Productivity, carcass and meat quality of lot-fed Bos indicus cross steers grouped according to temperament

Abstract

Abstract. One hundred and twenty Bos indicus cross steers were allocated to 3 treatments (good, mixed and poor) on the basis of flight speed, as a measure of cattle temperament. The cattle were lot-fed for 100 days and data collected at intervals on their temperament (flight speeds) and productivity (liveweight changes, body condition, pen feed intakes) during this time. After slaughter, data were collected on carcass traits and meat quality. Eating-quality attributes were measured in meat samples from 22 carcasses from each treatment.Flight speeds were highly correlated across animals and within treatments, showed little change in variability over time and were highly repeatable. Flight speed indicated a slight deterioration in temperament with time in the feedlot until day 70, suggesting an increasing fearfulness in the steers. Differences in flight speeds between treatments were maintained throughout the feedlotting period; poor-temperament animals retained poor temperaments and good retained good.Flight speed was correlated with measures of production, and flight speed measured at feedlot induction was a predictor of performance. Correlations and treatment effects showed that cattle with poor temperaments had poorer average daily gains, feed conversion efficiencies, body conditions and dressing percentages compared with those with good temperaments. Reduced performance in the poor-temperament animals may have resulted from their fearfulness and state of high arousal.Treatment (temperament grouping) did not influence carcass traits, but there was evidence of lower initial pH levels and indicators of 'heat-shortening' in the meat of steers with poor temperament compared with those with good temperament. These findings suggest that the poor temperament steers were more susceptible to pre-slaughter stressors than the good temperament animals. However, the meat quality differences were not detected in eating-quality measurements.

Validity and feasibility of qualitative behavior assessment for the evaluation of Nellore cattle temperament

“…The capability of TI to measure reactions of calmnessactivity/agitation was confirmed by its significant correlation to FS, which was reported by other authors as an indicator of general agitation (Kilgour et al, 2006) and innate fear in cattle (Petherick et al, 2002). FS is considered the most objective among the methods often used for assessing beef cattle temperament (Curley et al, 2006).…”

“…In our study, due to the difficulties in carrying out behavioral assessments on a large number of animals under commercial conditions, we were only able to evaluate temperament once concomitantly with the QBA. We believe that this situation does not invalidate our data, because several authors have reported high short-term repeatability (Müller and von Keyserlingk, 2006) and long-term repeatability ranging from moderate (Curley et al, 2006;Cafe et al, 2011;Kilgour et al, 2006) to high (Petherick et al, 2002;Turner et al, 2011) when assessing cattle temperament, in addition to being moderately heritable (Burrow and Corbet, 2000;Sant'Anna et al, 2012). However, in order to extend the results of both studies commercially (present study and Stockman et al, 2012), additional research is needed to confirm the association between quantitative and qualitative methods in a wider range of ages and circumstances of cattle temperament assessment.…”

Implementation of the Welfare Quality ® protocol in dairy farms raised on extensive, semi-intensive and intensive systems in Costa Rica

“…In addition, temperament of cattle may also play an important role, especially when assessing herds of nonEuropean breeds, widely used in developing countries. Several studies have demonstrated that temperament of cattle, measured by flight speed, plays a major factor related to the productivity of the animals (Voisinet et al 1997;Fell et al 1999;Petherick et al 2002) and may, indeed, affect their welfare (Petherick et al 2002).…”

Regrouping unfamiliar animals in the weeks prior to slaughter has few effects on physiology and meat quality in Bos taurus feedlot steers

“…The term breed in this analysis encapsulates not only genetics of the two lines but also the effects associated with property of origin, and pre-feedlot entry management. Flight time is a measure of temperament of cattle that has been found to be genetically correlated with growth rate (Burrow et al 2001;Petherick et al 2002) and genetically (Reverter et al 2003) and phenotypically (Voisinet et al 1997;Petherick et al 2002) correlated with meat quality in Bos indicus derived breeds. In addition, B. indicus and B. indicus cross cattle with short flight times tended to lose more weight during long distance road transport and recover weight more slowly in the month following transport than animals with slow flight times (H. M. Burrow and I. G. Colditz, unpubl.…”