Temple Grandin at PFI

Temple Grandin, a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, gave a workshop on livestock facilities and behavior at Craig and LaVon Griffieon’s farm in Ankeny on Tuesday, August 3rd.

Temple visited PFI farmers B & B Farms and Wild Rose Pastures the day before the workshop.

Many farmers had questions for Temple during the breaks.

Temple talked about the things to consider when designing animal handling facilities in order for the animals to be less stressed and to flow through better. With proper design, one can work with the animals’ nature instead of having to force them to do our will.

Bruce Carney brought over his mobile corral for demonstration. Bruce and Temple both said that this design will work well for corralling and loading animals in a temporary location, but is not ideal for working animals for any kind of treatment.

Craig drove everybody down the road to look at his cattle handling facilities and to get Temple’s comments. She recommended removing the weeds and extraneous equipment surrounding the chute, since his chute is not solid and cows are easily scared by weeds blowing in the wind or big strange things around. She also recommended adding a gate to change the flow, since cattle have the instinct to ‘go back to where they came from’, so adding an extra curve can work with this natural behavior.