IN CONTROL OF OUR IMPULSES Southern SOIL
Understanding the effect we have on our cattle when we are working them is the key to success, says Dylan Biggs
This article first appeared in A Greener World’s Sustainable Farming magazine, Summer 2020, pages 14-16, and was written by Dylan Biggs of TK Ranch in Alberta, Canada. Reproduced here with kind permission. For more information about A Greener World—home of the world’s leading labels—visit .
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What defines success when we are working cattle? Years ago success for me was just getting the job done. Now, success is about specific outcomes I want to achieve. At the end of the day, regardless of techniques, do’s and don’ts or rights or wrongs, they are all academic if the outcome isn’t achieved. The outcome I strive for now is calm, relaxed cattle. When I pressure cattle to ask them to move or turn, slow down or speed up, I want them to respond in a calm, voluntary manner. When a cow walks calmly through the gate into the corral or onto a stock trailer or out of the squeeze; or a herd walks calmly into a new pasture and they put their heads down grazing, that is my definition of success. To do this, I had to learn to take my cues from the cattle. I had to learn to listen to them so I could be in the right place at the right time and in the right manner. Self-awareness Getting cattle to do what we want can be quite a challenge. There are times when cattle truly are not interested in going along with our plan. There are also times when, in our efforts to get them to do what we want, we end up being in their way without even knowing it. On the surface this may seem rather unlikely—and 30 years ago if anyone had told me that I was the cause of many of the problems I was having moving an animal or a herd, I wouldn’t have believed them. It is always easier to blame the cattle, the dog, our spouse, kids, our help, the weather or
