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Better cattle management by understanding their behavioural 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 and the handler and to 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 three behavioural characteristics of cattle and how an understanding of them can be used to improve handling techniques:

• Herd instinct
• Social order
• Flight zone.

Herd instinct

As cattle are prey species, they tend to feel most comfortable within the herd, not as individuals isolated from their group. This is particularly noticeable when animals are threatened by a predator or handler, they mob together.

This characteristic of cattle assists when the aim is to muster a group grazing in a paddock and bring them into yards or move them to another paddock. But it can also make the job of drafting cattle into smaller groups or splitting herds more difficult.

The aim is always to use the group to get them where you want them to go.

Isolating individuals should be avoided unless necessary for a particular purpose, specifically the handler should avoid getting between the isolated individual and the herd. Handling isolated cattle can be dangerous as the animal is usually very stressed. It is generally easier to return the individual to the mob, making handling safer for both the animal and handler.

Social order

Like many species, cattle develop social orders within herds. When herds are moved and individuals from different herds nixed, aggression often occurs until the new order is established. Butting and pushing are signs of aggression.

Young bulls often show signs of playfulness but this can develop into more aggressive behaviours as they age and become territorial. Adult bulls often fight, particularly when they are crowded in gateways and yards.

Individual cattle may be picked on by more dominant individuals and may therefore be better suited to life in a group with other individuals that are less aggressive.

Care should be taken when yarding groups to limit the chance of individuals being injured and stressed. This stress can adversely affect the animal’s production in particular the quality of the animals’ meat. This is most likely when the cattle are horned.

Flight zones

Most animals have a flight zone. The ones that don’t are usually stud animals or hand raised school animals that are completely tame.

When a handler approaches an animal, the point at which the animal starts to turn and move away is recognised as its flight distance. When this distance is measured right around the animal, the circle is the flight zone. The flight zone is an animal’s personal space. If the handler penetrates the flight zone the animal’s flight or fight sense is triggered. An individual animal’s flight zone will vary depending on how calm it is. The flight zone gets bigger when it becomes excited. This can happen when animals are moved, mixed with unfamiliar individuals, transported, yarded or exposed to a range of stimuli such as dogs, bikes or vehicles.

To generate movement of cattle, the handler must penetrate the flight zone. If the animal cannot move away from the handler, it will attempt to run past or even over the handler. When the handler wishes to move cattle, they should move in and out of the animals’ flight zone. It is usually desirable not to keep pressuring animals.

Groups of cattle will have a collective flight zone.

Watch the flight zone video clip to gain a better understanding.

Breed of the cattle, history of exposure to humans and the environment all influence the flight zones of cattle.

How to use these characteristics to improve handling.

As cattle have wide angle vision, their point of balance is at their shoulder. Using their point of balance allows a handler to move the animal. If the handler stands behind the point of balance, the animal will move forward, and if the handler stands in front of the point of balance, the animal will move backwards.

Watch the point of balance video clip that illustrates this point:.

Visit Temple Grandin’s page, Understanding Flight Zone and Point of Balance to Improve Handling of Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs and then answer the following questions.

1. When cattle are in a race, describe how the handler should behave/act to make them move forward.
2. When cattle are in a race, describe how the handler should behave/act to make them move backward.
3. Outline four basic principles that can be used to help move cattle in open paddocks.

Answers