Human-Animal relationship and communication practices with cattle

Summary

Good practices for handling animals on farms are relatively well-known and widespread. Yet, farmers sometimes face situations where routine handling methods do not apply: A difficult birth, one or more animals panicking when moved to a new paddock, an animal refusing to be milked, high stress when animals are sent to the slaughterhouse. In such situations, it is often difficult to know how to react and what to do so that both human and animal resolve the problem as efficiently and calmly as possible.
The aim of our project is to document the practices used by farmers in such situations. We conducted on-farm visits and engaged in an open (nevertheless guided through a questionnaire) discussion focusing on the relationship between humans and animals and the communication between them.
From these discussions, we drew up an inventory of the practices used to deal with non-routine situations. Because each farm is unique, both in terms of the people who run it and of the animals who live on it, we do not provide a set of "rules on animal handling". Rather, we present a range of possible practices resulting from farmers' know-how, from which other farmers can willingly pick in a way that suits their own farm.