The Casual Cattle Conversations Podcast: Reducing Stress for Cattle

Reducing Stress for Cattle

A first-generation Texas rancher has uncovered different tactics to improve low-stress cattle handling techniques for ranches of all sizes.

Kim Youngkind was living the life of a trauma nurse in Philadelphia when her father-in-law passed away leaving her and her husband the family ranch in Texas. The Youngkinds didn’t have any knowledge of ranching but took on the challenge and quickly learned.

Previous arrangements were made that the other side of the family, who were ranchers, would take over the ranch. “It seemed to be a good plan,” says Kim. “But at the funeral, the experienced ranchers decided to give the responsibility to us.”

Kim approached ranching and animal behavior with curiosity. Afterall, her mind was a clean slate never having heard, “This is how we’ve always done it.”

“I think being curious is important to gain a really different perspective. There are always insights and new information available and tapping into those insights can really help your cattle business,” says Jungkind. Her background as an Emergency/trauma/Heart transplant nurse and artist brought a special skillset to ranching as well. Her background as a trauma nurse and artist brought a special skillset to ranching as well.

“Nurses are very good observers,” explains Kim. “I just transferred those abilities and started really focusing on the cows – they seemed emotional and curious.”....



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