Tips for Livestock Handling at Spring and Summer Fairs

This is the time of year for spring livestock shows and the summer jr heifer and jackpot steer shows are right around the corner — not to mention county fairs. University of Idaho’s Extension Beef Cattle Specialist Dr. Benton Glaze shares some tips to reduce stress for your livestock at the show.
Glaze: “If animals are taken to shows and to fairs — we are taking animals out of their comfort zone. So anything we can do to minimize the stress on those animals in going to show or fairs is a good thing. So I think one of the key things is to try and make the show or fair experience as similar to the home experience as possible. If you are accustom to brushing those animals, and walking those animals and handling them in a certain way, I think you should try to do that at the show as well. Often times at the show, maybe animals are put in a situation that they are given water that maybe has an off-flavor of different than their water at home. If you can bring some water from home and use same kind of troughs or buckets, it makes it a much less stressful situation.”