Pen Riders and Pen Walkers –The Heart of Feedlot Cattle Care

By Dr. Tom Noffsinger, Production Animal Consultation

Caregivers that perform daily pen evaluations spend more time with cattle than any other team at the feedyard. Pen rider focus has evolved over time from negative to positive, from detection of abnormal cattle to creation of cattle health and wellbeing. Likewise, I continue to refine my own thought processes as I learn from the teachers and mentors around me. For example, Ted Howard, Shane Morrissey, and Lucy Morrissey have demonstrated the valuable harmony between stockmanship and horsemanship and the importance of asking my horse to move his feet in cadence with the foot motion of the cattle.

Please ride between us.

Many years ago, Bud Williams taught me that pen riders should expect all cattle to walk correctly, eat and drink normally, breathe normally, and be willing to play. Jose Valles has taken these expectations and developed a fivepoint evaluation to help pen riders systematically observe cattle, including their locomotion, digestion, respiration, nervous system, and mental health.

Let’s take a closer look at the basic principles of implementing this five-point evaluation.

Initial approach

Observe cattle appearance prior to entering the pen either from adjacent pens or from the drovers alley. Be ready to acknowledge the cattle’s first response to your presence. When cattle recognize your position, stop and step back one step or simply change the angle of approach. Enter the pen and look over the top of the herd, observing the most distant cattle first. As you move your gaze toward the cattle closest to you, the cattle will be drawn to you. Watch for cattle requesting guidance. They are the cattle standing sideways that intensely turn their heads and ask for guidance. Simply ride by these special creatures, becoming more available to their vision, and then turn back and ride by them to initiate either straight or orderly counterclockwise herd movement.

Locomotion

Evaluate locomotion health as cattle get up and move. Voluntary cattle motion will encourage resting cattle to rise, stretch, and walk. Match locomotion expectations to pen history. Cattle on feed less than 10 days are at risk for septic toe and sole abscesses, sole bruises, upper limb injuries, and injection site tenderness. When pulling animals with musculoskeletal concerns, learn to list the affected limb number and probable diagnosis on pull cards to guide hospital team diagnostic activities. Monitor all pens for early signs of foot rot cases and digital dermatitis lesions. Laminitis cases often reflect missed acclimation opportunities or diet transition management opportunities.

Digestion

Cattle in motion are great candidates for digestive system evaluation. Does manure being passed match stools on the ground? Dry, stacked stools on the ground should be temporary and replaced by moist, pliable stools as digestive systems recover from transit stress. Learn to use stools to detect dehydration, rehydration, acidosis, coccidiosis, anxiety, and health. Loose stools and variation in stools may signal the need for more cattle motion, exercise in the alley, long stem hay, or conservative ration transitions. Are stools reflective of salivation and abdominal fill? The presence of excessive salivation should be accompanied by loose, watery stools. Be willing to share your questions, observations, and comments with management and the feed team. Pen riders can sometimes see more signs of digestive abnormalities in the pen than feed callers can see from their vehicles.

Respiration

Cattle that move with confidence and reveal locomotion abnormalities will honestly communicate their level of respiratory health. Watch for depression and lack of exercise tolerance. Evaluate cough activity, especially cough suppression and chest pain. Do cattle improve as they move or do some cattle stay behind and ask for rest? Cattle with poor exercise tolerance are more likely to have BRD lung lesions resulting in poor oxygenation. Cattle that improve with mild exercise more likely suffer from digestive or fatigue issues. Fever, fatigue, septicemia, pneumonia, and upper respiratory infections are all sources of undifferentiated depression. Rely on hospital teammates to diagnose, treat, and report back to pen riders. Use lung scores, temperatures, and treatment responses to manage priority pens via pull decisions, mass treatment strategies, bedding, and therapeutic exercise sessions.

Nervous system

Evaluate cattle for proper coordination as they get up and begin to move. Improper coordination of limbs or an unbalanced head posture can be a sign of neurological disorders. Some of the most common neurological disorders in a feedyard include polio, thromboembolic meningoencephalitis (TEME), and nervous coccidiosis. In some cases, loss of balance can also be a sign of an ear infection. Communicate your observations of the affected animal to the hospital team, in writing or verbally, to guide them as they assign a case definition. It is critical that all animals suspected of neurological disorders be reported to everyone in the animal health team so safety precautions can be implemented in case of a zoonotic disease.

Mental health

Positive cattle attitude is a product of effective pen rider activities during acclimation and health assessment activities. The willingness for cattle to express exuberance and play is essential for cattle performance and disease resistance. Pen riders are the stewards of this behavior as they train cattle to travel straight and convince them to pass by handlers with confidence.

It is possible to create what we anticipate. Pen rider efforts should be aimed at health. Start with the best animal in the pen and look for ways to ask other cattle to perform at that level. Some cattle may deserve treatment; others will respond well to support and training.

Pen riding is the most exciting job on the cattle care team. Every animal, every pen, and every day is an adventure. Please share your observations, challenges, and successes with each other as we all work together to improve cattle health and wellbeing. Develop confidence that how we ride and walk pens is the key to early, accurate detection of illness and the source of cattle comfort, confidence, and wellbeing.

If foolishness was a disease, one might want to get vaccinated or have some medication on hand in case of an outbreak.