Rely on the quantifiable when managing livestock says vet

by JIM ALGIE  

Veterinarian Don Höglund doesn’t believe that horse whisperer stuff, what he calls the “showman, shaman concepts” of animal learning.

There’s just no evidence people understand what animals think or feel, says Höglund who has become famous for studying these things. Founding veterinarian of the Disney version of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in France, Höglund teaches veterinary medicine these days at both North Carolina State University and at the University of Minnesota. He’s also the author of the 2006 Simon and Schuster book, Nobody’s Horses, about his experience rescuing wild horses from the White Sands missile range in New Mexico through an early 1990s consulting contract with the U.S. government.

Dubbed a “celeb-vet” in a 2010 article in Cowboys & Indians magazine about his Disney days, Höglund will also appear at a couple hundred farm meetings this year in a big white hat, felt vest, blue jeans and bolo tie to talk about livestock handling skills. He works mainly educating new veterinarians but manages a large consulting business in something he calls “stockmanship.” And Höglund doesn’t believe humans know what livestock feel; although, scientist that he is, Höglund is open to what emerging neuroscience may have to say on the subject.

Until then, he’ll rely on measurements of adrenalin response, blood chemistry, heart and respiratory rates and detailed observation to tell farmers what works and what doesn’t when working with livestock.

Getting it wrong adds needless expense, frustration and distress both for stock and handler, Höglund told an audience of mainly dairy farmers at Elmwood last week. Speaking during dairy day at this year’s Grey-Bruce Farmers Week, Höglund urged farmers to train staff and dairy calves early in calm herding behaviour to eliminate hang ups in future milking procedures. He spoke also to horse sessions during this year’s Farmers Week sessions.

“Eighty percent of the time is spent managing 20 per cent of the problems,” Höglund told his Elmwood audience about animal handlers in commercial dairy operations. Problems moving cows through milking parlours can develop by association through the actions of handlers shouting or startling the animals.

“If they feel pain in front of the milking parlour what do you think they’re going to do tomorrow when they get up in front of that milking parlour?” Höglund said.

“As soon as they get there they’re going to turn around and go home,” he said.

It’s often said about a balky milk cow that she has developed a “bad attitude.”

“What attitude?” Höglund said. “I don’t know what they’re thinking,” he said.

“You’re determining a hypothetical, explanation from an invisible, in fact, inaccessible, mental phenomenon. The whispering world has convinced people we know what the emotions are . . . Just forget about what they’re thinking and concentrate on what they’re doing,” Höglund advised.

His talk featured video clips from large herd training sessions which are part of Höglund’s consulting practice. His technique relies on calm approaches to cattle and clear communication by handlers who manage movement by approaching and backing away along straight lines and within the sightlines of individual animals.

Injected medication can cause reduced lactation and should be avoided in close proximity to milking, he said.

“One vaccination can cause a 10 pound loss of milk,” Höglund said, referring to the injected animal’s adrenalin response. “Don’t cause pain, don’t cause startle within 20 minutes of that parlour,” he said.

“Adrenalin, that’s your enemy and startle causes adrenalin . . . causes oxytosin reduction, it causes vaso-constriction throughout the body . . . it’s fight or flight and that’s why you don’t get the milk,” he said.

In an interview, Höglund said he’s carefully following current neuroscientific investigations into livestock mentality but it’s not there yet.

“As soon as someone can do the high tech neuroscience and let us know what animal emotions are, I’m first on the list,” he said. “What I do is do things I can measure and not things I’m guessing at. I’m not in the business of guessing,” Höglund said. BF