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Better cattle management by understanding their physical characteristics
This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcomes:
H1.1 explains the influence of the physical, biological, social, historical and economic factors on sustainable agricultural production
H2.2 describes the inputs, processes and interactions of animal production systems.
The work presented in the following section contributes towards understanding the following syllabus content areas:
Students learn about:
Animal ethics and welfare
- Ethics, welfare and legal issues and requirements
Students learn to:
- illustrate how knowledge and understanding of animals’ physical and behavioural characteristics can assist in the management of a particular animal species.
Extract from Stage 6 Agriculture Syllabus NSW Board of Studies Amended 2009
Introduction
The aim of any cattle handler should be to manage the animals in a way that causes a minimum of stress to them. Animals that are stressed are harder to handle, are more likely to injure themselves, others in the herd or the handler and have reduced production.
Animals retain memories of painful and stressful experiences so developing handling techniques that work with animals, reflecting an understanding of their physical and behavioural characteristics, result in better animal welfare, improved human safety and improved production.
This piece of work will examine two physical characteristics of cattle and relate this knowledge to better management. These physical characteristics are:
- vision
- hearing.
Vision
Cattle are prey species and have eyes on either side of their head. This enables them to have a wide field of view known as panoramic vision (330°) but only a narrow band of binocular vision where their two eyes work together (25 - 30°). They have a blind spot behind them (30°).
It has also been shown that cattle have slit shaped pupils and weak eye muscles, which inhibits their ability to focus quickly on objects.
What does this mean?
Cattle can detect sudden movement better than humans but are very slow to focus quickly on close objects, as they need to turn and face the movement and then view with both eyes to calculate distance. This means that they often don’t see gate ways if the gates are not directly in front of them within their 25 - 30° of binocular vision. It also means that they frighten easily if handlers suddenly enter their field of vision without warning. Similarly, flapping flags and wind blown objects or papers can catch cattle unaware and frighten them.
It also means that cattle need to be given the opportunity to turn, look at the handler and focus. This is important when a handler puts pressure on animals, expecting them to move. Cattle need to be given time to look and then move in the desired direction.
Having a blind spot behind them means that cattle will more than likely kick if the handler enters the blind spot too closely or unannounced. It also means that when cattle are being pressured they will turn to face the pressure, e.g. handler or dog, so that they can see what it is that is pressuring them.
Watch the video clip to gain a better understanding.
Generally, animals react to contrast and brightness, causing them to baulk going into shaded areas, yards with different coloured panels and highly reflective surfaces and other areas where there are large contrast in colours. This means that shiny containers lying in yards, clothing hanging on fences and gates or shadows from fences, trees or vehicles can all cause cattle to refuse to move through gateways and along races.
Hearing
Cattle are very sensitive to high-pitched noises. Handlers yelling, dogs barking, whistles and cracking whips can all increase the heart rate of cattle causing stress.
Research has shown that dairy breeds are more sensitive to sound than beef breeds. Calm cattle are always easier to move and handle than agitated and anxious animals.
Questions
Identify three management strategies that you could use when working cattle that reflect an understanding of their physical characteristics, decrease the stress caused to the animals, allow more efficient movement or handling and improve handler safety.
Additional information
In Behavioral Prinicples of Livestock Handling, Temple Grandin describes in more detail the vision and hearing of livestock and how this knowledge can be used to enhance their management.
Visit Behavioral Prinicples of Livestock Handling 
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