Moving livestock can be difficult if you do not understand how the animals think and move. Livestock handlers want to keep their animals calm when moving them to avoid stress and injury. If there are loud noises or other distractions, such as sights or even smells, many animals will become fearful or hesitant to move. An animal that is afraid can be dangerous for both the animal and the handler. Keeping the area free of distractions can help reduce animal handling problems. If the animals are kept calm and feel safe, they will usually move with little or no effort. Handlers want to keep animals calm so the animals are not negatively impacted. Stressed animals can have lower weight, reduced reproduction rates, and increased sickness.
Cattle producers use alleyways and squeeze chutes to move cattle while doctoring them. By understanding cattle behavior, such as their flight zones, along with creating alleyways and chutes with rounded turns and closed sides, producers can keep livestock calm. This greatly reduces the animals' stress levels while they are being handled. Understanding animal instincts allows producers to handle them easier.
As animals of prey, livestock have wide angle vision, which allows them to see predators as well as handlers. Cattle and pigs have a visual field in excess of 300°. In sheep, the visual field ranges from 191° to 306° depending on the amount of wool on the head. Due to their wide angle vision, they are aware of their surroundings. If the handler is in their blind spot, the animal will turn to see them.
Dr. Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University, focuses on animal behavior and has made, and continues to make, a huge impact on how livestock are handled. She researches how livestock perceive their environment and helps producers develop livestock handling facilities that help keep animals calm.
Temple Grandin was diagnosed with autism as a young girl in the 1950s. In 1961, she spent the summer at her aunt's ranch in Arizona. She became interested in the cattle and realized they were visual thinkers; they saw the world in much the same way as her and noticed details in their surroundings most people missed. In fact, Temple often describes herself as someone who "thinks in pictures." As a senior in high school in 1965, she created her first invention, a squeeze machine. The inspiration for this invention came from cattle chutes that keep cattle calm during vaccinations by squeezing them firmly, like a hug. Temple grew to love animals and earned her master's degree in Animal Science in 1975. In 1976, she invented the curved chute system for moving cattle. She earned her doctoral degree in Animal Science in 1989. Dr. Grandin was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 2010 and was also named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people that year.
Dr. Grandin's research led her to believe that the way animals, especially cattle, are handled and transported can potentially cause stress, pain, and fear. When cattle are moved on wet or slippery slopes or in poorly lit areas, they can be injured. She believes this is cruel and unnecessary. In order to design a better system for handling livestock, she decided to put herself through the handling process. Using her instincts, which are often similar to cattle, she realized cattle prefer pens and chutes with solid sides and well lit areas, keeping them free from distractions, dark tight spaces, and shadows which could scare the cattle. Her invention of the curved chute system came from the realization that cattle tend to move in a circular pattern around their handlers. By designing a system with solid walls, non-slip floors, and a curved walkway allowing cattle to move in a single-file line through the alley, cattle are handled in a calm manner. Today, half of the cattle in United States and Canadian meat processing plants are handled with equipment that Grandin designed.
Dr. Temple Grandin travels and speaks to groups about animal behavior. Many professional speakers wear suits, however Dr. Grandin is well known for her unique style. She wears Western shirts, often paired with cowboy scarves. She may wear fancy or simple Western shirts, but her Western shirts are as constant as her passion for agriculture. In 2011, she even wore a Western shirt to the Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood!
Agricultural engineers are important to livestock producers. They often assist producers in designing livestock handling areas using the research from Dr. Grandin. They help producers apply basic science and engineering principles as they develop these livestock facilities. Often, agricultural engineers design machinery such as tractors and implements, animal housing or handling facilities, irrigation and drainage systems, and soil conservation systems. Agricultural engineers help design methods to decrease labor, which also increases a producer's ability to produce food.
