Beef Cattle Preference and Usage of Environmental Enrichments Provided Simultaneously in a Pasture-Based Environment

Abstract

Environmental enrichment can improve livestock welfare through increasing environmental complexity to promote a greater range of natural behaviours. However, there is limited understanding of the need for and impacts of enrichments for extensively managed beef cattle that can sometimes be kept in grassed paddocks devoid of additional natural and artificial features, i.e., ‘barren pastures’. This trial assessed which enrichments beef cattle preferred and utilised in a barren paddock environment. Eight groups of seven Angus steers housed on pastured paddocks devoid of natural or artificial features were observed during daylight hours for two days a week over a period of three weeks, after being presented with four enrichments simultaneously: a cattle brush, a piece of hanging rope, a tree stump, and a woodchip pile. Although enrichment use generally decreased over time, the brush, stump, and woodchip maintained a higher level of use than the rope, based on the frequency of interactions and number of displacements around the enrichments (both p < 0.001). This suggests that the brush, stump, and woodchip pile were more valuable resources to the cattle, allowing for grooming and lying behaviours, although oral manipulations also occurred on the stump, woodchip, and rope. The inclusion of these enrichments can increase the complexity of barren pasture environments and allow for the increased expression of natural behaviours, potentially contributing to improved welfare.

Environmental enrichment during yard weaning alters the performance of calves in an attention bias and a novel object recognition test

“…The brush was used five to six times more than either the rope or ball, and the ball appeared to be the least favoured enrichment. Previous studies reported conflicting preferences between a brush and a hanging rope, with beef steers at pasture utilising a brush more (Dickson et al, 2022), weaned group-housed dairy calves preferring a rope (Strappini et al, 2021), and pair-housed dairy calves using both enrichments for similar total durations (Zobel et al, 2017). However, these differences might be due to the age of the calves as younger calves may have a stronger motivation to suckle and therefore utilise a rope allowing for oral manipulation.…”

“…A photograph of each enrichment used is shown in Figure 1C. The brush was chosen as it is the preferred enrichment of beef steers (Dickson et al, 2022), the rope was chosen to potentially satisfy a suckling motivation of the young calves (De Passille, 2001;Zobel et al, 2017), and the ball was chosen to encourage play behaviour (Bulens et al, 2014).…”

“…To the best of the authors' knowledge, while there have been studies looking at enrichment in beef cattle, no research has been specifically done during the weaning period. When presented with four different enrichments in a paddock environment, beef cattle performed either grooming behaviours or oral manipulations on each enrichment, indicating that these may be rewarding behaviours and can be stimulated through enrichment (Dickson et al, 2022). In addition, the loss of a grooming brush can impair the welfare of beef cattle (Dickson et al, 2024).…”