Management is important to livestock

People feel strongly about animals under their care, be they livestock in the case of horses and cattle or household pets. We know these creatures depend on us for much of their safety, their nutrition, their well being during times of stress.

The interesting thing I have observed about animal care is that they clearly respond to human attention. What I mean by this animals respond to management. If ignored they fail, if attended to they succeed.

Sheep are an excellent example of animals that respond dramatically to the presence of human management/attention. These small ruminants require some specific attention during certain times of their production cycle. Considering they are meat animals and intended to feed humans, their offspring should grow rapidly at a low cost to the producer in order to offer a profit. Profits mean the farmer is running a sustainable operation and will be in business for the long run.

There are a number of problems that can cause sheep to fail in their primary purpose. Internal parasites are a good example that all sheep producers know can ruin sheep performance and indeed even kill sheep or lambs if overlooked.

Management/human attention is a key ingredient to preventing this problem and sheep respond nicely internal parasite control/management brought into the flock.

Another critical animal management input is during birthing. Sheep need to bond at birth and good shepherds know to keep the ewe and lambs together for a period of time so this can take place. Once the ewe and lamb know each other they can be turned out with the flock. Baby lambs born on a wet cold night can easily die of exposure. Knowing this, the good manager will have ewes give birth under cover, protected from the wind, and they will attend to new lambs immediately if at all possible. Those first minutes are crucial to helping with success at birth.
Canadian cattle producers are said to have much lower baby calf death rate at birth. Since they are present more often when their cows calve, maybe due to their colder weather cows are inside and near people, they are able to introduce more of that important management ingredient into the animal system and help improve its performance.

By now you get my point that animals respond to human attention/management. Farmers who manage livestock must have the skill to recognize animal problems well before they are an issue. The best managers “read” their animals even from a distance. I rode with two seasoned beef producers and from a distance they observed that the cows were not moving their tails.

During the summer, active tails mean there is fly pressure and managers know they transmit disease and suck blood.

Animal managers also prevent problems by introducing management before it is needed. They will vaccinate animals to prevent disease, they will provide minerals to balance nutrition, they will take action at birthing to avoid death. They are attentive to their animals and we know this means they care about them, be they livestock or pets.