Tag Archives: stockmanship

Time well spent with United Farmers of Alberta

I have spent most of the month of January in Canada.  United Farmers of Alberta is a farmer owned co-op that hosts a series of “Cattlemen’s Colleges” each year and I spoke about cattle handling.

They were great learning experiences for me.  The speakers were top notch. Marketing, finance, nutrition, forage management, and best calving practices were presented.  I did not hear one sales pitch to buy anything from the store.  One  speaker on nutrition explained how a certain blue block of salt had little value nutritionally, and was like licking metal in the subzero temperature.  He recommended loose salt added to mineral to get the best value and health from the purchase of salt.  That was real good information, but the funny thing was the store was giving away several blue salt blocks for door prizes.  Now that’s humor!

I think it is real smart what they were doing.  If I owned a store I would want my customers to be educated enough to purchase things that made them a profit.  It is in the store’s best interest to help the customer become a professional beef producer.  The more they learn and implement for-profit practices, the longer they will be in business, and when you are profitable it allows for more expansion.

Knowledge is the first step, then learning how to use the knowledge. Then keeping that knowledge and skill learned in practice and improving is the big challenge.  This kind of beef production is what it is going to take to get it done in this era of ranching.  This is also what the consumer of beef wants, a producer that treats and cares for the environment and the livestock up to their moral standards.

I am a little embarrassed when I speak in front of the Canadian rancher.  They are good people that have had a tough go of it.  You can’t believe how bad they felt for the South Dakota storm victims.  These are the same ranchers that R-CALF and other groups has cost thousands of dollars.

I am not a political person.  I am a dedicated proponent of the proper production of beef.  If you are Mexican, Canadian, or from the U.S., we all are North Americans and if we can work together it sure seems like a lot better way to go about it.

I look at this in the same way as I look at neighboring in ranch country.  I’ll bring my crew to your branding and you bring yours to mine.  If there is a range fire we all go to it and help each other by putting it out, no matter whose land it is.  In the Southern U.S. they put everyone’s cattle together in groups to improve the marketing of the cattle. Good neighbors help each other, no matter if it costs them a little, because at some point it may save them a lot, and I am not talking only financially.

I’ve seen quite a few people bad mouth their neighbor when they weren’t around, and then not say a thing when they are present, but they can’t look them in the eye.

So all you folks that are for putting politics in to the beef industry, go to it.  I hope it’s not to just raise money for your organization or cause.  I am going to stay with doing the right thing for the industry, not for my own selfish greed.

If you get in a bind and need some help give me a call.  I bet I can get some of my Canadian ranching friends to come help us out of a tough spot.  You see there are some things you don’t learn at a Cattlemen’s College.  It’s called doing what’s right, it’s called integrity, it used to be the “Code of the West.”

~ Curt Pate

Speaking in Red Deer

I spoke at the 2014 Horse Breeders and Owners Conference in Red Deer, Alberta for the Horse Industry Association of Alberta this past week. This was what I wrote for the program.

I believe when you set your mind to do something and deeply desire to accomplish it, it will manifest itself.

Several years back I made a decision to become the best horseman and stockman possible.
This was the only goal.  I did not aspire to become a clinician or teacher, but looking back it was the only way to get where I am going (I am not there yet).

At first I was real interested in performance and cowboy skills.  I worked on colt starting, getting a horse real handy and roping.  I was getting better and could work with the folks I chose to be around, even getting as good or better than most of them.

This was all real good but I was not satisfied.  I felt something was missing.  We were all talking one thing, but really doing another.  I started working on how to really get to working with animals to get what I was looking for.

This is the first thing to remember:  Horsemanship is a very personal thing.

If what I do makes me happy, that’s important.  If it is not something you find appealing, no offense.

I don’t compete, so the first thing I had to do was to learn that the training that is popular to win at competitions could be keeping me from my goal.

One of the big changes to my way of approaching horsemanship was getting introduced to what I have termed “Calvary Dressage.”  Most things that I have studied from the Calvary have been very practical and easy to learn.  They had to have a process of teaching that got results quickly and taught low- skill horseman to become accomplished horseman real quickly.  This created a method of horsemanship that was simple, effective, and practical that made good horses that would last.

The next big learning experience was pursuing what is commonly termed “low-stress cattle handling,”  This is about handling stock in a way that is positive to the performance of the animal.  It is about working with the animal to get it to do what you want rather than forcing the animal to do what you need.

The other thing that you should know is while learning I had very little fear of getting bucked off or hurt.  I could ride real well and could think myself out of a situation.  So what works for me may not be totally correct for you.  Only you can make that decision, and it is always best to stay on the cautious side.

These are the things I think are real important to remember:

  • The thing that has been most helpful to me is realizing a horse or any animal can only have one main thought at a time.
  • Horses are most athletic when their spines are strait.
  • Horses have a survival mode and a thinking mode.  They learn and retain in thinking mode. If the horse is in survival mode or headed towards survival mode they don’t retain.
  • The way a horse works physically, his reaction time is much quicker than the humans so we must think way ahead or we will always be catching up.
  • It is important to be able to take a horse from calm and relaxed to athletic then back to calm and relaxed.  This will go a long way to creating a horse that is safe and productive that will last mentally and physically for a long time.

Whatever style of horsemanship you choose you can work with the horse or choose to try to overpower the horse.  The horse is very strong, has great stamina, and is pretty good at surviving (that’s why we ride them).  From what I have observed it is very ineffective to try to overpower, outlast, or scare the horse into doing what we want.  The opposite of ineffective is effective and that is my goal when working with animals.

So this takes us back to the goal of being the best stockman possible.  The more effective you are at working with the horse or cow the better the results will be, so I always try to keep
“Effective Horsemanship” or “Effective Stockmanship” in mind while trying to be my best.

~ Curt Pate

I Am Angus: Curt Pate on importance of stockmanship, future of ranching

Curt Pate was recently featured on an episode of of “I Am Angus.” In this segment, he discusses the importance of stockmanship and stewardship to the future of ranching. For those that weren’t able to catch the segment when it aired on January 2nd, you can watch in the embedded video below or click here to go directly to YouTube to watch.

~ Jesse Bussard