Sarah Voss's study of cattle behavior by

Post #1: What species do I want to research?

slvoss2 — 2019-01-14 19:39:45 UTC

Post #2: Why did I choose this species?

slvoss2 — 2019-01-14 19:44:41 UTC

I chose to study the behavior of cattle this semester. I left it wide open to any type of cattle to learn more about because I have worked with Angus cattle at the ISU farm for the last 2 years and my favorite breed is Jersey cows so I have an interest with both dairy and beef cattle. I chose to study this species because they are my favorite livestock animal to work with. Over the last 2 years I have learned a fair amount about their behaviors through both classroom and hands on work and that fascinated me, especially when I began to learn about Temple Grandin's research and methods for beef cattle handling. I am excited to find out more about how and why these large and beautiful animals behave.

Post #3: Research study linking cattle behaviors to their genetics

slvoss2 — 2019-01-22 18:49:16 UTC

http://grandin.com/references/cattle.during.handling.html
Above is the link to the article that I read to learn more about the research done on cattle behavior and their genetics. This piece was written by Temple Grandin, who has been who I looked up to the most in the animal industry, along with Mark J. Deesing at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. They specifically studied cattle behavior and genetics in their restraint, handling, and herding mechanisms. I found this article very interesting as it built off of things I already knew but it looked more at genetics which led to differences in temperaments between different breeds of cattle.

Post #4: Behavioral Heritability

slvoss2 — 2019-01-24 06:25:01 UTC

https://www.highlandcattleusa.org/content/management/Heritability%20and%20the%20Beef%20Herd.pdf
The statistics provided in the charts at the end of this article show some estimates of heritability for some beef cattle traits. These are very important to the economic stability and the productivity of the beef cattle industry because each of these traits will affect the value of each cow sold. The weights are mentioned here and that is such a necessary trait to observe in a herd because you are working towards getting them to a market weight both quickly and efficiently so knowing how these traits are inherited is very important to cattle owners. Both conception rates and calving ease are also valuable pieces of info to examine to productivity when working on breeding cattle.

Post #5: Sensitive period in cattle

slvoss2 — 2019-02-07 04:09:48 UTC

This photo displays the sensitive period of the first 3 weeks of a calves life. This time period is called the transition period and affects the cow's future productivity.
Image. Cow Talk. The grass is greener on the. Published on June 19, 2018. Retrieved from http://www.ahimsamilk.org/category/cow-talk/

Post #6: Operant Conditioning in Cattle

slvoss2 — 2019-02-07 04:42:32 UTC

This article describes an example of how Operant Conditioning can be used in cattle to monitor feed motivation.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016816990700066X

Post #7: Sensory Bias in cattle

slvoss2 — 2019-02-07 04:58:54 UTC

Cattle experience a sensory bias with a limited color vision. They are red/green colorblind so they see these colors in variations of black and white. This would affect the way that they respond to certain stimuli. They also have different sensitivity to light and depth perception which affects how they can learn or be conditioned for certain behaviors.
Borel, Brooke. Why do bulls charge when they see red? LiveScience. Feb. 6, 2012. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/33700-bulls-charge-red.html

Post #8: Handling facility

slvoss2 — 2019-02-08 23:36:48 UTC

The facility shown is a cattle chute designed by Temple Grandin.
Some reinforcements used here could be:
+ handler move into the cattle's flight zone to encourage them to move smoothly.
- remove sticks/whips that the cattle handlers could use to decrease agitation.
+ the addition of smooth curves and solid walls encourages the cattle to be calm.
+ the pressure on the cattle when they enter the head gate can also calm them.
- remove loud noises or voices to keep them moving calmly.
Some punishments used here could be:
+ put in separation walls along the chute to stop the cattle from moving too. quickly but that can decrease their feeling of freedom to move together.
+ add extra pressure on the head gate to hold their head still can agitate cattle.
- remove a food incentive to encourage them to do what they want.
+ yell with a loud voice or bang on the sides of the chute to make them move.

Temple Grandin Design. Jan. 26, 2011. http://mynameisnoreen.blogspot.com/2011/01/temple-grandin-design.html

Post #9: Communication through Sensory Modalities

slvoss2 — 2019-02-14 20:36:00 UTC

Visual:
1. Cattle chew their cud by sliding their upper and bottom jaws together and this shows that they are relaxed and happy.
2. Cattle play with their tongue by rolling it in and out of their mouth. They do this to communicate that they are bored or frustrated with being confined in an area.
Auditory:
Calves and mothers will bellow to each other when separated to communicate that they want to be back together. Also when calves bellow they can be saying that they are hungry and this stimulates milk let down in their mother. I have witnessed this at the ISU Farm when a baby will be sleeping in the heating hut and the mom will stick her head as far into the calf pen as she can to try to tell her baby to come out to her.
Tactile:
Cattle swish their tails around onto their back and sometimes this is used to push flies off of their backs. This also communicates that they are bothered or irritated.
Olfactory:
Males use the Flehmen response, which is the curling up of their upper lip to expose the sensory organ on the roof of their mouth to smell something stronger.

Post #10: Agonistic Behaviors

slvoss2 — 2019-02-28 04:13:18 UTC

These cattle are both demonstrating an agonistic behavior called broadsiding. They do this because it shows dominance to other animals by emphasizing their size with their full length and body mass.
Cattle. 191-. Black & white photoprint. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 27 Feb. 2019..

Post #11: Dominance hierarchy structure

slvoss2 — 2019-02-28 04:20:57 UTC

I was wondering which type of hierarchy is most common amongst cattle herds and although I think there is probably a bit of a mix of the three types, it appears that the linear structure is the most common one in cattle. This structure means there is a most dominant animal and then it continues to travel down to the least dominant animal in the herd. The dominance factors are mainly age and body size with the larger and older animals typically coming out on top. I think this would be seen in smaller herd sizes that have a bull in them and then a handful of cows and their offspring. If a farm's herd size was larger I think we would start to see a more complex or a triangular hierarchy emerge due to the mixture of relationships present in the herd.
Huxley, Jon N. University of Nottingham. Cattle behavior and implications to performance health. Retrieved from http://dairy.ifas.ufl.edu/rns/2010/6-Huxley.pdf

Post #12: Male sexual behavior

slvoss2 — 2019-03-07 20:19:47 UTC

This photo from www.shutterstock.com depicts a couple common sexual behaviors in male cattle. One is the flehmen response which he uses by curling up his upper lip a bit and smelling the female to determine if she is in estrus. This photo also shows us how sexual dimorphism is present as the males body size is significantly larger than the female. His muscular body impresses females of the same species so that he can win them as a mate.

Post #13: Female sexual behavior

slvoss2 — 2019-03-07 20:29:06 UTC

This photo from www.alamy.com shows us a common female sexual behavior called standing heat or her willingness to stand immobile to be mounted by the male cow. This represents that she is either almost in or in ovulation and will receive the male to breed. We see this in cattle and many other mammals where the female will stand so still that she looks stiff and be very calm.

Post #14: Maternal behaviors

slvoss2 — 2019-03-21 16:58:19 UTC

1. The mother will lick the young which removes the amniotic fluid from it's body, helps the young warm up, stimulates them to stand and nurse, and develops bond through olfactory stimuli.
2. The mother cow will usually stand up after birth assuming she was laying down to deliver her calf. She will do this to protect calf and start to lick and nuzzle her calf.
3. The mother will usually eat her placenta once it is expelled. This provides her nutrition and because she is a hider species she is instinctually doing that to try to hide the fact that she has delivered a calf in that area.

Post #15: New offspring behaviors

slvoss2 — 2019-03-21 17:07:44 UTC

1. The new calf will usually begin to make soft vocalizations to attempt to call to it's mother.
2. The new calf should try to stand within about 30 minutes to a hour of being born. This will will be unsteady movements at first but eventually they will gain their balance and be able to walk around.
3. The new calf should be up and seeking for the teat on it's mother within a hour-2 hours to try to nurse. At first they will probably wander around and nose at her chest or flank before finding the teat itself. It does this through olfactory cues from the udder. Ideally a calf latches on to obtain the colostrum within 6 hours of parturition.

Post #16: Normal ingestive behaviors of cattle

slvoss2 — 2019-03-28 18:54:04 UTC

Cattle typically prefer to graze on open fields together. They would usually eat around 12 meals a day and will stand or lay down and chew their cud in between. Commercially though they are usually fed a mixed feed of hay and other grains once or twice a day in bulk. Cattle are unable to be very selective when they eat due to the way they scoop their food with their tongues.

Post #17: Behavioral Disorders

slvoss2 — 2019-03-28 19:04:38 UTC

Landsberg, Gary M. , BSc, DVM, MRCVS, DACVB, DECAWBM, North Toronto Veterinary Behaviour Specialty Clinic; Deneberg, Sagi , DVM, DACVB, Dip. ECAWBM (Behaviour), MACVSc (Behaviour), North Toronto Veterinary Behaviour Specialty Clinic. 2019. Merck Manual: Veterinary Manual. Behavioral Problems of Cattle. Retrieved from https://www.merckvetmanual.com/behavior/normal-social-behavior-and-behavioral-problems-of-domestic-animals/behavioral-problems-of-cattle

Post #18: Flight Zone diagram

slvoss2 — 2019-04-10 20:45:15 UTC

Here is a drawing of a cattle's flight zone and how a handler can move a cow by working it's flight zone.

Post #19 (last post!) : Welfare Audit

slvoss2 — 2019-04-24 18:27:53 UTC

http://www.grandin.com/welfare.audit.using.haccp.html