There have been a lot of articles written about the “Bud Box” for loading a processing chute or trucks in the last few years.  Though Bud has often stated that he “would like to live long enough to see every crowd tub replaced with a Bud Box, or at least with some other system that is more animal friendly,” we view these articles with mixed emotions since unless you understand the right way to work it, it doesn’t work as well as it should. I used to try to discourage people from building a Bud Box unless they had been to one of our schools or had seen the DVDs that we have for sale, but there has been such wide-spread coverage (including some information that is not correct) that I decided to post some information here on our website.

When designing a Bud Box (more…)

This is part of a letter from Tina, our daughter.  She and her husband Richard McConnell teach Low Stress Livestock Handling.  See their webpage at www.handnhandlivestocksolutions.com.

. . . We are finally getting caught up from the Provenza Short Course and then speaking last Wednesday! Whew! The Short Course was really great. It was nice to visit with Bruce Maynard also.   [Bud and I met Bruce when he attended Stockmanship Schools that we put on in Australia in 1999 and in 2002.  He also visited us in Texas for a One-on-One.]   He taught stockmanship stuff to the group while they were out at the experiment farm every morning doing their research stuff. . . . Bruce gave Dad full credit for everything he taught from the beginning. And, Fred Provenza mentioned Dad’s work a lot during his talks, both the stockmanship and the marketing. We thought Bruce did a very good job with what he taught. He did the straight lines, T to the gate, NOT being a predator, etc. I didn’t hear/see anything that wasn’t right from what Dad teaches. He had some great demonstration items too. At one point the group of about 10 of us were standing by this pen of lambs. He had us get in a straight line fairly near their pen, then had the ends move out into a curve around the lambs, and you could immediately tell they got uncomfortable with that. Very good demo of what the curves do mentally, above and beyond pressuring those outer animals so they have no where to go. . . .

This is a letter that Grahame Rees forwarded to us.  Grahame teaches Low Stress Stock Handling in Australia

Subject: A message from Jed, Slim and Lachie at Coonamble

G’day Grahame,
                       We too want to join the queue of thankful canines regarding the recent LSS course our owner/trainer attended at Gunnedah. Since Jane’s return we seem to have done every procedure known to man on our mobs of ewes and lambs and have been in and out of the sheep yards for weeks
                     . She seems to have finally got it! All those plans to modify the shape of the sheep yards seem to have gone out the window….Jane has finally worked out (and it’s taken all these years!) that we need to send the mob down the opposite fence line to get stock from the big pen into the lead up yards. And also that she needs to stand up the front and leave us lads to work the back of the mob to get them in. We’re not even allowed to bark anymore and she mostly uses us just one at a time in the yards….now that’s a bit boring cause we were pretty competitive and used to race each other and get those sheep really moving!

Then there’s this T thing happening out in the paddock. It’s weird cause she keeps dropping back when she sends us round the side…recently she mustered a mob of 1,700 ewes and lambs just with Jed and would have got them beautifully through the gate had Lachie not arrived at that moment and chased them all back! Don’t worry, we sorted him out after that.
                      All that zig zag stuff and pressure/release and working on the lead that we’ve always done, Jane’s now taking the credit for it! Unbelievable!
                      Now there’s talk of altering the cattle yards to make the lead up pen square and the next batch of calves to be weaned are going to be run just over the fence from their mums. Honestly we’ve never seen so many changes around here, we’re on our best behaviour now in case we become redundant and get the axe.
. . . . .
                                        
                     Cheers and thanks for the heads up
                      The lads

This is an e-mail that we received from our good friends, Jim and Terry Lindsay from Queensland, Australia.

A number of years ago Terry and I were in Western Australia doing some Stockhandling schools and had a particular school cancelled because of no suitable venue due to dry seasons.
The managers of Mardie Station Richard and Lindy Climas were approached by the organizer, and with a days notice,  they agreed to supply some cattle if we could manage to camp and hold the school in the old shearers shed. Which we did.
Richard attended that school and went on to attend another the following year and then hosted a school at Mardie the year after that. Richard is someone who just gets on with doing things. (more…)

Question:    We have all heard plenty of stories about the “wrecks” people have been through when starting a set of calves.  I would enjoy hearing about the good things that people are seeing when they start calves properly. (more…)

Bud and Eunice, I am mailing a copy of your thoughts regarding large animal vets to John Thomson, Dean of Iowa State University Vet School.  The principle is much the same as an article in the Wall Street Journal about General Motors and training managers about 20 years  ago.  It basically stated GM was wasting lots of money training at schools etc and just needed to find the best they had within the company and let them train the brightest young employees in the company instead of spending $millions on schools and Management games.

The September 2009 Progressive Farmer magazine has an article titled
“A JOB NO ONE WANTS Animal health care is in crisis and there aren’t enough large-animal vets to go around.”

Here are my thoughts on this health care “crisis”

The solution to the “crisis” is not more large-animal veterinarians.  The solution would be for people to learn how to work their animals better. It is always strange how we try to solve problems with more of what causes them. While it certainly was not vets that caused the “crisis”, it was the thinking that drugs could take the place of people working the animals properly that has caused, and will perpetuate it as long as we think that way.   (more…)

Ann Barnhardt has been doing a great job teaching our basic Marketing School since 2006.  BudWilliamsMarketing.com is her website.  We don’t have anything to do with it.

Bud’s schools (and his life) have always been “works in progress.”  From the questions we have been getting from folks who have attended our (and Ann’s) Marketing Schools he decided that some things needed to be explained a little better.  This is why we decided to enlarge our Stockmanship.com website to include a “Subscription” section for people who are serious about wanting to learn (both Marketing and Stockmanship) from Bud.

Comment:     Please let me know if you have another discussion group in Texas or an adjoining state.  I would love to spend time with positive minded-people who don’t think I am a nut.

Answer:   Bud and I strongly advise folks to locate like-thinking people to meet with.  These meetings give people the opportunity to help one another and counteract the negativity that seems to be all around us these days.  It also helps to develop working relationships that can help in many ways.

We never give out information from our data-base, but if anyone wants to volunteer to head such a group I’ll be glad to send e-mails to the people that we know in their area so they can contact you if they are interested.

 Eunice

We are doing well and really excited how easily we are working the cattle now. Everything Bud said about preparing them first, and working them properly is right.

I no longer worry that our fences aren’t bullet proof, and that the working facilities aren’t solid. If we work them properly facilities are over-rated. In fact all the trader cattle we have been working with are easier to work than the old ranch herd has been in the past.

Bottom line ……….. Just tell Bud that he was right again . . . .