Volume 1, Issue 2 (July 2012)

In the Journal’s website I clarified critical definitional and conceptual issues regarding stockmanship, then made the claim, and argued accordingly, that low-stress livestock handling (LSLH) is the most fundamental, indeed indispensable, slice of the stockmanship pie. In the Debut Issue (Volume 1, Issue 1) I began to lay the foundation for an appropriate understanding of LSLH by focusing entirely on the work of the discipline’s exemplar, Bud Williams. This issue will continue to lay that all-important foundation.

The first article, The Case for Low-Stress Livestock Handling, presents evidence for the importance of LSLH in terms of its multiple benefits in several categories: production, performance, efficiency, safety, animal welfare, and quality of life.

The second article, Low-Stress Livestock Handling: Mapping the Territory, coauthored with Lynn Locatelli, DVM (see Profile and Interview), elucidates, delineates and demarcates the emerging discipline of L-SLH and explains how it is different from conventional livestock handling. Also, it discusses the origins, essential attitude, principles and techniques (including seven illustrative videos), misconceptions and common mistakes, current status and future prospects of LSLH. This article is indispensable to an understanding of LSLH and to all future issues of the Journal. Even though not all issues of the Journal will be of interest to all readers (e.g., a future issue on ranch roping won’t be of interest to non-ropers), but this issue, in conjunction with the website and Debut Issue are fundamental to all. They lay the necessary foundation and understanding of the definitions, concepts, principles and techniques for all future treatment of stockmanship.

This issue also contains a Profile and a lively, informative Interview with Dr. Locatelli, a long-time student of Bud Williams, and consultant and teacher of LSLH, as well as a review of her excellent instructional DVD, Low Stress Cattle Handling: An Overlooked Dimension of Management.

Additionally, the Mythbusters and Research Pearls sections are introduced in this issue.