Testimonials from Some Whose Lives We have Touched

From Mark:

I have been using the livestock handling techniques you presented and had an interesting experience yesterday at the vets. I took some bulls in to be banded and he has one of those tubs and curved alleys that cattle normally don't want to work well in. I had been working with these cattle some and when I started them toward the chute and they quietly just walked on in, he asked if I had those cattle trained, they never work this good. I told him yes they were trained, but he just laughed; it went right over his head. Change is difficult for everyone to accept. Thanks again.

From Monte:

This last fall I had the opportunity to attend a one-day stockmanship school in Woodward, OK that you taught, and I loved it. Since then, instead of pouring $20 a head worth of Pfizer into them, I have just been doing simple and basic stuff at a lot less money plus I'm exercising my new arrivals twice to three times a day and the results have been great as well as my BPCOG has went down.

Tonight, I had to laugh at my three-year old son who was walking our house cat around the house. My wife asked him what he was doing, and he replied, “I'm exercising Josey (the cat) so she won't get sick.”

He gets it!  I hope you and Tina get a kick out of it as well. I look forward to seeing Bud in Kansas to learn more. I have already done things with my cattle I never thought would be possible.

From Richard:

Richard and Tina were great. Stress is one of the biggest factors in animal health and weight gain. We have incorporated Bud Williams' techniques into our operation to not only reduce animal and employee stress, but improve the safety and well-being of our two most valuable assets. The class covered many important issues we face every day when working with livestock. The manner in which the material was presented promoted a great deal of discussion, and we look forward to having Richard and Tina back as we continue to educate our employees on the proper way to handle livestock.

From Roger:

I have been around livestock my entire life, and I thought I knew all there was to know about handling livestock. I don't think I could have been more wrong. Richard & Tina have opened up a whole new world to my sons and I when it comes to handling livestock. Our ability to handle livestock properly has improved not only our bottom line but our quality of life. Reducing stress on your livestock and family is a win win situation.

If you ever have a chance to attend one of Richard's and Tina's school do so, it will be the best money you will ever spend.

Thanks!! Richard & Tina for showing this old Missouri farm boy a profitable and better way.

From Robert:

I was at the two day seminar in Burlington, CO. Just wanted to let you know that I have been using some of the techniques that you showed us, and it seems to be working. I've been messing with the 36 head of first calf heifers we received last week, and I believe they would probably fit into the wild category of livestock. After four days of playing with them, I can drive them around with a better than average amount of success. It might be luck but I'll call it some form of success.

Now I am hooked and am anxious to receive our older cows back off of cornstalks so that I can harass them.

Chris, he was with me at the seminar, and I worked on some of his feedlot cattle. This pen would fit into the "don't sneeze wrong" cattle. They had already blown out the backside of the pen the week before we went to your seminar. Anyway, he messed with them a little on Sunday when we got back, and then we moved them out to the working facility to be reimplanted. We were successful without tearing down any fences. Again, might be beginners luck, but looked good to us.

Today I helped a neighbor load out two pots of 750 pound calves and had excellent results. If it were not for the truckers "helping", it would have went a lot smoother. It was neat, in a educational way, to watch the truckers' movement and position and see what a negative effect they had on the calves.

Thank you for your time and help, I can see this having nothing but a positive result on our livestock and the people who are forced to work with me.

From Bob:

Had the opportunity two weeks ago to use our new corral with a 'Bud box'. This is almost embarrassing how good it worked. It took all of about 10 seconds to figure it out. These cows were new from the sale barn, not 'broke' to the system. I can load the alley in seconds by moving less than 3 ft.

After we worked them we loaded them thru the same alley to haul them to another farm. My son commented, "we'll never get'em back thru there." If anything, they went thru better the second time. All the time we were building it, the boys kept telling me it wouldn't work and making plans to retro fit it with a gate in the box. I'm sure my oldest son, who helped that day, is really convinced now. Last week we helped a fellow at Osceola lay out and build a corral. As I was laying out and explaining the 'box' they, were all looking at me pretty funny (remember, I'm used to this, I started managed grazing in the '80s). My son enthusiasticly told them how good it worked.

It's so sad how much money and effort go into facilaties to compensate for inferior stock handling. Not to mention the untold stress on the stock.

Just another little story. Last week I had a bull get on the neighbor's place. I located him Saturday morning. I went to fetch him back with 2 dogs (Jim and Scot). Basically I let the dogs 'hold' him, and I drove the cows away. Then we just walked him 1/4 mile to the gate, which I had to open while he stood there, took him onto the road and walked him 3/4 mile home. The bad part is, nobody was there to see all this good stock handling by both man and dog! Oh yes, all this took about an hour. I'm sure it could have taken longer if I would of had 4 or 5 cowboys with broken fences, injured livestock and not have gotten him.

From Paul:

If you have the opportunity to attend one of Richard's trainings, do so.

From Steve Ritz:

We very much enjoyed your talk on low stress stockmanship at our agricultural education meeting here in Romney, West Virginia. Your more detailed workshop the next morning was also very helpful to our cattle producers. I've already heard from several farmers who had positive results from working their cattle after hearing your talk. We wish you well in your farming efforts and hope to see you back in West Virginia. Take care.

From Ben Gorden:

Occasionally something comes along that changes our way of thinking. Low stress animal handling is one of those things. Low stress handling makes us develop a different way of thinking. Here are a few of the changes I've made.

• From "make them" to "let them"
• From "crowd them" to "stepping back"
• From "screaming and hollering" to silence
• From cattle prods to visual nods
• From uptight attitude to patience
• From faster to slower

These things (like any change) are hard for many of us to do. I can assure you as I sit here after working my calves this morning that slow is faster, and low stress applies as much to me as to my cattle.

A special thanks for your time and patience in helping me with these changes.

From Mark Kennedy:

Thanks for speaking about and demonstrating "Stockmanship" to the Top of the Ozarks Grazier Group. Your presentation was well organized and very informative. You can relate to those of us who are in the infancy of improving our stockmanship skills, while at the same time hold the attention of the more advanced stockman. Our group was very impressed with your workshop.

From Adele M. Buettner, Executive Director, Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan:

I was pleased to hire Richard McConnell to deliver two low stress handling seminars in Saskatchewan. As his presentation skills are superior, he engaged the audience from the very beginning and carried their interest throughout the entire day. Richard's seminars included a number of excellent videos clips of both he and Bud Williams handling livestock, complimented by interactive discussion.

Attendees of Richard's seminar felt it was very worthwhile and are encouraging us to work with Richard again in the future.

From Doug:

Thanks for speaking to our group about your low stress livestock handling techniques. Your ideas and concepts work great. Several folks in our group have commented on how well so many of the things they learned from you work. You presented your ideas in a very down to earth, common sense manner. Everybody from the more advanced livestock handlers to the beginners were able to learn something from you. The afternoon session in the pasture and corrals was excellent. It was very helpfull to actually see the ideas and techniques put to the test working cattle. Thanks again for everything.

From Ben:

When I first heard of rotational grazing, I was very skeptical. Then I tried it! When I first heard of low stress livestock handling, I was very skeptical. Then I tried it.

I watched videos, visited with Richard, even asked Richard for an on farm demonstration. I think he sensed my skepticism. But one very hot August afternoon in weeds high as my head, Richard successfully allowed fifteen steers to enter my corral for medical treatment. Just a fluke you might say. But the next day, I tried the same technique for myself. It worked. Since that time, I have successfully used the low stress cattle handling techniques many times.

Don't be afraid to try new stuff.