Whenever we are working livestock, and we are working hard, we are doing something very wrong — or somebody is. It’s usually somebody else.

— Bud Williams

Hand ҆n Hand Livestock Solutions Home Page

Proper Stockmanship and Livestock Marketing — Your Keys to Successful Ranch Management

Have you heard about “Stockmanship” and wondered just what it was? Have you read something about Bud Williams or others who teach stockmanship and thought you might like to learn more? Would you like to learn marketing techniques based on today’s price rather than a crystal ball? If so, this web page has many resources to help you.

Good stockmanship is not about having “tame” animals you can pet or trick into the corral with grain, going slow as you work livestock, or just not yelling. It means having the tools to keep your livestock in the proper mental state as they go through the entire production process including rotating pastures, gathering, sorting, weaning, backgrounding, feedlot management, and loading with the results of lowered stress and better quality of life for you and your livestock.

The emotional element of livestock is often ignored or misunderstood. They appear to be (and are often treated as) unemotional and stupid, when they are neither. Emotional stress can cause as much or more damage to production as the physical stress of poor feed, bad weather, or rough handling.

As well as being a premier stock handler, Bud Williams also developed livestock marketing techniques based on today’s price and simple math to assist you in making profitable management decisions about what to sell and what to buy. We continue to teach and explain his techniques.

Attend a Hand ‘n Hand Livestock Solutions school and learn how proper stockmanship can make your livestock handling experiences easier and more enjoyable and how combining good stockmanship with these marketing techniques can make your ranch more profitable.

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We are Hand ‘n Hand Livestock Solutions

We (Richard McConnell and Tina Williams) met in 2002 in what would turn out to be a perfect combination of talents and love. After attending many Bud Williams Stockmanship and Marketing schools, we started teaching Proper Stockmanship in 2005 and Livestock Marketing in 2014.

We have taught classes from California to New York and from Saskatchewan to Florida.

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Our Email Announcement List

If you would like to be added to our email list to receive information about upcoming schools and online courses, please fill out this form.

Read the Latest—

Texas School

Richard, Mom, and I traveled to Fredericksburg, TX and put on a three and a half day marketing and stockmanship school. It was great to

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“Low Stress?”

“It is my opinion that a few good people will learn how to work their animals better, and most will just talk about ‘low stress’

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Testimonials—

We have thoroughly enjoyed the class. I do think the online 5 week time allows one to better understand what you are teaching as it gives a chance to soak and to practice with livestock each week. We would highly recommend the class and plan on having our crew all enroll in the next class.

Rick and Maggie

I really liked the online format, simply because there is such a large amount of information to take in and the format over a 5-week time frame allows for human "soak" time, but also a chance to go and try these principles and then come back with questions when you hit a wall!

Thank you very much for your time in teaching us. This will be something we will use and develop over the rest of our lives and we are very thankful to have been introduced to you both and this type of stockmanship. Our five year old son was loading heifers up the alley yesterday (Dad ran the bud box and he brought each one up to the chute). Kids catch on so quick - he looked like a mini Bud striding out with energy and purpose to walk in the opposite direction and the heifers responded great to him. He frequently reminds us to keep our hands in our pockets!

Angela

I just wanted to let you know that I was at the course in ***. I am a veterinarian, and as I went around preg checking this fall the information that you shared helped a great deal. We processed record numbers of animals with a lot less struggles and happier crews at the end of the day. Thank you for having shared this information with myself and others.

Victor

Thanks for sending the list and most importantly thanks for a great class. Even though I had attended both schools previously I got more out of your teaching than before. Sometimes it takes a while to sink in but as I told **, your teaching style and methods are very effective and much appreciated. Thanks again and look forward to seeing you in the future.

Kent

We used the methods we learned in ** for moving cattle last week when we sorted cows and calves and WOW! Much smoother handling, kids were impressed and we were all still smiling and talking to each other at the end of the day! I would have taken pics to show how it was all going but it was moving so tickity smooth and fast there was no time! lol We showed our other kids the DVD and some youtube videos and they caught on right away so the day went very quickly, and all that was to be done in 2 (possibly 3 days) was done in ONE!!! THANK YOU for teaching the course! It was worth the time and money spent!

Jodi

Thanks for the Stockmanship School this last week. The very next day we were to work 21 heifers, and my helper didn’t show up. With nothing to loose I decided to "drive" my calves a few minutes. It was going good so I kept at it. In a few minutes they were in the lot. I worked the calves by myself (freeze branded and vaccinated). I work off the bottom line, paid $50 for the course, saved $50 in labor cost the very next day. The best surprise was that when I was finished working the calves I put a couple of rolls of hay into the pen and when I opened the gate they stayed and ate hay.

DH

We are very happy that we chose to take your livestock handling course. We are glad it was available online. It is nice being able to rewatch the videos because we were able to catch things the second time that we weren't able to see or hear the first time. Also, these classes were an advantage because we were able to go out and practice with our livestock immediately. It has also given us hope because we will be able to handle the livestock in a less stressful and less physical way.

Joe and Jennifer

Just finished the Proper Livestock Marketing course. The sell/buy concept is fascinating, and Richard and Tina do a great job teaching it. Once they explain how it works, they release the spreadsheets that do all of the calculations. Very interesting and well worth the investment. We have already started implementing.

Tim