Beef Cattle Behaviour

Question 1

Cattle vision

Answer 1

Pano = 330
Bino = 25-50

Slit shape pupils
Weak eye muscles = inability to focus quickly

Question 2

What wavelengths can cattle distinguish? They have poor…

Answer 2

Long (yellow, orange, red)

Poor depth perception

Question 3

What can the olfaction system detect? Important in what?

Answer 3

Pheromones
Important for reproduction and feed selection

Question 4

How many tastebuds do cattle have? What tastes can they differentiate

Answer 4

30000
Differentiate acid, bitter, salt and sweet

Question 5

Cattle hearing

Answer 5

Ears very sensitive
Can be calmed with soothing music or stressed by loud noises
Dairy breeds more sensitive to sound

Question 6

Ways to calm cattle? Where do they prefer to allogroom

Answer 6

Calm them by playing music, scratching under the neck and behind the ears (difficult to access)
Prefer to allogroom in the neck area

Question 7

Dominance hierarchies in beef

Answer 7

In steers, form soon after weaning
Stable / linear or triangular
High ranking cattle have fewer meals but spend more time eating

Question 8

How are dominance hierarchies formed in beef

Answer 8

May only take a gesture or threat if one animal is clearly larger, healthier and stronger
Aggressive bull will turn perpendicular to challenger to display length and height
Then bunts or strikes challenger with head

Question 9

Examples of stress in beef related to social behaviours

Answer 9

Isolation and crowding
Regrouping (breaks existing bonds)
Transportation and human handling
Wind, dust, heat, cold, nutrition affect stress

Question 10

Temperament in cattle (bos indicus vs taurus)

Answer 10

Bos indicus generally more excitable breeds
Hair whorls on face = reactive cattle?

Question 11

Patterns of leadership during grazing in cattle

Answer 11

High ranking (not necessarily most dominant; most experienced?) tend to lead, does not have control over direction
Medium ranks tend to follow
Low ranks = independent

Question 12

How many individuals can cattle identify

Answer 12

50-70

Question 13

How much time is spent grazing? What affects this? How much time is spent ruminating?

Answer 13

Grazing = 9h/day affected by temperature (high=graze at night)
Ruminating = three quarters of time spent grazing

Question 14

How does grazing differ in open areas vs treed areas

Answer 14

Open = form large mobs, clumped, less distance between individuals

Question 15

What affects the amount of time spent resting?

Answer 15

Environmental conditions, time spent ruminating and grazing, and breed
Avoid sources of noise and disturbance even if near habitual resting site

Question 16

Where do bos taurus vs indicus prefer to rest

Answer 16

Taurus = shady areas
Indicus = sunny areas

Question 17

Behaviour of a bull as a cow enters estrus

Answer 17

Excited, follows her, licking, smelling her external genitalia and exhibiting flehmen
Paws the ground, snorts, rests chin then mounts and copulates for a few seconds

Question 18

Behaviour of the cow as she enters estrus?

Answer 18

Mount or be mounted by other cows, sniff males, mock fighting

Question 19

Level of sexual behaviour displayed is determined by…

Answer 19

Genetics, environmental factors, physiological factors, health, previous experience, stress
Dairy breed bulls more sexually active than beef breeds

Question 20

Bulls detect estrus how long before? Period of receptivity is…

Answer 20

2 days before estrus starts

1 to 18 hours, average 4.4

Question 21

Cow gestation, what does she do before parturition

Answer 21

9 months
Separates from herd (mother-offspring bond)

Question 22

What happens after parturition

Answer 22

Mother licks calves to stimulate breathing, circulation, urination and defecation, eats placenta
Calves are hiders, cow leaves calf when foraging

Question 23

When does suckling behaviour start after birth? What does the calf do?

Answer 23

2-5 hours after birth, mother is standing
Calf butts the mothers udder with its head, sucks

Question 24

Heifers with difficult births…

Answer 24

Take longer to stand, usually less experienced

Question 25

Calf ‘groups’

Answer 25

Calves may lay together while cows are grazing
Occurs in period before calves start grazing
‘Nurseries’
May be ‘guard’ cow left in charge, observations reported

Question 26

Heritability of maternal behaviour?
Length of contact for maternal bond to form

Answer 26

It is low, difficult to select for

Can be as brief as 5 mins

Question 27

What is used for cow calf identification

Answer 27

Vocalizations, vision, olfactory (cows groom and ‘label’ calf)

Question 28

Weaning in bos taurus vs indicus

Answer 28

Indicus = heifer calves at 8 months, bull calves at 11 months

Taurus = 6-7 months

Question 29

How to pre-condition a calf to decrease stress once weaned

Answer 29

Remove from mother immediately after weaning, handle, castrate, dehorn, accustom them to humans, they will be quieter/less stressed

Question 30

Abnormal cattle behaviours

Answer 30

1. Mis mothering: mother does not recognize calf, no bond
2. Buller-steer syndrome
3. Oral abnormal behaviours (e.g. bar biting)
4. Sick behaviours

Question 31

Flightzone in feedlot vs range cattle

Answer 31

Feedlot = 1.5m
Range (less handled) = 30m