Fixing a Goat Problem

The bride (my wife of many years) wanted goats.  I claim no ownership of them, but I still get to care for them.

There are a few people that have three or four goats that don't want to have a billie to breed them.  The really do stink.  Some friends and neighbors will either rent a billie from us or bring their nannies to be bred.

One such friend brought a nanny.  She considered people to be part of her herd.  The first night she spent with us I came home from a meeting and she had gotten out of the pen.  She saw me and came running.  She followed me right up on the porch.  I put her back in the goat pen, and headed back to the house.  I got about 50 feet and she was beside me, so I put her on a barn for the night that I knew she couldn't escape.  With goats the saying goes: If it'll hold water, then it'll hold a goat.

The next morning I put her back in with the goats, but later in the day she was out again.  Sometimes I subscribe to making the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult.  So I got my cow dog to chase her around  for about 15 seconds, while I opened the gate.  My dog chased her back into the pen.  She hasn't gotten out since then.  She figured that it was safer with the strange goats then outside where a dog might bother her again.

This reminds me of a project that I once led.  It was successful enough to land my picture on the front page of the company newsletter.  During a visit to the men's room, I found a copy of the newsletter on the floor.  I commented to my secretary that you knew you were a little famous when you found your picture on the men's room floor at work.  One of the staff members decided to take this a step further with a practical joke.  She had a copy posted in all the bathrooms in the building.

I'm not beyond enjoying a practical joke, even when its on me.  But I was mindful that clients were often in the building and might take mild offense at this.  I could have been a little perturbed with her, and made her take them all down.  Instead I played a little practical joke myself.  I walked into her office (she was out) and told her office mate that I had received a call from the land lord notifying me of the newsletter posted in the bathrooms, and that he considered that in poor taste.  I spun on my heel and walked out.

About an hour later, she comes boiling into my office.  She was beside herself apologizing for her mistake, and told me that she had taken them all down.  After letting her stew for a little bit, I told her, "That's okay, because I didn't get a phone call from the land lord."  She hit me on the shoulder and we had a good laugh about it all.

The point: Be creative with people and organizations.  Try to develop another skill or two for your tool bag. You needn't be heavy handed in every situation.  Sometimes the soft approach not only gets the message across, but also strengthens the team and increases confidence in one another.

Less is More and Faster

One time I arrived at summer pasture and not one single cow was on the correct side of the fence, and they were about two miles from where the should have been.  I was alone and had no horse, and getting one meant that I'd have to drive a hundred miles round trip.  What would you do?  With the typical herd, you'd turn around and go get a horse and some help.

I parked the pickup and walked toward the cow farthest from where she was supposed to be.  Four miles (as the crow flies), two hours, and two gates later I climbed back into the pickup.  All 150 cows, calves and bulls were back where they needed to be.  I'd had a nice, brisk walk on a wonderful summer day.  I was cooled off by a brief afternoon thunder shower.  There were no ruffled feathers among friends that I night have asked to help.  In less time with less fuel, and much lower stress for all involved, the unplanned event became an opportunity to work with the cows under different circumstances.

Because I had worked with the cattle from the ground, I knew that I could handle this without any other human help.  The conclusion, safer is more efficient.

Lets consider the typical engineering organization that has somehow gotten itself where it shouldn't be - behind schedule, over budget, unhappy customers, or some unplanned, safety significant event occurred.  In my experience, the boss reverts to a stressed response.  He or she becomes demanding, and may say something like, "Either you get this done or you'll be a foot and a half shorter and out of a job."  Maybe that was said because that is what was said to him.  No matter.

Now is not the time to abandon what works.  It will damage or destroy the trust you've built with the group. Piling on the pressure will not get the group back to where it belongs faster.  In fact, it will probably delay it.  Whether or not you're the new manager, you have an opportunity.  You have the opportunity to build a stronger team.  Together you can look forward to saying to yourselves that we were able to overcome adversity.

Gather the group, with the group decide what to do to get back, and work together to do it.  Maybe you need to assure yourself that the schedule does not represent the way the work needed to be done.  When its all done you will have a group of people that not only weathered the storm but excelled.  You will trust your people and they will trust you.

When you adopt the defensive approach of piling pressure on the organization, you will likely activate the self defense instincts of one or more individuals.  You lose the predictability of their behavior.  You won't know what to expect.  Some will come to a near stand still.  Some will find a better place to work.  The organizational productivity will decline.

Now take a few moments to consider what you would do when things aren't going quite right.  What can you do now that would prevent those things from happening or mitigate their impact?  If you're in the middle of a nasty situation, then sit back and imagine what you want your group to look like after you've waded through all the negative energy.  Will you all be proud of what you accomplished?

Using Cow Behavior

There are a few books on this subject. Read them if you wish, but there's nothing like learning on your own. You need two concepts to get started. One is the concept of flight zone and the other is how to make use of it.

Think of a circle with its center centered on top of the cow's shoulders about straight in line with where the front leg attaches to the body. The radius of this circle varies, and it differs from one cow to another. Its radius relates to the cow's comfort with the proximity of a human. This circle defines what is called the flight zone. Another circle centered in the same location, but is of smaller radius. It is called the fight zone. When a man enters the flight zone the cow will likely move to adjust the circle to the point where the human is some distance away from the cow, and is usually at least as far away as the flight zone radius. The fight zone is that circle within which a man may cause a self defense response from the cow, and a dangerous situation exists. The cow is threatened to the point that it will respond with any number of possibilities, but usually is prepared to take whatever action to protect itself. The cattleman should never enter into this zone if he is at all concerned for his safety.

You can make use of this response by where you approach and enter into the flight zone. Draw a line that is normal to the cow's spine through the center of the previous circle. If you enter into the flight zone toward the hind quarters of the cow, then the cow will likely move forward. If toward the head, then the cow may back up or turn around to leave. With this behavior, the cattleman has within his grasp both the steering wheel and gas pedal to get a herd of cows to go in a direction.

The next step is crucial. Its what you do after you get 'em moving. The usual approach is to try to get them moving faster. The cowboy tries to push them, and so he moves deeper into the flight zone and approaches the fight zone. The cows are rewarded for doing the right thing with even more pressure.

This cattleman behavior comes from our high pressure society. The thought is that I've got about 15 minutes to get this done, so all the energy comes out and the cows scatter. Its faster to approach it with the actual attitude of, “I've never seen this take longer than 2 days, so I'll be here until its done.”

Once the cows are moving, the correct approach is to increase the distance from the cows. Reward them for doing the right thing by decreasing pressure. They're headed in the right direction, so give them room to pick their path and speed.

You might ask, “So you know how to move cows. How is this at all related to engineering?” The answer lies in what you weren't taught in engineering school. Communication. Engineers come out of university with a great ability to analyze and solve concrete, science based problems. We aren't taught how to communicate. The majority of fresh engineering graduates that I have observed or managed are poor communicators. Designing, building, starting up, and operating plants is mostly about communication with other people .

The next part of the learning curve for the engineer is when he/she has done a good job and selected to lead a group of engineers. Now instead of sizing pipe, selecting a reactor or determining how to control a step in a process, he is responsible for getting a group of people to accomplish those things on schedule and within budget. In addition learning how to communicate through on-the-job training, now he must learn how lead people. He graduated from being an engineer into engineering.

When I say integrating lessons learned from ranching into engineering, you should now know what I'm talking about. The lessons relate to working with a group of people to accomplish something that has value.

In the case of getting cattle to start and continue moving in the chosen direction, there is a better way. So it is with people in general and engineers specifically. The foregoing posts relate to how an engineer might approach establishing a cattle operation. Now, I'm going to get to the heart of heart of the matter.

Safe Cattle

Driving down the road in cattle country you'll see herds of cattle grazing or laying contentedly chewing cud. To the inexperienced, they might conclude that all cows behave the same. They eat, drink, sleep and eliminate waste. Let me assure you that all cows do not behave the same way.

Cows have a pecking order. There are leaders and followers in every herd. Bulls walk about half as fast as cows. Each individual cow responds differently to the same presence of a human. Generally speaking, there is a difference in how breeds behave. Some are more docile than others. This usually occurs because some owners have eliminated cows exhibiting bad behavior from their herds, thus only the more gentle individuals survive to pass on their genetic legacy to their offspring.

Studies show that docile cattle are more productive. Calves from docile cows gain more weight and remain more healthy than their less docile herd mates. Docile cattle are not only safer to be around, but are enjoyable to be around.

There is one time during every year when even the most docile may not be docile. That time is the first few days after a cow births her new calf. My friendliest cow turns into a raging maniac for two or three days after calving. She remains friendly to me, but not my wife nor anybody else.The goal is to protect the new calf. After a few days they get back to normal.

Bulls present a different problem. Yes, they should be gentle, too. Like stallions they are way more attentive to what is going on than the female. Bulls remain cognizant of what goes on with every cow and with every other bull that is in their area. They may fight anything that challenges their opportunity to breed a cow in season. If you get on their side of the fence then you must pay attention to what is going on around you, too. A bull may get the idea that you are competition even if you have scratched him a hundred times before.

The cattleman must recognize cattle which are not docile. Cows exhibit signs that you have triggered their self defense instincts. I met some Navajo cowboys one time that had difficulty getting within a mile of their cattle without triggering the flight instinct in their cattle. In very docile cattle the zone of concern can be a few feet.

It is my policy that there be no “mean” animals on my place. When I recognize that an animal is quick to express concern and displays any aggressive behavior, then that animal is sold as soon as possible. For example, one cow's head would come up when I climbed over a fence to her side when I was still over a hundred yards away. She then acted like she would attack me if she caught me not paying attention. She was gone within two weeks. Incidentally, she calved just before I was going to take her, and she failed to mother her calf, and the calf died. Aggressive cows do not make good mothers.

Cows, like horses, accurately read body language. Cows know when you're just checking them out and when you intend for them to go someplace else.

It is essential that the cattleman perform a frequent mental checkup on the current hazards associated with his cattle, and take stock of the condition of the systems upon which he depends to remain safe and which keep his cattle safe, too. You never know when trustworthy animals will become untrustworthy for unknown reasons.

The most hazardous job performed on the ranch is separating cattle from one another. It can be done with some kind of physical barrier system, but often it is performed by the cattleman in some kind of pen. The actual hazard is greatest the first time you do it. Soon the cattle learn what you're doing, and figure out how to work with you. The cattleman learns how to communicate this to his cattle. Once both cattle and cattleman learn the language then it can be a safe task. In my opinion, this is where a herd of docile cattle shines. The cattleman enters the flight zone in a way that communicates which way he wants the cow to move. He never enters the fight zone. My cows never enter the fight mode even if I'm very close. They have learned from actions what is expected of them, and they often move to where I want them long before I get there. This is training.

Trying to cut one out of the herd is the most challenging. You can see this in cutting horse competitions. Unlike the competition, you don't have to do it against a clock. The herd will actually help you. You'll run them around trying to get the one separated from the rest. The rest will soon figure out which one is causing them stress, and will force the one out.

I started training a group of bull calves. I put my stock trailer outside my arena gate (200'x100'). Then I began to work with them so that they figured out that I wanted them to get in the trailer. The first time all got on the trailer, I was about 50 feet away. Then I moved the trailer inside the arena, but against a fence, and proceeded to load them there. I, then, moved the trailer to the center of the arena and loaded them. In the end I could put the trailer anywhere, let them into the arena, and they would run and load into the trailer and wait for me to close the gate. It paid dividends when I had to load a lame bull in the middle of a thousand acre pasture without a horse. It took a half hour, but we got it done. (Of course, I looked around in pride at my accomplishment, but there was no audience. LOL)

Part of this has to do with the attitude of the cattleman. If he approaches it with the notion that he must get it done in five minutes then the cow or bull will sense his stress level and it won't get done. But if the cattleman approaches it with the idea that it never takes more than two days to do this then he's relaxed and the cow or bull will know that this is a safe operation. So just relax, and everything will be smooth.

The best way to move cattle is to have them follow you. I started training them in this way by yelling to them, “Come on, girls.” I only used this when I had some place that they would consider better for them to be – like water or fresh pasture. All it takes is for your lead cow to catch on, and the rest will follow. You only have to make sure to stay out of their way when they realize that the new place is better .

While its better for them to follow, its best when they get the idea themselves. When they see that the gate is open, then all it takes is one to go through and the rest will likely run after her. Sometimes this happens when they see you open the gate and move away. Sometimes it happens when you've pushed them to where they could see that it was open.

I insist on gentle cattle. Training them makes the future jobs much easier. Others like brand inspectors and veterinarians will appreciate it, too. The results speak for themselves. We have never had a close call with our cattle. I had to deal with a prolapsed uterus on a cow in the middle of a pasture one time. I was on foot and placed a rope over her head, and tied her to my pickup. The vet put a rope on her hind legs, and we completed the task without incident. I took the rope off her head and she walked over to her newborn calf. Gentle, trained cattle are safe cattle.

One last thing for this post – be careful of who you let “train” your cattle. Friends and neighbors will want to help you. Cattle learn from every human interaction. More often than not friends and neighbors don't help, because they have a different style. They're probably used to the whooping, hollering and whistling that only serves to pile stress on to the herd, but is the common way of moving cattle. You may have to train your friends and neighbors how you do it, or just say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

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Safe Cattle Working Equipment

Chemical engineers build and operate plants and processes which produce desirable chemical products. We coexist with countless things to which chemical engineers have made their contribution. The plastic in the keys on your computer keyboard, the paint on your walls, the food you eat, the car you drive, the fuel in its tank, and the electricity available at your wall outlet are but a few. Yes, there are chemical engineers that clean up messes left by some of these processes to make or keep the air we breath and the water we drink clean.

We follow a general methodology to to arrive at processes that can be operated to keep operators and neighbors safe. In fact, its really nice when these processes function without the neighbors ever becoming aware of the plants existence, having any health effects associated with the process, or having Erin Brockovich knock at their door. That means you never smell the existence of a pulp and paper mill or find out that your house was built on ground contaminated my some hazardous chemical operation.

One step in this process analyzes the safety of the operation. Various techniques are used, but its purpose is to place systems and limits in place which insure that limiting accident scenarios never happen. As an example, the recent difficulties at the Japanese nuclear reactors had a safety analysis. It was pointed out over twenty years ago, that there were deficiencies in their design because a tsunami beyond design parameters could credibly occur. It did, and the world found out about it.

I followed this process when considering beginning a cattle operation. The hazards inherent to a cattle operation are mostly toward the workers. Cattle and horses can rearrange their feet much faster than we can react. That's what makes rodeo exciting. The process of producing beef requires that man and animal come into close contact, and hopefully this can occur without things turning “western” every time. Bucking horses and bulls and running calves should be the exception and not the rule. I personally don't need that excitement.

Cattle and horses require vaccinations against diseases which are part of their everyday life. Numerous products and systems exist to insure that this can happen safely for both cow and cowboy. Since vaccinations must be given repeatedly throughout a cows life, it should be a design criteria that each cow can pass smoothly and comfortably through the system every time. It never works out well when the cowboy or veterinarian triggers the self defense instincts of cow or horse. Just like people, some cows activate their defenses a little faster than others, so you need equipment in-place that insures the safety of man and animal when (not if) it happens. This is design criteria number 1. It is a must.

The system is not constrained to only when man and cow are in close proximity. You have to be able to get a bunch of cows from pasture to a place where they can be vaccinated, preg checked, branded or doctored. Here is an example of a livestock working system: http://www.wwmanufacturing.com/ez.html While the working system provides a barrier, it still requires procedures to use all the facets safely, as well as getting the cattle safely into the squeeze chute one at a time with minimal stress to worker and cow.

Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University, has influenced the design of such systems from the cow's point of view. She found that working systems can be barriers instead of facilitators to working cattle in a safe, effective manner. The result has been new systems which greatly improve moving cattle through, as well as, simple retrofits to existing systems.

We have worked cows for over ten years in the above system. We have suffered no injuries requiring medical attention nor have we lost any work time from its use. The cattle are used to it, and two of us can easily work 100 cattle a day in it.

A Chemical Engineer Looks at the Cattle Business

Engineers can be an odd lot. One professor described it with what people see when a car rolls down a hill. Most people see a car rolling down a hill. Some will jump to where its going and what it will run into when it stops rolling. The engineer sees it with all the various force vectors, and all their associated parameters. He wants to measure the slope of the hill along the path, the pressure in the tires, etc. The engineer will predict how fast it is going when it hits the grove of trees, and how far into the grove the car will travel along with a statistical variance that accounts for how accurately he knows the various parameters.

Chemical engineers concern themselves with the processes to take raw feed stocks and turn them into some desirable product. For example, taking crude oil and making gasoline, diesel fuel, plastic, and a myriad of other things. In this case, I'm looking at making beef. The beef business is compartmentalized. The rancher's product is usually a live animal in the form of bulls, steers, heifers and cows. Most calves are raised with the eventual end product of a medium rare steak on a plate. Some are raised to become breeding stock to make steak or more breeding stock.

I will constrain the discussion to the cow-calf producer. That is the beginning of the process and the segment of the business that I chose. The product is a weaned calf ready for the next stage. The first product in this stage is conceiving calves in cows. The general approach is to mix enough cows and bulls together to get every cow pregnant. Nourish the cows until they give birth. Nourish the cows while they feed their calves, wean the calves, finish preparing calves for the next step. The simplified flowchart looks like this:

Of course, this flowchart can be much more complex. Cows can be bred naturally, by artificial insemination, and embryo transfer. Cows are ready to breed sometimes within 23 days (cycle time) and mostly within 46 days after giving birth. Gestation is approximately 9 months, so you aim to have them give birth at the same time every year, and you control that by when breeding can occur.  Nursing the current calf and breeding occur simultaneously, and not necessarily in a discrete, step-wise fashion.

Cows and bulls are never the same from one individual to another. If you have a herd of 100 cows, then you have the equivalent of 100 separate plants that turn grass, water and oxygen into beef. Each “plant” is more or less capable of producing beef. Some can do it at a pound a day while others can accomplish 5 pounds a day. Some may require 20 pounds of feed per day to achieve an output of 1 pound per day of calf weight gain. Some may take 50 pounds of feed to produce a calf gain of 5 pounds per day.. In general, higher calf weight gains require a higher feed rate.

The process variables inherent in chemical plants exist for cows, too. When ambient temperatures are cold, then they must convert more grass into in energy to stay warm. When its hot, they must consume more water (up to 25 gallons a day in my experience) to stay cool, and provide for digestion. They may spend time finding places to stand or lay down to remain comfortable rather than eat. Radiant (sun) and natural and forced (wind) convective heat transfer along with evaporative heat loss plays an important role. The ruminant digestive process generates heat even before absorption of food into the body, so there is an exothermic reaction going on in the rumen. Some breeds of cows are better adapted to warmer climates while others work well in cold conditions. Some do not work well in lower pressure zones (read high altitude).

When a plant stops producing either you replace parts to allow it to produce or you take it all apart and sell the parts for recycle. Its no different with cattle. When a cow doesn't breed back its an indication that something about that “plant” isn't functioning well with the inputs. It can simply be age, poor teeth, poor hooves, or it can be that it doesn't agree with the environment or the feed. You sell the “plant,” and either keep one of the heifer calves or buy a completely new “plant.” By selling the cows that don't produce you develop a set of “plants” that get along well with the environment and feed.

Cows, calves and bulls require preventative and corrective maintenance. Cattle live in an environment in which various pathogens grow. Some are lethal, but most result in reduced production either in calf growth or inability to breed again. When a calf dies you not only lose the income from the sale, but also the money spent in feeding its mother. Cattle are vaccinated for the most common diseases and given supplements like salt containing trace minerals (preventative maintenance), but they still get sick and must be “doctored”(corrective maintenance). Corrective maintenance not only occurs with respect to individual cattle, but also with respect to the herd as a whole. When cows or calves get sick that is an indication that the they have not adapted or their bodies cannot resist viruses or bacteria present in their surroundings. The herd is corrected by selling individuals that get sick.

The product can be prepared with respect to quality. Vaccination sites develop pockets in the meat, so injections should be given in the neck,. Brands can can mess up the hide for leather purposes, so you brand in less valuable locations (mine is right hip). Meat is sold as select, choice or prime (select has the least inter-muscular marbling with fat), and is ranked as to yield grade from one to five (the lower the better). Grass finished beef contains all the omega 3 fats (cancer fighting, good for you). Grain finishing replaces all the omega 3 fats with omega 6 fats within 45 days. You can target the sector of the market with your herd. It is possible to achieve greater than 90% choice and better with yield grade 1, but grain finished. Preparing heifers and bulls for breed stock can be great genetic work, but the breeder needs to keep an eye on what the market wants or be able to sell the market on what they need.

Breeders, through breed associations, track between ten and fifteen characteristics that are quantified as Expected Progeny Differences. For example, cows that had a high birth weight bred to bulls with high birth weight will likely produce calves of high birth weight, which is not necessarily a good thing because the cows can have problems giving birth to heavy calves. A higher percentage of Caesarian deliveries can result, which means higher veterinarian costs. Breeders have “plants” in their pastures that are measured for a large number of characteristics. It becomes a very complicated decision as to which bulls should be combined with them. Emphasizing one characteristic can have unintended long term consequences. If you want it bad, you get it bad. If you want it worse, you get it worse. Embryo transfer and cloning produce the intended consequence, but they always have weaknesses which may appear for certain users of the product.

Of course, all of this can come to nothing if the bull is laying in the shade two miles from the cow that is ready to be bred.

And you thought that the life of a cowboy was a simple one.

What I've Got to Say

Engineer and cowboy? How can these two possibly supplement one another? Maybe you can see how engineering can help a cattle operation, but even this transfer, in my experience, will probably surprise you.

I suspect that you're sceptical about what a man riding a horse while trailing a herd of cows could possibly teach an engineer, especially a chemical engineer. That is the primary purpose of the posts you will be reading.

As head of our local office, I signed my own lay-off papers at the end of a project. That was 14 years ago. Yeah, I was pushed that direction by other factors. I worked for Stone & Webster. They were headed for an Enron-like failure. Regulations were multiplying by hundreds of thousands of pages a year. California alone accounted for 100,000 pages of new environmental regs per year. I had five offers of other positions with other organizations. Yet, I chose to leave engineering. For many, this would be a questionable decision, but it offered the opportunity to do some real engineering instead of trying to keep pace with regulatory environment.

You need to understand other aspects that led me this way. I enjoy challenge. I'm confident taking on even unknown businesses, and that I can manage the variables. I am compelled to to acquire new capabilities. I solve problems – technical or organizational. (Believe me, ranching offers problems to solve every day.) Even afflicted with these characteristics, I have enjoyed success, which encourages the confidence.

Before I get to the things that ranching can teach an engineer, you'll need to find out what I learned from ranching and what the engineer did as a rancher. Here we go …..