ calves later, my advice to you is that it is not worth it. With much work you could probably get him showable by the right exhibitor. But he will always have those moments where he blows snot on you and bolts...or worse.

 

[willow]

It sounds like you have seen and tried just about everything in your day and so as more of a rookie than yourself I am reluctant to make a suggestion, but here goes.  A good, old timer, friend of ours has always made the suggestion to us to use calf calm and maybe more than you would in a normal situation and then take them into the situation that makes them nervous.  He always told me it gives them a cooler head about things and when it wears off they then realize no one is going to kill them.  Maybe try it at home with the people that make him nervous and then graduate to hauling him to a different location.  As long as you feel safe enough to do that I figure what is the harm in trying.  It has worked for us.  We had one last year that was a big son of a gun and he was a bit of a nut.  He didn't like anyone except my son and I and acted very similar to what you describe around everyone else.  He would actually throw his head up and get the crazy eye and just dance if he was tied up and take off if he wasn't.  We drug him into a jackpot show, I am pretty sure he was drooling on himself, and by the end of the show he was a little more awake and everything went pretty well.  That was preceded by a lot of work at home.  We did get him to that one jackpot and the final show.  I cannot imagine that the active ingredient in calf calm is much different than your horse product though..?  Best of luck.

 

[rackranch]

Try 100mg of malatonin daily for a week or so and see what happens.  Then decrease as you see fit.  I like to buy 10mg tablets and put them in a bolus capsules.  Maybe once he calms down and gets more exposure he will be ok.  My guess is he had a bad expierence when he was caught in the pasture and transported and now has some trust issues.  G-Luck

 

[Boot Jack Bulls]

I would suggest maybe finding your calf a friend! Sometimes when we have a really nervous one, it gets paired up with a quiet one for everything it does- leading, washing, tie up time, you name it. We don't tie them like you would with a donkey, but just keep them together 24/7. We usually end up using one of my show bulls because they are big and docile, but I would recommend whatever was easiest to break itself. We have also found that some calves, crave physical contact as reassurance. They just handle better when the people they know have a hand on them and are close. Sometimes, just holding their halter so your arm rests against the side of their face is enough to reassure and settle them.

 

[east texas]

A friend of mine had a calf last year that acted like yours. He hung plastic bags (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Etc.), all around the steers pen & stall area. This solved his problem. 

 

[Austin Jones]

I haven't broke as many calves as you have, but I have broke all my calves for shows and 4h. I think some calves are unbreakable because a few years ago we had a really nice steer that we probably should have kept as a bull but we didn't. I tried by catching him and tying him up and he would never settle down. He was with a broke heifer but that just seemed to make him resist me more. We thought that if we hauled him, he would settle so we took him to way in and he dragged my behind him into the chute and when they changed his ear tag he was growling at people and trying to bite at them like a dog. A bigger friend of my dads tryed to load him for me so I wouldn't get hurt and he dragged him into the trailer and when he jumped into the trailer he slid all the way to the front and moved the whole truck and trailer forward and turned around ready to run off before we shut the door in his face. We worked with him more and he never seemed to settle down. We decided it wasn't worth someone getting hurt to try and break him so I just showed my heifer that year and turned him out on the feed lot.    I hoped this helped you out.

 

[vc]

We have been there, the last year my son showed we had a Unforgiven that was dog gentle and a HeatWave that was on edge when we picked them up. My older boy had been working at the ranch helping get the calves ready for the past 2 months and he knew about the HW's issues. We only picked up the HW because nobody bid on him and he was a steal for the price.
The HW was nervous all the time and would just freak out when you were either blowing, rinsing or combing, my son was cussing me for bidding on this calf, the other steer was the easiest thing to work with from day one. We were working him every day and making little if any progress, when the guy we bought him from suggested we put him on Glu-Coat, he said that Dave Guyer's wife had been working with a calf that was worse than ours and had success with the steer after putting him on Glu-coat.
We put them both on glu-coat and at first it did not seem to do anything, but 2 to 3 weeks into feeding him the Glu-coat, my son was blowing the calf out and waiting for the explosion, it never came, he had worked from the tail to the head and the calf just stood there. (We could never get past the shoulder prior to that)
I think some calves may be the equivalent to ADHD and something in the Glu-coat (could be all the sugar) has an effect on them.
The Heat Wave steer went on win 4H champion and reserve over all, the Unforgiven and my son won Senior Showmanship.

 

[PRICECATTLE]

We went through the same situation last year with a heifer. She would act fine around my son and myself but if somebody else came in the barn she would paw at the ground and charge the gate. my son ended up tieing her to a steer that was calm and would lead her with him to rinse and so forth. we fed the melatonin and it didnt seem to work for this heifer. he worked with her from Nov till he took her to her first show in june.after that first show she was fine for the rest of the summer. hope this helps and good luck