Recently, Farm Director, KC Sheperd had the chance to visit with academic and animal behaviorist Temple Grandin about animal handling, education and more.
Among other trades, including authoring many books about visual thinking and more, Grandin is also a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University.
Grandin said that in her classes, one thing she focuses on is teaching students how to apply tools such as scientific databases to their work.
“I am finding that the majority of students don’t know what the scientific databases are,” Grandin said. “I think it is a really big problem.”
Regarding her books on animal behavior, Grandin talked about some of the big takeaways.
“An animal lives in a sensory-based world, not a word-based world,” Grandin said.
In her new book on visual thinking, Grandin said she talks about how animals are visual thinkers, but also that there are many different types of thinkers when it comes to people, and each plays an important role in society.
“I am getting concerned that visual thinkers like me who feel very good at building things also are getting screened out because we have difficulty with higher math,” Grandin said. “We need the visual thinkers.”
Grandin shared some of the most important things to keep in mind when handling livestock from her perspective.
“The first thing you have got to do is to calm down,” Grandin said. “Don’t yell at them. I am finding we still have to talk about basics.”
Factors such as people standing in the wrong place, noise, shadows, and vehicles parked in a distracting spot can all impact the behavior of livestock.
“Lot of times, slow is faster,” Grandin said.
Grandin said she teaches her students to be observant and notice distractions in handling facilities and to consider principles such as the animal’s flight zone.
“A common mistake that happens is you have animals in a single file chute, is somebody stands at the head of the animal and pokes it on the butt with a paddle,” Grandin said. “That doesn’t work. You have got to get behind the shoulder if you want it to go forward in a single-file chute.”
Foreign objects found in beef have become a larger issue lately, Grandin said, and one thing contributing to this problem is the use of dart guns to deliver medicine. Using dart guns in the right scenario is okay, Grandin said, but she does not recommend using them for routine medication.
“That is just doing to be a meat-wrecker,” Grandin said. “It is something that should only be used in a very specialized situation.”
