I finally collected my first cattle last Wednesday, a couple of Dexter steers. One red, one black, very handsome boys, aged 18 months and 16 months respectively.
They seem very nervous and spooky, especially the (younger) black one. I've put this down to them having never been away from their birthplace - it must have been stressful being trailered away and finding themselves in new surroundings with strange sights and sounds.
For now I've got them in a fairly spacious shed with some outdoor space and lots of straw and am feeding hay. They've never been handled as far as I can tell, and they spook easily and dash round their pen. I am trying to get them used to a bucket with a few nuts in, so that I can eventually use a bucket to lead them where I want them to go and to reward them for being handled. So far, the red one will take a mouthful of nuts while I'm standing no closer than 3 yards away; the black one just tries to hide behind the red one. They are both very scared of me (and anyone else!) - they are actually trembling, and panic very easily. They also seem to have lost some condition since they arrived, although they have adlib hay and are eating, but they seem so afraid! I don't believe they've been ill-treated, just not handled. I think (hope) it's just the shock of being removed from a large group of youngsters and finding themselves in a new environment.
Are they too old already to be properly tamed and (hopefully) halter trained? I just need a bit of reassurance that I'm approaching them in the right way (ignoring them while I move around the pen to feed / water /straw down and then using pressure/release methods that I've used before with horses). My concern is that if they don't calm down they are going to endanger themselves and anyone who is looking after them too.