Montana heifer reaches out for a thistle

This summer I learned that cows do recognize the differences between people, and that this can change how excited they are to come to the feeding tubs during training.

I worked on two different projects this summer that involved different people feeding trainees over the course of the training process.  In Montana, where over 50 heifers were learning to eat Canada thistle, different volunteers came in on 3 of the 4 days.  In Alberta, Canada, the wife and kids fed them at first, and then the husband took over to finish the training off.  In both cases, trainees still came to the tubs, but they didn’t do it with the normal enthusiasm I’ve come to expect.

The Montana project was my first experience with having different trainers do the training.  When I arrived to help introduce the heifers to Canada thistle, I became a little concerned when they demonstrated more interest in us than in the tubs.  In an effort to create more excitement I actually stooped to drizzling on a little molasses.  I shouldn’t have worried, because the heifers began eating thistle in pasture after only two days of fiddling with it in tubs.

I began to suspect that having more than one trainer was a problem when I talked to two different Montana feeding volunteers who described how they called the animals to the tubs.  Naturally, there were differences.  When “excitement levels” dropped in the same way in the Alberta project, it became clear to me that different people really do make a difference.

The success of the training process is based in part on routine.  Different trainers call the cows differently, spread out the feed differently, and react to their animals differently.  Certainly the trainees recognize that we’re all people and that we’re bringing food.  But when they have to pay attention to us, and figure out what our different behaviors mean for them, it reduces the amount of time they have to learn about what we’re feeding.  That means they might be more interested in us than in the feed, or more cautious about sticking their heads in the tubs until they know what we’re up to.

The moral of the story?  Things will go more smoothly if the same person or people feed the animals through the 7 -10 day process.