June 29
Q: "....how on earth do you teach a cow to wear a halter? Or lead around?"
A: There are many styles that people use to halter break cattle. All of them include first gaining the animals trust by brushing and combing them to get them use to you, then as they get tamer you can just can start the leading process. This is a slow process usually only getting the animal to take a step or two at a time. It usually takes from 7 to 15 times haltering an animal to get it well broke and able to lead
June 25
Q: "All the cattle I have seen have had ear piercing things, these surely aren't for looks?'
A: Your right these are not for looks. These "ear rings" are called ear tags and are for ease of identification. Things such as Mother and Father's number, and can identify the year they were born along with there identification number.
June 21
Q: "....from reading you blog i have become very interested in agriculture and want to learn more, I am from calgary and want to konw if there is any tourist information places where I could learn a bit more?'
A: There is a large verity of venues where you can learn about agriculture and the happenings on the average farm. Aggie Days held at Stamped park every april is a great place to learn many interesting new facts, but if you are looking for more a summer time adventure you could head up to Olds from July 9th to seventeenth and see a tremendous showcase of youth agriculture exhibiters. All the juniors are happy to answer any questions are just have a nice talk. Another local venue is the Calgary Stampede, there is lots to learn and many exciting attractions.
June 13
Q: "Hi Hal, I love the blog. I just had a question, I have a few friends that live in the country and they are always talking about brandlings and I was just wondering why are these necessary and are they actually beneficial for the livestock? "
A: When calves are usually a few weeks old it is vital for them to have vaccines just like children at a young age, these livestock are like athletes and need to be treated with outmost care and compassion to ensure they can preform to their fullest. many animal activists say that livestock are cruelly treated or abused, this is not the case at all. livestock are treated tremendous or else they will not preform to their outmost potential.
May 12th
Q: "....Hi I live in Edmonton and quite often drive down to see friends and family in Calgary. I always enjoy looking at the livestock on the long drive. I Have always been curious as to why some cattle have horns and others don't, I have heard that bulls have horns and cow don't have horns, is this right?...."
A: It is a common miss conception that bulls have horns while cows don't. First off cattle with out horns naturally are considered polled. While some farmers who raise horned cattle decide to leave the horns on their bulls and take them off their females, this creates many advantages to the producer . Many breeds of cattle are naturally polled and can never grow horns, while some breeds have both horned and polled types of cattle. It just all depends on their genetic code.
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| Horned hereford |
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| Polled Hereford |
