Cattle calm paste

[Sundae]

Does "Cattle calm" paste help calm cattle before a show??  My son is only 10 and has a frisky 1100 lb. heifer he is working with, or at least trying to when she is not acting up.  I don't push him to much with her because I don't want him to get hurt, he is small for his age.  He really, really wants to show her at some sanction shows, but with most of the shows unfenced I worry alot.  So does this stuff help??  And how do you administer it? oral--nose??  or is there something out there that someone else can reccomend??

Thanks for any info.

S.

 

[fluffer]

First of all  (welcome)

I have never had much luck with the past.  If you really need to take the edge off there are some injectables you can get, but I watched a 1200 lb bull drop and die at the NAILE from the stuff (ACE).  Others on here may have had better luck then I with that cattle calm.  I would just work with them a lot and maybe go to your first show open minded and if things go south don't show her.  A lot of times after their first outing they calm down and things don't bother them much.

Good Luck!
Fluffer

 

[mlk32]

We have used it a few times on heifers when we were trying to show them while in heat.  It seemed to help but I think my nephew is "addicted" to believing the stuff works.  This past weekend, one heifer danced just one time on him while we were in the make-up arena and my nephew demanded to know if we had calf calmed her.  Forgive me but I lied.  I looked right at him and said "yep, we hit all three calves."  I never heard another word from him and he showed all three with confidence. 

 

[Jill]

We never got any results from the paste, waste of money in my opinion.

 

[vc]

mlk32 I think you hit it on the head, most of the time it works on the kids, they think it works so they relax; this in turns helps the animal relax.
I don’t know how it is for most kids, but I have noticed allot of the boys approach showing like they would a baseball or basket ball game, get little worked up, competitive juices start flowing, that  = A worked up calf.
Once my boy started relaxing it got allot easier for him.

 

[Turkey Creek Ranch]

We use the cattle calm at our fair for the most part. It seems to work well for us, it doesn't make them "sleepy" or groggy at all. We also use ACE. You have to be careful with the stuff though. Although we have never seen a calf die from it, I lost a showmanship class because my steer got a little sleepy and decided to lie down in the sandy ring. Needless to say it wasn't pretty when he got up, he had sand in the adhesive, it was a mess, BUT I think if you use it properly, and do not overdose, it works great.

Turk

 

[afhm]

Calf calm works on parents and kids but not calves.  It is a huge confidence builder/ nerve settler.

 

[DLD]

IMO, calf calm can do do some good, but to get the most out of it, you've got to get it in their system for awhile before you show. A tube every 3 - 4  hours  for 12 hours before show time generally will slow them down somewhat. It's not cheap, and it's kind of a pain, since it usually means they need it sometime during the night, but we've had some luck with using it this way. It needs to be administered orally, btw.

 

[CAB]

Melatonin pills starting 5 days B4 a show.

 

[Nasc]

We used Calf Calm the first year my daughter showed.

We used about two tubes of it. I kept one of the empty tubes and put it in the show box.
At the next show “with my daughter watching” I just simply pulled the plunger back out and acted like I was giving the heifer a full dose.
This act worked real well with my daughter till my placebo tube was discarded a few shows later.
She was stressing out that we did not have any calf calm and I had to come clean and tell her that she had been showing the last several shows with out any calf calm in her heifer. She was a bit upset with my stunt but HER or her claves have never needed calf calm since.

If you still want to try it, give it to the calf at least 2 to 3 hours before show and get their bellies full. Also use the full tube.

Good luck

 

[showsteerdlux]

We have had good luck with cattle calm. Make sure you give it plenty early or it wont work right. We also do alot of praying if we have a wild calf and I beleive that that in its self helps alot.

 

[red]

We have used it a few times on heifers when we were trying to show them while in heat.  It seemed to help but I think my nephew is "addicted" to believing the stuff works.  This past weekend, one heifer danced just one time on him while we were in the make-up arena and my nephew demanded to know if we had calf calmed her.  Forgive me but I lied.  I looked right at him and said "yep, we hit all three calves."  I never heard another word from him and he showed all three with confidence. 

No way, lie to Jake?  I agree it worked on Sami but remember how she almost feel asleep before the show. It works if calf isn't too worked already. But I agree the kid's mindset is a huge part of the equation.

Red