Page 167 - The Welfare of Cattle

144 the WeLfare of CattLe

Return path leaving flight zone

Path to move animals forward

Squeeze
chute

Point of
balance Cattle will move forward when the handler
passes the point of balance at the shoulder of
each animal. The handler walks in the opposite
direction alongside the single-file race.

Figure 13.1 handler movement pattern to encourage an animal to move forward in a single-file race (chute).

• Understand Flight Zone Principles—Unless cattle are completely tame and trained to lead, they
will have a flight zone. The four factors that determine the size of the flight zone are (1) genetics,
(2) duration of contact with people, (3) the quality of the contact (Grandin, 2000a), and (4) the speed
and angle of the handler’s approach (Patrick Tobola, personal communication, 2017). Animals that
seldom see people or they have been handled in a rough, aggressive manner will have larger flight
zones than cattle that have had regular gentle contact. A common mistake made by novice handlers
is to stand in the flight zone when there is no way for the cattle to move away. This is most likely to
occur when cattle are held in a single-file chute. If an animal rears, becomes agitated, or starts to
defecate, the handler should back up and remove him/herself from the flight zone.

tWO ZONeS arOUND CattLe

There are two zones around cattle where a person has an effect on moving an animal. The
innermost zone is the flight zone. When a person enters the flight zone, an animal on an open
pasture will move away. The outermost zone, which is outside the flight zone, is called the zone of
awareness or the pressure zone. When a person enters this zone, the cattle will turn and look at you.
There is much more information on these zones in Grandin and Deesing (2008) and Grandin (2017).
Point of Balance—When people are moving cattle through a single-file chute, they need to learn
to never stand at the head of the animal and poke it on the butt. This gives it conflicting signals. A
counterintuitive method to urge an animal to move forward in a single-file chute is to quickly walk
back past it in the opposite direction of desired movement (Grandin, 2000a) (Figure 13.1). When the
handler crosses the point of balance at the shoulder, it will move forward. Cattle-handling specialist
Tom Noffsinger recommends stroking the animal from withers to tail to encourage it to go forward
(Personal communication, 2015).

NeVer USe aN eLeCtrIC PrOD aS the PrIMarY DrIVING tOOL

A flag, plastic paddle or no driving aid should be used for moving cattle. People often get overly
aggressive with driving aids. Proponents of low-stress cattle handling emphasize learning how to
move animals by using very small body movements. Some welfare advocates want to completely