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The district supervisors of Butte Soil and Water Conservation District recognized a need for a guide to low stress management of livestock and  in cooperation with the Natural Resources Conservation Service received a grant to produce a livestock management manual. Steve Cote, district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Arco, Idaho (from 1995 - 2014) spent years studying low stress livestock handling, attending workshops, and working with livestock.  Cote then wrote Stockmanship – a powerful tool for grazing lands management based on his experiences. 

Steve now travels the United States teaching workshops  on low stress livestock handling. The Butte SWCD has reprinted the manual several times.  Manuals have been shipped throughout the US, Canada, and many other countries.  Book sales generate funding for Butte SWCD's conservation activities.
 
The book includes color photos and diagrams, and explains hands-on methods that teach:

  • How to place cattle and have them stay for a day or more, without fences
  • How to get stock to leave a location, water and return promptly
  • How to prevent over-grazing
  • Techniques for handling large herds through difficult terrain on the range or pasture
  • How to reduce  handling stress, livestock sickness, and increase productivity.
 Ranchers using low stress livestock handling are seeing improved plant vigor and cover.  Their range is in better condition and their cattle are healthier.  Cote says, “This remarkable method of handling cattle is the best and perhaps the only practical solution to solving one of the more pressing and difficult range management problems…protecting and enhancing riparian and other critical areas.”

Copies of Stockmanship are available for $20 plus $3 shipping and handling by calling the Butte Soil and Water Conservation District at (208) 527-8557 ext 101 or emailing butteswcd@outlook.com  Click on the link below for an order form.