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Temple Grandin: How an Animal Scientist Redesigned Cattle Handling Worldwide

From a summer on a relative's ranch to university professorship, Grandin built curved chutes, restraint systems and an audit scoring method that changed how cattle are moved.

Who is Temple Grandin?

Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and one of the most influential designers of livestock facilities in the world. Her professional biography says her designs are used in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

She came to the beef industry from outside it. She was born on August 29, 1947, in Boston, and was diagnosed with autism as a young child. Her own account, summarized in the sources below, ties her visual thinking to her attention to what animals see and how they respond to equipment.

A summer on a ranch and a career in cattle handling

As a teenager she spent a summer at a relative's cattle ranch in the West. The Encyclopedia.com entry describes how a squeeze chute used to hold cattle had a calming effect on her, and how she began noticing that animals and autistic people both rely heavily on visual cues.

She earned a B.A. with honors from Franklin Pierce College in 1970. From 1973 to 1978 she was livestock editor of Arizona Farmer Ranchman in Phoenix, and in 1974 and 1975 she worked as an equipment designer for Corral Industries. After a master's degree at Arizona State University in 1975 she founded Grandin Livestock Handling Systems.

Curved chutes, the flight zone and the center-track restrainer

Her professional site lists three signature contributions. The first is the center-track restrainer system for meat plants, which it says handles almost half of North America's cattle. The second is curved chute and race systems for cattle, used worldwide. The third is her writing on the flight zone, the personal space an animal wants kept around it, and grazing animal behavior, used to reduce stress during handling.

In the mid-1990s she consulted for McDonald's and designed a circular cattle chute, according to Encyclopedia.com. Her own research interests range from cattle temperament and bruising to bull fertility, training procedures and stunning methods.

Audits that changed meat plant practice

Grandin developed an objective scoring system for assessing how cattle and pigs are handled at meat plants. Her site says many large corporations use it to improve animal welfare.

Her audit method is described as objective, which is the quality that let it travel beyond a single plant.

The Key to Grandin's Impact

Grandin's influence rests on measurable work. She designed equipment that handlers could build and use, wrote it down in books and papers, and then gave the industry a scoring method it could audit.

Her record also shows persistence through a long academic path. She completed her Ph.D. in animal science at the University of Illinois in 1989 and started at Colorado State in 1990 as a lecturer before becoming a professor.

  • Design for behavior: curved chutes and races follow how cattle move and what they see.
  • Publish the method: she wrote more than 400 scientific and livestock-periodical articles and several handling books.
  • Measure it: her objective scoring system turns welfare into numbers a plant can track.
  • Work with industry: she consults with the livestock industry on facility design, handling and welfare.
  • Keep teaching: she teaches livestock behavior and facility design at Colorado State University.

Books, honors and public recognition

Thinking in Pictures was published by Doubleday in 1995 with a foreword by Oliver Sacks, and Animals in Translation followed in 2005. Her site says Animals in Translation, Animals Make Us Human and Visual Thinking made the New York Times best-seller list. An HBO film about her life starred Claire Danes and won seven Emmys and a Golden Globe.

Honors listed on her site include Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010, the Women's Hall of Fame in 2017, a Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018, a University Distinguished Professorship at CSU in 2022, and in 2025 the American Veterinary Medical Association Humane Award and the Smithsonian's Portrait of the Nation Award.

Why Grandin belongs in a beef hall of fame

Grandin sits among the feeders in this collection because her designs and audits touch the handling of cattle from the ranch to the meat plant. This entry draws on public professional records only, such as her own professional site and honors lists.

To explore ranching topics further, visit the ranching section of farm.FM, or read a farm.FM story about handling cattle.

Timeline

  1. 1947Born August 29 in Boston, Massachusetts
  2. 1970Earns a B.A. with honors from Franklin Pierce College
  3. 1975Earns a master's degree at Arizona State University; founds Grandin Livestock Handling Systems
  4. 1989Earns a Ph.D. in animal science at the University of Illinois
  5. 1990Begins at Colorado State University
  6. 1995Publishes Thinking in Pictures
  7. 2005Publishes Animals in Translation
  8. 2010Named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people
  9. 2022Named a CSU University Distinguished Professor

Frequently asked questions

Who is Temple Grandin?

Temple Grandin is a Colorado State University professor of animal science who designs livestock handling systems, writes about animal behavior and developed a scoring system for auditing humane handling at meat plants.

What did Temple Grandin design for the cattle industry?

She designed curved chute and race systems and a center-track restrainer for meat plants. Her professional site says the restrainer handles almost half of North America's cattle.

Where does Temple Grandin work?

She is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where she teaches livestock behavior and facility design. She was named a University Distinguished Professor in 2022.

What books has Temple Grandin written?

Her books include Thinking in Pictures, Livestock Handling and Transport, Animals in Translation, Animals Make Us Human, Calling All Minds and Visual Thinking.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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