Project Overview
Working beef cattle ranks as one of the occupations with the highest incidence rate of nonfatal injuries. With human error being a major cause of injuries, understanding cattle behavior and promoting low-stress handling within maintained facilities should improve worker safety while ensuring cattle well-being, ultimately minimizing economic losses. Four workshops were conducted to teach low-stress cattle handling skills along with facility evaluation techniques. Classroom teaching with video demonstrations and hands-on cattle activities engaged participants. Participants understood the impact of human interactions on livestock and how they are tied to ranch profitability. Participants noted an improved ability to identify animal behaviors as indicators of stress and have begun to implement low-stress handling techniques based on survey feedback. Participants learned to assess cattle handling facilities to improve cattle well-being while simultaneously improving worker safety. Participants noted using the provided checklist and stated it would be a valuable tool to use at least annually. Surveys indicated participants intended to adopt cattle handling techniques, methods of evaluating handling facilities, and training employees or family members on proper cattle handling techniques. Follow-up visits with participants were valuable to provide technical support on their own facility designs and overall handling practices, which led to direct changes being made, or planned, to improve cattle and human safety within the facilities.
Number of Participants: 205
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
There are no promotional materials available for this project.
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
There are no educational materials available for this project.
REPORTS & EVALUATIONS
There are no reports or evaluations available for this project.