Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2008 14:57:58 GMT -5
I'm feeling alright about our Dexter heifer, Raspberry. She is 8 months old now. I can take a halter on/off. I can lead her. I can walk up to her in the field. When I walk in her stall with a bucket of grain I can holler "Back Up" and she backs up to give me space before I put the bucket down. (This "back up" request I learned here. Thank you very much. ) Now we let her grow up and get her bred. Until then, is there anything else to work on? Does she need more training? How do you know when they are done?
Oh, I can tie her to a pole. I can brush her anywhere. My kids can brush her. We are working on name recognition.
There have been few problems so far. Getting her dishorning wounds healed was a trouble. But that's over. One evening when I was leading her back to her stall, she balked. She's never balked before. I was really having to puuuuuuuuull. Hum. Then as we were making our slow progress she stopped. She looked at me, straight in the face, and then she -quite purposely it seemed to me- just threw her body to the side. She didn't even bend her knees. She just fell straight to the side. She's so round and fat that she rolled up and flashed her udder then rolled back, tucked her feet under her, and looked around with immense satisfaction. She just lay there chewing cud and thinking, "Ha, I don't have to go in after all." I offered a nice leafy green bribe and suddenly her legs started working again. And we walked straight into the stall.
So, that is her one great moment of testing. What was that all about? And, are we basically done here? Advice?
Oh, I can tie her to a pole. I can brush her anywhere. My kids can brush her. We are working on name recognition.
There have been few problems so far. Getting her dishorning wounds healed was a trouble. But that's over. One evening when I was leading her back to her stall, she balked. She's never balked before. I was really having to puuuuuuuuull. Hum. Then as we were making our slow progress she stopped. She looked at me, straight in the face, and then she -quite purposely it seemed to me- just threw her body to the side. She didn't even bend her knees. She just fell straight to the side. She's so round and fat that she rolled up and flashed her udder then rolled back, tucked her feet under her, and looked around with immense satisfaction. She just lay there chewing cud and thinking, "Ha, I don't have to go in after all." I offered a nice leafy green bribe and suddenly her legs started working again. And we walked straight into the stall.
So, that is her one great moment of testing. What was that all about? And, are we basically done here? Advice?