Crazy Heifer!!!! Help

[TottenClubCalves]

Ok so I have a blue roan heifer that I am selling for a friend. Got her down here in Florida and she was suppose to be broke to tie and suppose to be calm. Well guess what! she isn't! lol. Now I have to admit it's been a couple years since I have had to halter break a calve and I have no problems doing so. The one thing that ticks me off and enrages me is a heifer that kicks, and let me tell you what, you get near this heifers back legs and she's a pistol. So after several attempts of tieing her up and trying to brush her everyday for the past week to no evail, I am breaking down and askingmy fellow planeteers for advice  ;D. Any suggestions on breaking this ole girls bad habit before my other knee cap gets kicked out? Btw she not only kicks but just seems really skiddish? whenevr I try to stand by her and go past her kneck she starts to flip out and go crazy. She is seriously pyscho.

 

[Show Steaks]

to try calming her down.. find a medium small pen (10x10) get your self a 5 gallon bucket  and the sweetest horse feed you can find(horse feed i have noticed has more molassses than most feeds or calf starter with lots of molasses) set some of the sweet feed in a  pan and calmly sit the feed just out in front of you and just play the waiting game.  works best when they are hungry..... spending time with the critter in close proximity will eventually work wonders.

As for the kicking  might try taping a brush to the end of your show stick(so your out of range) and slowly work from the top down to feet.

I've noticed both these things take time and you should reward small victories of the day by being done early for their cooperation.( they seem to be like yound children and don't have the patience to be messed with all day long before they just get irritated)

I'm nowhere near an expert just my expierences
Andrew

 

[TottenClubCalves]

thanks man shes in a 12 x 12 pen now and I sit with her everyday lol Ive tried all the basic stuff. I wanna try the brrom but Ive heard that it can either work or make em worse. Shes loves peppermint treats though she's gone through two bags and still no improvement haha ;D

 

[SKF]

It must be a blue roan thing. She sounds just like our blue roan. We tried the broom thing with ours and she is fine with it but will still kick a person plus ours hates smaller kids. We have worked with her since Dec. and finally we are getting rid of her. <party> Who is she out of? Our is out of Sinful and she is sinful.

 

[traveling bull]

If you have a closed stall available. Put her in it with 3 or 4 chickens. Let them do the running around her feet and get her used to that and save the knee caps.

 

[Part Timer]

It's a female thing. They are always a pain in the a**.

 

[box6rranch]

Put her in a closed stall and get the show stick out! Rub her all over with it. Keep working her legs with it until she quits kicking. Get a halter on her and lead her in circles in the stall till she starts to lead. Expand the area a little.
We had a really hard heifer to break too. I am a true believer in the show stick method.

 

[Show Heifer]

I'm assuming your trying to sell her to a junior member? 

Find a sale barn and save some junior member the pain. Sorry, IMO there are just too many good GENTLE ones out there to mess with a "pshyco" (your words, not mine)

 

[BCCC]

I'm assuming your trying to sell her to a junior member? 

Find a sale barn and save some junior member the pain. Sorry, IMO there are just too many good GENTLE ones out there to mess with a "pshyco" (your words, not mine)

Just guessing but by the sounds of it he is going to BREAK her and CALM her down before he attempts to sell her.

 

[AAOK]

For the kicking, hang 2 or 3 empty pop cans from her tail switch, and let her go. 

 

[kanshow]

If she is kicking because she is scared or not used to being handled - water.    Get a good sprayer on the end of your hose and let her kick away.  She'll kick & kick and the water kind of sacks her out. 

However, if she is kicking maliciously, get rid of her.    We had one of those and like I've said before, the only thing she got better at was her aim. 

 

[vc]

We have a steer that acted the same except for the kicking, started feeding Glu-coat, After about a week or two of adding it to the feed there was a drastic change in his behavior. I was told by the person who sold us the steer that he had seen a difference in the heifers he was fedding it to as well as, he had heard from a well know breeder that his wife had turned around a  really good steer who had a crappy attitude by working with it daily and adding the glu-coat to it's feed.

Our steer, you could not blow on or comb past the shoulders, he would jump around and if you pushed him to hard he would start bawling as well, then it was like someone clicked on a switch he stopped acting like a fool . We had worked with for a month prior to starting the glu-coat with very little progress up to that point.

It might just be worth a shot to try it.

 

[JWW]

if she is kicking malicously and you know when she is going to to do it, use a metal pitchfork- she will kick hard only once or twice. cattle are creatures of habit and they feel pain assoicated with kicking so they will quit.


JWW

 

[jchumley]

A sprayer on the end of a water hose will work wonders. Spray her legs and let her kick at the water. It will tire her out and she gets used to something touching her legs-when she kicks she gets the pleasure of hitting nothing.

 

[braunvieh]

I think the water is a great idea, it is a good way to calm calves down and used to being touched at a safe distance.

What is in the glu-coat?

 

[vc]

Glu-coat

Analysis
                   
Sugar  ................................................................................... 42%  
Fat  ................................................................................... 3%
Protein ................................................................................... 4%
Vitamin B12 ................................................................................... 480 mcg
Vitamin B6 ................................................................................... 800 mcg
Vitamin B2 ................................................................................... 680 mcg
Niacin ................................................................................... 8,000 mcg
Dry Matter ................................................................................... 66%
Moisture ................................................................................... 34%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
                   
Ingredients
                   
Molasses Products, Fish Oil, Proprionic Acid, Brewers Yeast, and Artificial Flavoring

                           

 

[TottenClubCalves]

What about hobbles?

 

[TJ]

Lots of good advice & I will add my 2 cents... Get the calf to trust you & don't ever let a calf get it's bluff in on you...  cattle can tell when you are scared of them & they can play off it.  There are way too many tricks, methods & things that you can do to protect yourself while breaking/gentling a calf (like a broom stick/show stick... put it in an alley or squeeze chute & brush it... spray with a water hose... tie cans on it's tail... hang several bags or cans on each side of it... tie to a donkey... etc... etc...).   Take your time with the calf & whatever you do, when it kicks or acts up, don't stop... if you think that you may get hurt, you need to immediately try something different where you can't get hurt (like get a broom or a show stick or a water hose), but whatever you do, do not let up.  1st thing I do is break with a broom stick/show stick in a small pen.  If you stop when the calf kicks or acts up, the calf will quickly realize that when it kicks, you will stop & it may get worse quickly.  Kinda like not letting one go when breaking it to lead... you don't have to hang on with all your might & let it drag you, just have a long enough rope & a small enough pen where the calf can't get away in the 1st place.  Think smart, stay safe, don't let up, & get the calf to trust you.      

FWIW, when all else has failed... a good soaking spray with the water hose will help as much as anything.  I've broken lots of bad kickers (Chi - Limi - Beefalo - Brahman influence cattle) with a spray nozzle & water.  Just make sure that you have plenty of time to spend when you start rinsing, because to do it right, you will want to rinse her until she completely stops and/or wears herself out.  And be sure to move the water around... don't just spend all your time only spraying the rear legs.  I like it better when you get them completely soaked, but if you don't want to do that, at least move back & forth switching between the front & the rear legs & inside & outside...also spend equal time on the right side & left side.  

RE ace... sometimes it helps... sometimes it makes it worse.  I've used beer in the feed (I sometimes have soaked beet pulp in it) to calm calves too, but like ace, it can occasionally cause some to act up worse.  Never used it, but I would think that melatonin would be much better.   

 

[kanshow]

The thing I like about water over something like a broom or whatever is that they cannot kick it back at you.  I've had a broom knocked out of my hands & it hurt. 

  I know of a horse trainer that actually uses a pressure washer to desensitize with.  I'm not so sure that much is necessary but whatever works in a situation. 

 

[LN]

I've used the spraying with a water hose with success and also tying something to their tail, we've used plastic bottles.