The Kyneton Saleyards hosted a free event last Friday for local animal handlers to upskill their management of cattle.
About 50 people attended the event, from large-scale and hobbyist cattle farmers to council rangers, to learn different aspects regarding cattle such as interpreting their behaviour, safe and efficient vaccination techniques and cattle yard design.
Candice Cordy, the Kyneton branch manager for Nutrien Ag Solutions who provide services tailored to farmers in rural and regional areas, hosted the event. She said cattle that were treated safely on farms would result in calmer animals presented at the saleyard, which in turn would have better outcomes for producers.
“There’s a really good appetite for learning. Obviously there’s a lot of different scale and size operations here, but the principles of livestock handling are the same regardless of the numbers and facilities,” Ms Cordy said.
Lucy Morrissey, the managing director of Morrissey and Friends Livestock Services, brought her experience from working on ranches in the US to provide insight into animal psychology and effectively herding cattle through eye-contact and subtle movements of the body, which the attendees then had an opportunity to try out under her guidance.
The local rangers attended to seek out this experience specifically, as it is a skill they perform daily. Robert Coles, who manages the local rangers, said they dealt with escaped livestock on the road often.
“We were out just yesterday down in Woodend with cattle loose. We had about 10 that were out down near Buffalo Reserve that we were able to round up. But today, looking at these things, there’s just things you definitely look at now and go, we could do better,” he said.
“Across the board with sheep, cattle and goats, it could be every other day almost. You’ll have your quiet periods, but we do deal with it quite often.”
Many hobbyist farmers in the area with cattle ranging in numbers from 60-200 agreed that Morrissey’s insights were invaluable, and even for the more experienced farmers there was plenty to learn.
Sam Stephens, who has worked across Queensland on farms with thousands of cattle, said he came to ask a few questions about vaccinating and drenching and definitely did get the answers he was after.
The event was followed by a free lunch where farmers could network and share stories to assist one another.
