The secret to moving livestock

Moving livestock is all part of having a farm, but it can be stressful for you and the animals. Hopefully, once you've had your stock for a while you can move them by calling them or bribing them with food. But sometimes, whether it's new stock, helping someone else with their stock, or just uncooperative animals it's important to know the secrets to moving livestock.

First understand things from the animal’s point of view

All livestock species we keep on our blocks are herd animals. They want to be with others of their type to feel safe. At the very minimum they want to see two others of their species.

When a herd animal is isolated they can panic and can be a danger to you or to themselves as they frantically try to rejoin their herd mates. If your animals are tame enough they may accept you as a member of the herd and therefore not panic but you can’t rely on this.

The fight or flight zone

It’s important to understand the fight or flight zone which all prey animals have.

The flight or fight zone is the distance around an animal that when you enter it they will decide to fight you or run away from you. It’s the point at which they feel so vulnerable that they simply have to take action. Sheep will almost always choose flight, except for rams and new mothers who may attack. With cattle and goats it depends on the individual animal.

The flight zone of an animal changes depending on circumstances. I can walk up to my goats without them running away from me, I’m allowed into their flight zone as I’m not perceived as a threat. But when a stranger arrives it’s a different story. The goats will move away as the stranger moves towards them. A vet who may have subjected the animal to a painful procedure will have to contend with a very large fight or flight zone.

The flight zone also changes to meet different circumstances. If I jump out from behind a rock near my goats, they’ll run. If I wear bright or noisy clothing or run straight at them or shout and wave my arms they’ll run away. The less threatening you are, the smaller the flight zone of the animal.

Outside the flight or flight zone is the pressure zone. When you move into the pressure zone the animal will turn to look at you and will move calmly away from you, in a specific direction, maintaining her distance. This is the key to handling livestock.

Lines of balance

As I said, animals will move in a specific way when you enter their pressure zone. This means you can direct the animal by using their lines of balance.

Livestock have two balance lines, one runs from in front of their nose straight along their body and past their tail and another across the shoulders. These lines extend out through their pressure zones. When you move into the pressure zone the animal will move away from you but if you cross a balance line they will move in a very predicable way – as long as they’re calm.

The calmer an animal is, the easier it is to handle them and move them. Once an animal, or a mob of animals, panic or stampede it’s very difficult to handle them. If this does happen then it’s best to leave them to calm down and try again later.

How to keep them calm? Firstly stay calm yourself. If you start to shout or lose your temper you’re stressing them which means they’re more unpredictable. Stay calm, talk in low tones and draw out your vowels. This helps soothe the animals. Keep the surroundings calm too – any noisy children or dogs should be moved out of the picture.

So, how does it work?

If you walk behind an animal in her pressure zone, she will move forwards away from you. If you move from the front of an animal and calmly walk past her shoulder line of balance, she will walk forward. If you move across her line of balance from right to left, she will move from left to right.

In the diagram above if you approach the animal from 4, the animal will move towards 2. But if you walk calmly through 1 into 4, the animal will walk forward. If the animal is walking forward but you want her to head more towards 1, then cross from 4 to 3. You can find the edge of the pressure zone by observing how an animal reacts to your movements.

It’s so predictable it’s like magic!

Practical tips

Make it easy for yourself

• Always move at least three animals. If you need one animal in the yard then move four animals to the yards and move three back. Remember an isolated animal will be stressed and inclined to panic.

• Make the route you want the animals to take obvious to them. Close any gates, block off any escape routes or potential problem areas like groups of trees. If you don’t have farm races then move them along a fence line.

Move a stalled mob

If the animals stall or refuse to move you can use the balance lines to get them moving again. Don’t just push from behind or shout, this can cause a stampede or a crush. Instead, take a wide berth around them then walk towards the lead animal just in front of her shoulder. When you get close turn and walk slowly and calmly past her shoulder balance line towards the back of the mob. She will move forward and as you walk calmly to the back of the mob the others will move forward too.

Moving flightier animals

Animals who are less friendly are harder to move and their fight or flight and pressure zones are larger. A single animal may be more likely to try to make a run for it and cause chaos.

You can move a mob like this along a fence line by creating a funnel with a rope and a helper. Have one of you at the front of the mob outside the pressure zone of the lead animal(s). The other person should be behind the mob, close to the fence line. Hold a rope between you, creating a funnel between the two of you, the rope, and the fence with the animals in the funnel. The rope should be at eye height to the animals.

Move calmly towards the pressure zone and they should move forwards. If anyone looks like making a run for it under the rope, waggle the rope up and down to create a visual barrier. Continue moving slowly forward, keeping in time with the animals. Don’t rush them or they can run out of the front of the funnel and get away. If they speed up, move slightly back from their pressure zones to calm them.

The key is to work with their balance lines and pressure zone. If you get into the flight or fight zone they'll be hard to manage. So, keep their flight zones small by not doing anything unpredictable.

Set yourself up for success

Set up your property to make things easy.

• Put your yards uphill rather than downhill – animals prefer to go uphill

• Create races so you don’t have to move stock through open paddocks

• Put gates in the corner of fences, not the middle

• Make friends with your animals

What if you have the opposite problem?

If your animals are really friendly then it can be difficult to move them too - they just crowd around you. If this is the case you have to find a way to move them away. I find that making a high-pitched noise by blowing air through tightly pressed lips works for my animals. The noise is a cross between a blowfly, an elephant and a mosquito 😊 I don't know if the goats think an elephant-sized blowfly is about to attack them, but whatever it is it seems to work.

For more great information on looking after livestock check out our courses.