How do you tame a wild cow?

Answer 1

Put her in a small pen, one that is around 20 feet square. Then start to get her used to you by being around here several times a day, offering a feed pellet or cube to her to get her to come to you and take it from your hand. If she's really wild, this may take several weeks to get her to eat from your hand. You should start the first week or so, just as a safety precaution, to be on the other side of the fence of her. Then go into the corral a little at a time. Talk to her the whole time as well, so she gets used to your voice. Some find reading a book out loud when you're near or in the same corral in her will get her to get used to you quite quickly.

Once she's eating from your hand you can start to try to touch her. Don't pet her head because that's a real good way to get her annoyed at you fairly quickly. Start by trying to scratch her under her chin and along her neck. If she gets uncomfortable don't force her to accept your touch right away, otherwise she definitely won't trust you. Just go a little at a time, attempting to push a little further along than last time. This is also a good time to introduce the brush. She will balk at first, but with cattle, they always have an itchy spot that needs scratching, and a brush (one with the stiff needles) is a tool that she will learn to love.

Once she's used to your touch (and you've done it on both sides of her), you can start to put a halter on. Tie her up for an hour or two to a sturdy fence post or fence that she cannot pull down easily, and brush her and talk to her during that time. She will fight the lead and the halter, but if the halter is on correctly so she doesn't slip out of the halter, and the lead is tied up right, she will soon surrender to it. Keep doing this until she learns that being tied up isn't something she needs to panic about. Leave enough slack on the rope so that she is able to lay down but won't get her legs tangled up in it.

You could get her to lead, but being a cow that is much bigger and stronger than you, and not a little 4H calf, you may be better off not to do so. Sometimes it's best to tame a cow so that she's not so wild-eyed whenever she sees you, but so that she's calm and relaxed around you. If you are looking for that and don't want to touch her or have to brush her, a halter is not necessary. Unless you want her as a milking cow.

Another piece of advice is that if the cow has not changed her demeanor in the first few weeks of you trying to calm her down and get her used to you, you may have to give up and sell her for hamburger. Some cattle are genetically wild and will not change their temperament no matter what you try to do. If that's the case, don't waste any more time with this wild cow; you're better off giving her a one-way ticket to the sale-barn and starting with younger, more docile stock.