EFFICIENT COW HANDLING:

THE SOUND OF SILENCE?

Excellent stockmanship is important to keep animals calm, avoid injury, and work efficiently while handling dairy cattle, however stockmanship training usually focuses on flight zones, chute and gate construction, and avoiding visual distractions. However, a recent presentation by Dr. Katy Proudfoot given at Miner Institute highlighted the frequently overlooked but equally important component of stockmanship: sound.

Cows have huge ears, but their purpose is more than just a convenient place to put an ear tag. Cows are prey animals, and their large ears allow them to capture even the softest of sounds in order to avoid predators. As a result, sounds as soft as a whisper to humans are very audible to dairy cattle.

Although cows’ ears amplify all types of sound, research indicates that they respond most negatively to loud human voices. Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan compared the sound of humans shouting and a clanging metal chute at the same volume, and found that human shouting resulted in higher heart rates and more restless movements during handling.

Like dogs, cattle are sensitive to sounds at much higher frequencies than humans. In addition, higher frequency sounds, especially when played intermittently, are more likely to increase a cow’s heart rate. In other words, you might want to ditch the whistling, since this high pitched sound may cause more stress than speaking at a similar volume.

So what about speaking compared to other ways of motivating cattle to move, such as physical contact? Research from Purdue University allowed cows to choose between several types of handling techniques. It’s no surprise that when given the choice between nothing and a hit and a shout, the majority of cows chose to go towards nothing. However, when given the choice between a shout and a shock with an electric cattle prod, about half of the cows actually chose to be shocked to avoid the shouting! I’m sure most cow handlers would believe that an electric shock is far worse than shouting, but the cows in this experiment are telling us otherwise.

What about speaking gently to cattle, especially as a way of soothing them? To my knowledge, there is little research that supports that speaking in a gentle voice soothes cattle. So while speaking gently may remind the cattle handler to stay calm, it’s probably not doing much to calm the cow.

What about communication between handlers while sorting or moving cattle? Because cattle hear sound much more loudly than we do, it’s safe to say that our normal speaking voice may cause cattle to become restless. This is especially apparent among animals that are handled less frequently, such as heifers. Therefore, when sorting individual animals, it’s best to keep conversations between humans to a minimum. For example, instead of calling out the number of the heifer that you need, point to her back so your handling partner knows who to sort from the group.

When conversations are necessary, keep them to a whisper. And it’s always best to have a plan before entering a pen of cattle, which will reduce your need to speak to one another. The next time you need to sort cows or heifers, try to keep your voice to a minimum. Ultimately, sorting cows calmly will result in happy handlers, cleaner clothes, and less fearful cows – a win for everyone on the farm.