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Special thanks to
Melissa Griffiths, Madison Valley Ranchlands Group Weed Committee
Marni Thompson and Trisha Craycroft of the NRCS
The Owens Family
Kyle Nelson and Wes, Jumping Horse Ranch
Steve and Jen Woods, Horse Creek Hay and Cattle
Jan Kluver, Ranchland Resources working with the Woodson and Morse Ranches
Dave Dixon, Bill and Kyle at the Snowcrest Ranch
Jory, Erica, Madison and Jayce Thompson
Maddie and Tim Griffiths
Peter Williams
It doesn't take long for herd mates to learn from trained animals.
Eight trained heifers trained 20 cow-calf pairs in a large pasture.
Steve Wood found that his steers learned from 40 trained heifers grazing in a separate pasture next to them.
We trained 320 cows at 5 different ranches and 38 bison at another in the Madison and Ruby Valleys in Montana in a project sponsored by the Madison Valley Ranchlands Group's Weed Committee the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
This project included a number of "Firsts:"
First #1 - Ranchers started the training on their own based on instructions I sent them. This gave ranchers hands-on understanding of how their animals learn. I arrived to help with the trickier introduction to weeds and in-pasture training.
First #2 - At the Woodson Ranch, 8 trained heifers showed 20 untrained cow calf pairs how to eat Canada thistle in just 30 days. We always knew cows could teach each other, but we didn't know how fast it happened!
First #3 - We trained 38 bison at Ted Turner's Snowcrest Ranch, demonstrating that the behavior principles the steps are based on are truly universal. We found that they continued to eat the plant even as it got older. They focused on buds and blossoms, typical for animals just learning a new weed. With continued practice they eat more and more of the weed.
First #4 - Yes, you CAN train large numbers! At the Jumping Horse Ranch we used a cake feeder and taught 110 pairs. In their latest pasture they grazed thistle to the same height as the grass. The hardest part of training this many animals is gathering enough weeds for the training portion. I highly recommend hiring the same kinds of enthusiastic 10 - 16 year olds who helped us!
The ranchers share their perspectives on the training in our new DVD.
