Stockmanship clinic hopes to help ranchers reap more benefits

Local rancher have three opportunities in June to attend clinics to learn about low-stress livestock handling and about grass growth response to grazing, while also being able to view live on-foot and horseback cattle-handling demonstrations.

The Stockmanship Clinic, sponsored by the Toole, Pondera, Glacier, Liberty and Hill County Conservation Districts, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s Conservation District Bureau will be held in Shelby, Chester and Havre.

A report for Michigan State University Extension written by the university’s Extension Educator Ben Bartlett and Animal Science Professor Janice Swanson, says the secret of low stress cattle handling is learning to understand the cattle’s actions and using the knowledge gained by this to “ask” them to do what the handler needs them to do.

The report says it is a simple, low-cost concept; if a rancher can learn about his cattle and implement the techniques of low-stress cattle handling, they will be able to gain more benefits than traditional livestock handling.

NRCS District Conservationist Laurie Massar said in an email, “The main benefits of using low stress livestock handling techniques are safety for both livestock and the handlers, more humane treatment and, ultimately, a better product for the consumer.”

Massar said the clinic will also feature Curt Pate, stockmanship clinician, and NRCS Range Management Specialist Rick Caquelin.

In an article for California Beef Council, Jill Scofield wrote, “For more than a decade, Curt Pate has been conducting demonstrations and clinics on stockmanship, colt starting, horsemanship and safety.”

Scofield added that Pate “supports a for-profit mindset,” and he focuses on handling stock correctly for the increased economic profits and benefits.

Pate has a small grazing operation in South Dakota, she wrote, and he spends a lot of time traveling around the country giving stockmanship demonstrations, training and sharing his skills and knowledge with others.

Massar said Rick Caquelin manages his own cow/calf operation near Stanford and has been an NRCS employee in eastern and central Montana for 30 years.

According to Caquelin, “Good grazing management requires understanding how plants grow, respond to and recover from grazing.”

The first clinic is set for Monday, June 4, at Flesch Angus in Shelby, the next is Tuesday, June 5, at the Jim and Dena Fritz Ranch at Chester, and the Havre clinic is Wednesday, June, 6 at Northern Agricultural Research Center.

All three clinics run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and include lunch.

The deadline to sign up for any of the clinics is May 29.

For more information, contact Nea Rice of the Toole County Conservation District at 406-434-2534, ext. 4, Gail Cicon of the Liberty County Conservation District at 406-759-5778, ext. 3, or Bernadine Wolfchild of the Hill County Conservation District at 265-6792, ext. 3.