SOURCE: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 1/14/14

Most feedlots have improved greatly in the handling of cattle in squeeze chutes, according to the results of a Colorado State University survey.
“People are doing a better job of handling cattle in the squeeze chutes regarding vaccinations and ear tagging and implanting,” Temple Grandin told Meatingplace. The CSU professor of animal science led the survey of 28 feedlots and more than 2,500 cattle in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska this summer.

The reason for the improvement? “There has been a lot of focus on cattle handling,” she said, crediting groups such as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association with upping their offerings of humane handling education opportunities.

The researchers found that less electric prods — once a commonly used tool — were used, on average, on less than 6 percent of cattle — nearly half of the 10 percent threshold set by the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) guidelines. “People are more aware of not carrying electric prods all over the place,” Grandin added.

One area that still needs improvement is readjusting cattle after they are miscaught in the headgate. Grandin found that 60 percent of miscaught cattle were not readjusted in the chute.

Although they reported nearly stellar employee behavior at most of the feedlots, the researchers did catch an incident of abuse: An employee working for a contract processing crew (not an employee of the processing company itself) was found to be pulling out ear tags instead of cutting them with the provided tool. “It’s like ripping out an earring from pierced ears,” Grandin said, offering some advice to processors that outsource: “If you use a contract crew, you really need to supervise them.”

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