May 2026

The Question is often asked “When is the best time to halter train your calves?”. We put a halter on a calf for our milk cows calves within the first week of life. This gives them time to establish a nursing routine, so the halter won’t risk being an interference in the first few days of life. You can easily pick up a newborn calf and take them to the barn to separate for the morning’s milking but that lasts for a short time. The sooner you get a calf to learn to lead the better off you will be as they only get stronger. If they learn from day one that you are boss, it’s a great start. For us the most preferred time for calving is when there is no grass growing and we are feeding hay. You can have a calf and its mother in a small pasture where the calf learns on a small scale to be caught, lead and released again. Then by the time the grass is green the calf has a better idea of what to expect and has gained more trust in people. You can use a small pasture during the growing season too, but then your feeding hay when they could be eating grass. We also teach our calves to be pushed at a young age. Often times the oldest calf that has been trained the longest will be the leader but temperament also has a play in the matter. If you start in small pastures you can round up the calves and they will all walk together to a location you want them to go to. If one doesn’t get into it’s mini herd, you can clip it’s halter and get it to walk. Training calves to do multiple things at a young age really saves you a lot of headaches later on when they are much larger. I halter train older calves too out of cows we don’t milk. They can be trained just as well in the end but it takes more effort than just integrating it into your everyday routine.