When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

— Wayne Dyer

Proper Stockmanship, Your Key to Successful Herd Management

The Value of Stockmanship

The value of stockmanship needs to be understood before you can make the decision to begin to integrate it into your own livestock management.
  • How much value is there in extra pounds per animal and extra animals due to a lower death loss?
  • How much value is there in being able to graze the exact pasture needing grazing that day, rather than being forced to go in a certain pattern because the only way you can move your livestock is to open a gate and move them into the adjacent pasture?
  • How much is it worth to you to have a happy spouse/child working with you rather than seeing them stomp off in disgust because you’ve yelled at them once too many times when the livestock didn’t work well?
  • How much is it worth to not have to re-build fence, doctor cuts and scrapes on livestock and/or people, or take anyone to the emergency room after a day of working your livestock?
  • How much is it worth to be able to gather all your animals (instead of good old #27 always finding a way to evade capture)? Or if you just need one animal, wouldn’t it be nice to just bring it up alone and do what’s necessary?
  • How much satisfaction is there is doing a job quietly, smoothly, easily, and with all parties (people and livestock) happy and healthy after it’s all done?

These are all things good stockmanship can help you with!

Stockmanship School Outline—

Using lecture, questions/answers, and movies, we will cover—

  • Research Benefits
  • Pressure and Release
  • How we Communicate with our Livestock
  • Instincts of Humans and Livestock
  • Predator/Prey Relationship
  • Positioning
  • Movement
  • Training the Herd
  • At the Gate
  • Working in the Corral
  • Sorting Livestock
  • Weaning and Receiving Livestock
  • Loading Livestock
  • Our Attitude

Corrals and the Bud Box

Many people ask us for information about building and/or using a Bud Box. First of all, watch our video where Bud Williams explains the principles behind using a Bud Box.

Next, read this page with various corral designs we’ve found to really work well.

How to Begin your path to better Stockmanship

The good news is, most everyone can improve their stockmanship in some degree and with just a little practice. Starting out slowly, working with the animals in a slightly changed way will give you positive results you can build on until bigger changes and even better results are achieved. This isn’t an “all or nothing” thing. Even making small changes in the way you work your livestock can show big results. You can stay at that level and enjoy some benefits of better stockmanship, or you can learn and change even more and see how many more values you can find for good stockmanship!

How to Continue Improvement

Just like learning to ride a bicycle, you can’t learn stockmanship only from reading a book. By attending a stockmanship school you will hear stories, see examples, and learn techniques to get started. This combined with the Bud Williams videos and/or the Steve Cote book (see below) will give you the resources you need. You can return to the books and video every so often and pick up new things as you grow and learn through your own practice.

Perhaps the best starting advice was a statement Tauna Powell made at one of my stockmanship schools. She said, “Keep your hat on your head, your hands in your pockets and your mouth shut.”

Additional Resources

Bud Williams Stockmanship

The main source of information about stockmanship is on Bud Williams Stockmanship web page located here.

For the very best information about using a Bud Box, read this post on stockmanship.com.

See the assortment of videos available for sale including Bud Williams’ 5 hour presentation at the 1990 Stockman Grass Farmers Grazing Conference DVD set and the new 18 hour external hard drive of videos.

Stockmanship Journal

Read the Stockmanship Journal. The first issue is the entire text of one of Bud and Eunice Williams’ Stockmanship Schools.

“Manual of Stockmanship”

“Manual of Stockmanship: a Complete Livestock Handling Guide for the Range, Feedlot, Dairy and Farm Operation,” by Steve Cote, is the new 400 page book, completed in 2019, with many more elements of stockmanship for the range rider over the 150 page book published in 2004. The book has undergone substantial expansion to include a great many more details and helpful diagrams about working stock in facilities, sorting, weaning, handling pairs, dealing with sensitive or aggressive stock, loading and dealing with handling issues common to all producers. It also includes sections on bison and grazing and soils that are remarkable accounts that we can use to enhance, protect or restore our grazing lands. This book, while an exhaustive manual for range riders, has very useful information for all operations including feedlots, dairies, and smaller operations.

The book is for sale for $38.50 in the U.S. and the price includes shipping. For out-of-country orders, for ordering larger quantities, or for information on how to pay with PayPal/credit card, please call or email Steve at 731-336-1167 or stevecote119@gmail.com (do NOT email your credit card number). Idaho residents must add 6% for sales tax which will make a total of $40.31 per book.