when starting – what do you prefer: calf or youngster

The best time to start them is right after they come off of collostrum. Bottle feed them and convience them that you are their mother. What wouldn’t you do for your mother? Train and correct them the same as your mother did you.
You can tell a lot about what a pair of steers will be by what their mothers are. If their mothers match they most likely will also, if they are out of the same bull.

I have a very friendly steer calf, 9 months old but when he is on lead or in training he is very willfull and stuborn. Loves people and attention but not so crazy about training and work. The two in his case do not equate. Myself I would prefer a little more compliant steer even if he wasen’t as affectionate.

I purchased two pairs of Devons in October. The pail-fed pair were friendly and docile from the get go and responding to voice commands within two days. They made me feel like a hero.

Then the pasture raised pair arrived! The were about the same age but more like wild animals by comparison. They have come around but it’s taken months of effort.

I’m working both pairs in yolk now. They can pull a sled full of firewood and chain skid very small logs through the snow. They’ve pulled a crude snow plow to clear the driveway as well.

The pail-fed pair is very docile now but it took a long time to get here.

For what my opinion is worth: I agree with the posts above that recommend human-raised calves over cow-raised calves. (with the small caveat that it probably does depend a little on the breed. that is, a cow-raised brown swiss pair might be as cooperative as a bottle raised chianina pair. but breeding and other things being equal, the calves will have the highest respect and the most love the species that fed them. )

this can be a BiG plus if you like your team to be willing and happy workers. i have only had oxen that i raised “from little up”, but i know several teamsters who do it the other way, and i think some people actually relish the challange of trying to overcome the resistance that a pair of cow-raised steers inevitably puts up. for some reason, it doesn’t seem as easy to get a steers respect and love as it is to win over a horse. we have all heard stories of wild mustangs that were trained right and who would now go through fire and water for their owner/ trainer. it seems to me that this doesn’t happen quite the same way with cattle… but that might just be my lack of experience.

i like taking care of animals even more than working them, so raising calves is a big part of the fun for me. they are so easily managed when they are little! you don’t even need a stall, you can tie them up for the first week or so.
if you get 1000 pound untamed animals, you had better have some good fencing and someplace stout to tie them to!
Of course, unweaned calves need to be fed twice a day, no skipping a feeding because you have the flu , and that is not everyone’s cup of tea. Calfhood diseases (like various types of diarrhea and pneumonia) can also crop up , and then you may have a little extra trouble getting them over that… but if you get them from a well managed farm where they get the colostrum they need and if you are regular with your care of them, calves are very hardy. older cattle are not immune to sickness anyway.

the expense of getting calves is much lower, especially right now, dairy farmers are getting next to nothing for the bull calves at least in Pa.

hope some of this is useful.

I think, it has something to do with what you expect from your animals.
I must not have a showteam, I don’t refuse using of a halter-rope. I only need a team which goes when it should go, which stands when it should stand, which goes left/right, when left/right is requested and back, when they should do this.
I have used up to now only mother raised calves and it works. Ok. They are not from a big herd and the mothers are used to be handled.

sanhestar

You want to listen to all this advice, and then run it through a strainer to get all the bs out of it. Use what makes sense to you.

P.S. There is no right and wrong way to train cattle. Just my way and your way.