Attitude Adjustment on a Steer
- April 17, 2024
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- Jan Swan Wood
Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life
The steer had been given to me as a weaned calf. He came from a registered outfit and was destined to be a bull until he broke a hind leg. The owner didn’t need any more for their freezer, so he asked me if I
wanted him. Of course, always glad to get something to feed out and have in the freezer, so I went and got him.
I had him in the corral over the winter, and in spite of being handled daily, his attitude was bad and didn’t change. He wasn’t at all wild, but he was just plain mean. On any given day he’d try to butt me and would even make a little run at me to do so. He wasn’t too quick with that crippled leg, and I was still
pretty nimble back then, so he never connected. But he was sure aggravating.
When branding time came, I wanted to brand him before he went to grass for the summer, so I had the
guys rope him and stretch him out, careful to not re-injure the hind leg that had been broken. After putting the head loop on his front feet, I branded him and then, decided to just smother him with hands on attention. I rubbed my hands all over his face, stuck my hands over his nostrils, rubbed his eyes, put my fingers in his ears, and proceeded to rub him all over. I even put my face close to his, eyeball to eyeball, and breathed into his nose. I also talked to him while doing this, telling him what delicious steaks and burger he was going to be someday.
He fought at first, blowing snot and trying to butt me, but then he got worried about his vulnerability, I
believe. He was actually acting afraid of me for the first time. I didn’t do a single thing to hurt him, but he
knew I could if I chose to. My predatory approach sure touched on his prey animal nerves. His eyes were
big and he was breathing faster in spite of not moving around enough to warrant it. He couldn’t. The horses held him pretty much immobile, and me crouching on his neck held his head down.
Once the fear was there, I proceeded to calm him down. I got off of his neck and just kneeled next to his head and rubbed his face, ears, neck and shoulder. His respiration went down and he started blinking
normally instead of staring at me.
Finally, I saw him take a big, deep breath. I stood up and stepped away from him and told the guys to let him up. When the steer got up I was watching him closely for that attitude he’d had all winter. I was close enough to cause him to take me if he was still thinking that way. However, when he got up, he meekly moved away from me with his head down a bit. He tried to lose himself in the yearling heifers and kept himself in their midst until we were done with them.
He stayed very respectful all summer out on pasture. I’d walk through the pairs when I was out there
fencing or putting out salt and he’d just step away. Not afraid, but sure not the previously aggressive
attitude. Just a normal yearling steer.
That fall I put him in and started feeding him out to butcher. He was quiet, gentle and without any sign
of attitude at all. He wasn’t pushy at the trough when I poured his feed out and got to be a bit of a pet.
I think that handling him like I did at branding time when he was a big yearling was the best thing that ever happened to him (next to being made a steer). He got shown where he was at on the food chain
without me actually abusing him in any way. He realized that I was the alpha predator and he was the prey, that’s for sure.
Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life
About Jan Swan Wood
Jan was raised on a ranch in far western South Dakota. She grew up horseback working all descriptions of cattle, plus sheep and horses. After leaving home she pursued a post-graduate study of cowboying and dayworking in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota....