Wyoming Stockmanship Workshop Improves Livestock Handling Skills
Mindful. Valuable. Patient. These were just a few of the words that kept being repeated by attendees of the Back to Nature Stockmanship workshop held in collaboration with Central Wyoming College, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance, Cattle Up Stockmanship, Indigenous Grazing Lands Coalition, and Holistic Management International on July 31 – August 1, 2026.
The classroom portion of the training allowed Dawn Hnatow, the experienced trainer in Bud and Eunice Williams-type low stress livestock handling, to share information and videos on how to work with the livestock.
“So impressed with Dawn’s knowledge, experience, and patience with livestock and humans! What she teaches is shown in the video examples but really comes out when you get to practice yourself. I am amazed at how much I learned and how this will work better with our herd.”
The quality arena facilities at Central Wyoming College allowed participants to interact with the fine herd of heifers brought in for the training by the Tony Roman/Roman Ranch family.
Participants explored core stockmanship skills in the arena, including gathering cattle, turning them as a group, maneuvering the herd, and moving cattle through corrals.
The most eye-opening moment came when, after preparatory handling, the cattle calmly loaded into a stock trailer then stood quietly inside even with the door wide open. As Dawn said, “this shows they are not afraid of the trailer. When they have been handled effectively, they don’t mind going in or being in there.”
In fact, a funny moment came, when on day two of the workshop, participants were deep in conversation at one end of the arena and looked up to notice that the herd had walked down toward the trailer and were self-loading themselves into the trailer.
“Watching Dawn work with folks handle the cattle was amazing! I cannot believe those heifers were so comfortable with it all. They moved so calmly. I can’t wait to get back and try this with my own herd.”
Many shared they really enjoyed the time in the arena practicing all they had learned earlier.
“First of all, this really works!! And it helped my family learn how to work better together on how to read and handle the cattle.”
“Being mindful when handling stock is important. It is too easy to get in a hurry and wreck everything.”
“The knowledge shared really confirmed the value of stockmanship. This is important for someone just beginning all the way to those who have been around animals all their lives. I really liked learning how to better position myself from the animals’ point of view.”
The workshop concluded with a presentation by Delane Atcitty of Indian Nations Conservation Alliance focusing on how producers can work together to improve infrastructure and opportunities to for livestock producers in the region.
With gratitude to Central Wyoming College faculty and staff for hosting the event, Tony Roman and family for allowing use of their cattle, and to the participants for taking the time to join us in this learning experience.
