A single, soft and thundering voice

Grandin publishes guide to humane livestock handling on the farm

by Nancy Jorgensen

Editor’s note: If you want to talk about a single-handed effort that changed an industry, livestock handling guru Temple Grandin is as good a candidate as any. We focus on her new book here because it is directed toward producers. As public scrutiny increasingly shines on every section of the food chain, opinions from the likes of Grandin will carry more weight.

Temple Grandin has spurred sweeping changes in the U.S. livestock processing and feedlot industries—including at facilities in Missouri. She’s also broken ground by improving our understanding of domestic animals and autism. And she continues to change the world. She’s targeted your farm and others like it for her next “best-practices” revolution.

We caught Grandin by phone as she prepared for a book signing in New Jersey. We asked her about her new book, Humane Livestock Handling, Understanding Livestock Behavior and Building Facilities for Healthier Animals, meant for individual producers.

“A certain percentage of livestock producers always handle animals humanely, because it’s the right thing to do and it improves their bottom line,” Grandin said.

Still, methods are often passed down from previous generations. While humane handling isn’t new, until now best practices were seldom compiled. Grandin’s new book outlines practical techniques for your farm, whether you run a herd of 10 or 500, and whether you raise beef, hogs, sheep or dairy. “Most people are willing to try something new if you show them a better way,” she observed.

Diagnosed as autistic as a child, Grandin’s interest in livestock sparked when she climbed into a ranch squeeze chute and pressed its sides into her body. It felt good, and led her to insights on how autistic people sense and see things differently—more like animals. She went on to earn a PhD in animal science and now teaches at Colorado State University. She has written eight books.

When you think about one person changing the entire livestock industry, her achievements seem staggering. But as she points out, only about 50 large livestock kill plants operate in the United States, so implementing changes at plants may prove more doable than improving behavior on the million-plus livestock farms in the U.S.

“Providing humane treatment is a responsibility producers should willingly embrace,” she wrote in the book’s introduction. “The benefits are both gratifying and profitable. Raising animals kindly and caring for them in a way that makes them content ensures good health and allows them to grow faster.”

A decade ago, Grandin’s work with the McDonald’s corporation set new standards for handling beef cattle in industrial settings, and her work continues to affect the hog industry. Beyond feedlots, confinement operations and processing plants, Grandin has consulted with ranchers since the 1970s, so working with individual producers isn’t new to her.

She believes that smaller producers can handle animals just as humanely as large operators. “The important thing is management’s attitude, not size,” Grandin said. She found that small processing plants—particularly when they overload equipment and run short on staff—can run into many problems. In her experience, hired staff can be trained to treat livestock just as humanely as those who have a stake in the business.

A how-to book

The first half of Grandin’s book explains grazing animal behavior and translates it into practical ways you can change your own behavior to move animals calmly, quickly and efficiently without balking or injury. “All it costs is changing your attitude,” she told us.

The second half of the book diagrams new pen designs and improvements. One of Grandin’s innovations involves moving animals in curved chutes, taking advantage of their instincts to return to where they started. Her designs allow animals to see other herd members in front and behind, giving them added comfort as they move. She relies on visual barriers to block out distractions such as moving fan blades or high-contrast areas that go from dark to bright.

Recently, on a Missouri hog farm, Grandin innovated ways to make unloading pigs from trucks more efficient. With hogs, she said, it’s especially important for humans to walk through pens regularly so the animals aren’t stressed when it’s time to move them.When loading pigs, work with small groups.

“A stress hormone, cortisol, rises when animals are handled roughly, and remains low when animals are handled quietly,” she wrote. “Stress hormone secretion can lower immune function, and animals that are stressed are more likely to become sick.” In addition, Grandin pointed out that handling meat animals without bruising them can result in higher profits. “Bruised meat has to be cut out and thrown away.”

While most people want to treat livestock humanely, certain people like to hurt animals. “You have to remove sadists,” she said. “A good manager will fire those people.” She estimated that one out of ten livestock handlers were fired as a result of the McDonald’s project.

From beef to sheep, and pigs to dairy animals, Grandin’s book covers which breeds, temperaments and body types to select or cull to avoid problems. Pigs bred for rapid lean-muscle growth, for example, are often more excitable. Cows designed for heavy milk production may not last as many years as others. Her temperament scoring system can help you make breeding decisions—as she said, “It is important for producers wanting to deliver high-quality meat to their buyers to select for temperament.” She also shares her ideas on growth hormones and other additives.

No book on humane handling can avoid covering electric prods. Grandin doesn’t recommend an outright ban, as prods can be useful in rare cases such as when an animal goes down in a trailer and won’t get up. But she advises leaving prods in a separate location rather than carrying them.

Checklists for dairies

Most dairy farmers realize that electric prods reduce milk production. “But some dairies still use an electrified crowd gate to move cows into the parlor—that’s not a good thing,” she said.

Grandin listed several concerns with today’s dairies, including overuse of growth hormones and overemphasis on breeding for milk production. “Does it make sense to get only 2 years of milking out of a cow?” she asked. “That’s happening at some dairies.”

Cows are being pushed too hard, she contends, comparing it to revving a car’s engine. “If you’re not careful, you’ll rev the cow’s metabolism into the red zone, creating a negative energy balance. Nothing’s left for the cow, and you get skinny cows.”

Grandin recommends that farmers use checklists to determine if behavior or facilities need to change. “You’ve got to measure to manage,” she said. Dairies should score body condition, lameness, lesions and cleanliness. For example, if only 5 percent of your herd limps, that’s acceptable, but if 10 percent limps, you need to make changes.

Tips for beef growers

Grandin also offered advice for handling beef cattle on the farm or ranch. First, calm down. She speaks at a lot of producer meetings, and uses audience feedback to illustrate what she means. “Wives have come up to me after I speak and say, ‘If I could just get him to stop screaming at the cows!’”

Second, use pressure and release to move animals effectively. Work from the animal’s flight zone, located at the shoulder blade. “If a predator crosses the point of balance, the animals will always run in the opposite direction,” she said. “The animal’s instinctual response to a handler passing across the point of balance can be calmly used to move livestock.” Her book diagrams these techniques.

Third, remove distractions that balk animals. Her troubleshooting chart helps you identify and eliminate distractions. Finally, fill your crowd pen half full when moving cattle; too full or too empty will stall movement.

No matter what type of livestock you handle, check out www.grandin.com for more information.

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