I have been fortunate in my life to be shown and coached by some very wise peers. In livestock handling, my passionate hobby and part-time obsession, I have come to see how deep one’s understanding of animal behaviour can go.
Bud Williams showed me one day by stretching his arms wide apart and saying, “If that’s all there is to know about livestock and how they behave, I know about that much”, to which he held two fingers a millimetre apart.
So, when it comes to stress and its negative effect on livestock transportation, I feel that we still have a long way to go as an industry in preparing animals for the journey.
If we put ourselves into the mind and body of a cow or weaner or ewe or lamb that has never travelled, confined in a pretty tight pen of mates with incredibly unsteady movement underfoot, it must be nothing short of terrifying for the first part of their experience.
What actually is it about their experience that’s heightening the incidence of bruising and dark cutting? They don’t hyperventilate, urinate or defecate excessively or release high levels of glycogen into their bloodstream when they’re ruminating or grazing out in the paddock, so why are they doing it now?
I have had reports from graziers that they are losing 8-12% in transit in less than 24 hours from curfewed weighing out to weighing in. This is both horrific to think that, as deeply caring humans, we would willingly do this to our livestock and even more concerning about how much this could be costing us at the point of delivery.
An 8% loss from a deck is approximately 960kg of liveweight which, on a feeder steer last week in SA, is around $4.80/kg or $4600.
How often I have seen livestock shrink reduced to less than 2% when animals are prepared correctly for transit still amazes me. But let’s say we could just halve it. That’s a gain of $2300/deck for literally less than a couple of hours work.
Jim Lindsay has also patiently coached me for 25 years to work with and train animals to tolerate the insecurities metered out to them.
Obviously, the secret really isn’t a secret when I meet dozens, if not hundreds, of graziers trained by Jim and other stockhandling trainers generate these gains from teaching their livestock how to tolerate the insecurity of transport.
This preparation matters regardless of the experience of the driver or the handlers at the other end, be they abattoir workers, agents or drovers where we then have absolutely no influence.
Setting our animals up to be responsive, not dull and better able to manage the stress of transport without excessive depletion of muscle glycogen is key to low shrink. So, to put a price on livestock skrink is difficult, but to grab your attention, I’ll do it conservatively.
When the average annual livestock turnoff from a grazing business is 240,000 kg (RCS Profit Probe data) this equates to 20 decks x $2,300/deck or $46,000 per annum.
Training the annual crop of weaners for a week at weaning with 3 people having terrific fun playing with animals could cost $400/person/day or $6,000 for the week.
But really, it’s an investment, and approximately a 650% return on investment.
Why let someone else have your fun and your money?
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What if a couple of hours spent preparing livestock for transport could save you thousands? Nic Kentish explores the hidden cost of shrink, why stress during transport can take such a toll on livestock and how good stockhandling can make a remarkable difference. Drawing on lessons from Bud Williams and Jim Lindsay, Nic puts some real dollars against the value of preparing animals for the journey. The numbers might surprise you!
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