Train a Heifer, From Halter Breaking to Milk Training

It seems that keeping a dairy cow is the homestead dream that says “you have arrived.” Keeping a family cow often means learning to train a heifer. From teaching her to walk with manners to standing still during milking, we can help you train a heifer to be a great milk cow.

Train a Heifer to Walk

Firstly, if you’re starting with a young calf, you can begin to train a heifer with a calf rope. It adjusts easily to fit any size. These ropes come in handy because it can be difficult to find halters for young calves.

Put the rope halter on your heifer and just gauge her reaction. Usually, they find this activity unpleasant, and their reactions vary from frustrated to downright angry. If she’s going to throw a fit, let her do it. Just hold on to the rope.

This needs to be a short training session of 5-10 minutes. That’s it. End it when she’s not acting out so that she’ll equate her calm behavior with the reward of removing the rope.

First Time Haltering

If you have an older heifer, go for an actual halter that you can leave on for a short periods of time. I like the kind with a chain under the chin for maximum control.

When you first put the halter on her, just let her realize that she’s wearing something new. Often times, they just stand still as if the simple act of putting it on them was the attitude adjustment they didn’t know they needed.

I like to leave the halter on for a day before we try to use a rope to lead. Let that come in a separate lesson the next day.

Tying

The next step to train a heifer is to tie her. Clip a lead rope to her halter. If she seems to be somewhat compliant, you can probably skip the tying step. Sometimes though, an untrained heifer may throw her head with rage. This can be dangerous for you if you’re working with a larger heifer, so be cautious.

If we are working with an extra stubborn heifer, we like to tie them to a post or a tree. Letting them fight the rope is the best way for them to understand they can’t win. Jumping around like a wild animal will not get them what they want, which is to be released to run. 

Additionally, they learn that they’re fighting the rope, and not the person holding the rope. 

My best girl started out wanting to horn me when I put on her halter. She spent a couple of days tied to a fence post for hours at a time. I brought her hay and water, and I sat nearby. When she relaxed, I gave her attention as positive reinforcement in the forms of treats and scratches.

Do make sure that you learn how to tie a quick release knot so that you can easily let her go in the event of an emergency.

Leading

After your heifer has settled down when tied, the next step is attempting to walk her with a lead rope. When I train a heifer, I teach her a few simple commands as we walk around the fields. 

Standing right next to her neck, behind her ear, keeps her from being able to headbutt you (or horn you if she has horns). Never stand directly in front of her as she’s learning. Hold her head up by the rope if she tries to lower it.

Oral Cues

“Let’s go,” means walk. Tightly hold the rope close to her chin, and give the rope some gentle pressure. Pull it taught until she takes a step forward. When she walks, relax the rope a little as instant gratification for her. This pressure and release method will gently train a heifer to behave herself when you need to walk her.

“Stop” obviously means to stop walking. Again, hold the rope firmly at her chin, and pull back as you give the STOP command. Wait for a moment, standing in place, and give praise when it’s due.

“Back” teaches her to move back when I need her to by using backward pressure with the rope. The reality of training a heifer to milk is that I often need to use the BACK command to get them out of the stanchion. Teaching her this one on the rope in the field first will help me in the day-to-day milking chores later.

I practice these oral cues often when our heifers or cows are dry, so that they don’t forget what they’ve learned. I give lots of praises and face scratches with the occasional treat out of my pocket as we walk and stop during lessons.

Each cow is an individual animal with individual temperaments. She’s probably going to try to be pushy and bossy on your first attempt at leading. Don’t let her lead. You are to lead her. You are the boss.

Where to Train a Heifer

I like to separate the heifer from the rest of the herd and work in a small area during our first sessions. Later, I’ll bring her out of the main fence into a space she isn’t as familiar with. Finding a good place to walk her through different areas is good for her after she’s proven she can behave on the rope.

It’s a good idea to keep the area free of anything that might make your heifer feel threatened such as the family dog. A busy driveway on your farm might cause her to jump and attempt to flee.

Consistency

The key to halter training cattle is routine. Cows are creatures of habit, so begin walking with short lessons every single day. The more you practice with her, the faster she’ll be trained.

They usually just need to know what you want, what’s expected of them. The daily practice will help to train a heifer what it is that you want her to do.

Train a Heifer With a Positive Relationship

Spend lots of time with your girl, showing her lots of love and attention, but don’t let her think that playing with you is allowed. This creates bad habits that become dangerous when she’s older. You don’t want a thousand pound mature cow running you over out of excitement.

Setting aside a few minutes each day to just be with her will get her used to you being around. Gentle brushes and chin scratches go a long way when she’s laying down in the early afternoon. She’ll learn that you are a positive association in no time.

Practice the Milking Routine

When you get closer to calving, begin practicing your milking routine. 

The first thing that I like to do is to just let her into her future milking area. Allow her to sniff around for a minute, then I give her a little treat in the feeder. 

Lock her head into place, just like you will when she freshens. Brush her all over, including her udder. Do not manipulate her teats or try to express anything out of them. We aren’t looking to stimulate her let-down reflex, but we just want her to get used to what it will be like.

You can even go as far as using a post milking teat dip, like iodine. Whatever you can do to make the new milking experience less foreign to her, the better off you’ll both be once she freshens.

Check out our tips on where to milk a cow for help on the whole milking routine when keeping a family cow.

Touching All Over

The best way to train a heifer to stand for milking is to touch her all over. Touch her back, then carefully run your hands down her legs, and then her belly. 

Beware though, if she hasn’t been touched like this before, it may be unsettling to her. Watch for kicking feet from those back legs. Go slow, and use steady pressure with your hands throughout the training process.

If you remove your hands every time she kicks, she’s learned that to be a reward for her new behavior. Again, be consistent, and persevere so that you win the battle of wills.

Expect the Unexpected From Your Dairy Cow

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, your heifer has calved, and now it’s time to milk. Your heifer is now a cow, by the way. Bring her in to your milking space on the first day that she calves. Start working on getting that previously-practiced routine established right away.

You’ve done everything you can do to train a heifer, and she’s always been calm during the practice phase.  However, there’s a few things that you still have to consider:

• hormones
• pain and swelling
• there’s a calf to deal with

Hormones

Your cow is now a momma cow and her motherhood instincts are kicking in. She may not want you to milk her, saving her milk for her calf. She’s also going to be very concerned with where her baby is.

Bring her calf in with her when you begin to milk. Give the cow the opportunity to see her baby as she eats.

Pain and Swelling

Her udder is engorged and it may be painful to touch. Reaching for those teats may cause her to lash out at you. Be prepared for the sweetest, gentlest cow to kick for the first time. 

Dealing With The Calf

Having a calf in the milk stanchion with the family milk cow can mean chaos. Yes, I said bring that baby in to calm mom, but the calf in itself can be crazy. Sometimes they’re just born with a feral attitude, and they don’t want to be touched. Their flight response is just too strong for affectionate attention from you when they’re this young. Keep trying.

Furthermore, you aren’t going to walk the calf on a rope. Be prepared to carry it in. Having a calf wander around just adds a component of wild fun into the mix. It gets even crazier when your family milk cow wants to keep checking to see what her calf is getting into.

If the calf will nurse mom during milking time, then dairy cows will let down their milk freely, even if using a milking machine.

Train a Heifer to Stop Kicking

Training your first time heifer to be the milk cow of your dreams is no easy feat. I highly suggest a Kow Kant Kick to keep her from kicking when you’re training her to stand like a lady.

If you can’t purchase one of these, you can learn to properly tie a belly rope. 

Always remember to keep your hands on her udder when she kicks. I know that this is difficult because our nature is to retreat from danger, but doing this is imperative to the training process with dairy animals.

How to Train a Heifer Summary

I hope that I didn’t scare you too much. The reality is that training heifers to be quality milk cows is a lot of hard work. However, the hard stuff is the good stuff. That statement has never been truer than when applied to getting fresh milk from your sweet cow. I hope this helps you as you prepare to train a heifer for milk production on your homestead.

Happy Milking!

Donna and her family have been homesteading for most of their 20+  years together in some shape or fashion. She currently lives on their 20 acre farm where they grow as much food as possible. What started as a just a few laying hens, has grown into large gardens, pastured poultry, pork, and lamb. They are continuously evolving their small farm to not suit their family’s needs, but also providing to their local community. Donna’s favorite part of the family farm is her self-built micro-dairy, where she gets to love on dairy cows while serving her local community. Milking, cheesemaking, and processing dairy have become the soul of their homestead and the center of their farm.