A comparison of commonly used and novel electronic techniques for evaluating cattle temperament

Abstract

Schwartzkopf-Genswein, K. S., Shah, M. A., Church, J. S., Haley, D. B., Janzen, K., Truong, G., Atkins, R. P. and Crowe, T. J. 2012. A comparison of commonly used and novel electronic techniques for evaluating cattle temperament. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 92: 21–31. The temperament of steers (n=28) was assessed using five quantitative techniques including: flight time, flight distance, electronic (strain-gauge and accelerometer) tests, and three visual scores (VS) made during entry, restraint and exit from a squeeze chute. The objective of this study was to determine the most important predictive parameters based on those measurements and evaluate the relationship between the techniques. Flight time and distance were correlated with exit VS (r=−0.51, and 0.41, P<0.05; n=56), but were not related to restraint VS. Data from strain-gauge and accelerometer sensors were used to generate parameters such as peak response and area under the curve that were correlated with all three VS. Regression models using VS as the dependent variable and a combination of 2 to 5 parameters from the strain-gauge and accelerometer tests as independent variables predicted temperament with values of 29 to 65 or 41 to 57%, respectively. When all techniques, excluding VS, were used as independent variables, model accuracy increased to 72, 81 and 77% for restraint, exit and the sum of all VS, respectively. These findings suggest the objective measures of temperament assessed in this study could be used to identify highly reactive animals.

Genetic analysis and evaluation of behavioural traits in cattle

“…These applications indicate that traditional subjective scoring techniques can be replaced with more repeatable objective measures for example, when temperaments are assessed for performance studies (Maffei et al, 2006;Maffei, 2009;Sebastian et al, 2011;Schwartzkopf-Genswein et al, 2012).…”

Genetic parameters for longitudinal behavior and health indicator traits generated in automatic milking systems

“…Heritabilities and additive genetic variance show that besides environmental components such as food, fetching and machine calibration (e.g., restriction of the INT) there is a genetic component behind the traits. Research showed that there is a possibility to automatically record behavior traits (König et al, 2006;Schwartzkopf-Genswein et al, 2012). The characterization of the traits in the context of animal welfare implies further studies including temperament and behavior tests as validated in animal ethology (e.g., Ebinghaus et al, 2017).…”

Effect of Fermented Winery By-Product Supplemented Rations on the Temperament and Meat Quality of Angus-Hereford X Steers During Feeding in a British Columbia Feedlot

“…A field study was designed to attempt to validate the marketing claims made by the proponents of the product by measuring the impacts of feeding winery by-products on beef cattle flight speed (FS), a quantitative behavioural assessment tool which has been widely used as a measure of beef cattle temperament and has been correlated with weight gain in cattle (Muller & von Keyserlingk, 2006;Petherick et al, 2009;Schwartzkopf-Genswein et al, 2012;Stockman et al, 2012). After animal weights were recorded and cattle ID was determined via Radio-Frequency identification tags (RFID) tags, the flight speed of cattle was evaluated.…”

“…Temperament in cattle has been defined and measured in numerous ways, the most common of which involves an animal's response to handling (Schwartzkopf-Genswein et al, 2012). Past research has indicated that animals that differed in their FS also exhibited differences in their personality traits, which has often resulted in differences in their average daily gain (Muller and von Keyserlingk 2006).…”