Quality of handling and holding yard environment, and beef cattle temperament: 1. Relationships with flight speed and fear of humans

Petherick, J. Carol; Doogan, V. J.; Holroyd, R. G.; Olsson, Peggy; Venus, B.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2009.05.008

Cited by 72 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The Hereford animals studied herein are considered even more docile than the other breeds of British origin (Tulloh, 1961;Stricklin et al, 1980). Moreover, they were handled using best management practices, contributing to their low level of reactivity (Waiblinger et al, 2006;Petherick et al, 2009). Thus, our results support previous findings reported by Turner et al (2011), in which for calm cattle, the detrimental effects of temperament on meat quality are not pronounced.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Lairage time effect on meat quality in Hereford steers in rangeland conditions

et al. 2019

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This study evaluated lairage time effects on carcass and meat quality traits of Hereford steers. Thirty Hereford steers fed on pasture were assigned to two treatments according to lairage time: 3 h (n = 15) and 12 h (n = 15). Individual temperament was assessed using crush score and flight speed. pH decline, glycogen content, meat color, and shear force were measured. pH was not different between treatments at any time point, showing a normal decline rate. Meat color and shear force did not differ between treatments, but muscle glycogen was lower in treatment with 3 h, not enough to affect quality but suggesting a higher level of stress in 3 h lairage time. Temperament did not have any impact on carcass and meat quality traits. No differences were found in pH, color, and tenderness between treatments, but the lower muscle glycogen concentrations for the shorter lairage suggest a higher risk regarding meat quality.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Lairage time effect on meat quality in Hereford steers in rangeland conditions

et al. 2019

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“…The PCA of behavioral and cortisol responses to human approach and restraint tests and during weighing produced 4 PC with no crossloading. This finding agrees with other studies in which calves were subjected to behavioral tests and supports the idea that responsiveness of calves to challenge is mediated by multiple underlying temperamental traits (Kilgour et al, 2006;Petherick et al, 2009;Graunke , 2013). The withdrawal reaction of calves to an outstretching arm and the movement score during confinement in a weighing scale are believed to reflect fear of humans and flightiness or nervousness, respectively; PC2 was therefore labeled as fearfulness.…”

Section: Pca Per Category Of Early Life Measurementssupporting

confidence: 92%

Only 7% of the variation in feed efficiency in veal calves can be predicted from variation in feeding motivation, digestion, metabolism, immunology, and behavioral traits in early life

Gilbert

Borne

Reenen

et al. 2017

Journal of Dairy Science

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High interindividual variation in growth performance is commonly observed in veal calf production and appears to depend on milk replacer (MR) composition. Our first objective was to examine whether variation in growth performance in healthy veal calves can be predicted from early life characterization of these calves. Our second objective was to determine whether these predictions differ between calves that are fed a high- or low-lactose MR in later life. A total of 180 male Holstein-Friesian calves arrived at the facilities at 17 ± 3.4 d of age, and blood samples were collected before the first feeding. Subsequently, calves were characterized in the following 9 wk (period 1) using targeted challenges related to traits within each of 5 categories: feeding motivation, digestion, postabsorptive metabolism, behavior and stress, and immunology. In period 2 (wk 10-26), 130 calves were equally divided over 2 MR treatments: a control MR that contained lactose as the only carbohydrate source and a low-lactose MR in which 51% of the lactose was isocalorically replaced by glucose, fructose, and glycerol (2:1:2 ratio). Relations between early life characteristics and growth performance in later life were assessed in 117 clinically healthy calves. Average daily gain (ADG) in period 2 tended to be greater for control calves (1,292 ± 111 g/d) than for calves receiving the low-lactose MR (1,267 ± 103 g/d). Observations in period 1 were clustered per category using principal component analysis, and the resulting principal components were used to predict performance in period 2 using multiple regression procedures. Variation in observations in period 1 predicted 17% of variation in ADG in period 2. However, this was mainly related to variation in solid feed refusals. When ADG was adjusted to equal solid feed intake, only 7% of the variation in standardized ADG in period 2, in fact reflecting feed efficiency, could be explained by early life measurements. This indicates that >90% of the variation in feed efficiency in later life could not be explained by early life characterization of the calves. It is speculated that variation in health status explains a substantial portion of variation in feed efficiency in later life. Significant relations between fasting plasma glucose concentrations, fecal pH, drinking speed, and plasma natural antibodies in early life (i.e., not exposed to the lactose replacer) and feed efficiency in later life depended on MR composition. These measurements are therefore potential tools for screening calves in early life on their ability to cope with MR varying in lactose content.

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“…However, Riley et al (2010) found no evidence of acclimation when EV was measured at 28-d intervals between 7 and 19 mo o f age. Similarly, Petherick et al (2009a) found that flight speed was not affected by the quality or quantity of handling cattle receive during a 12-mo backgrounding period, thus emphasizing that this measure o f temperament is somewhat independent of environmental influences and therefore a good candidate for genetic selection. Furthermore, Cooke et al (2009a) found that acclimation to humans through biweekly feedings did not affect temperament, as measured by chute score, PS, and EV, in Brahman-influenced cows.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Genetic parameters of three methods of temperament evaluation of Brahman calves 1

Schmidt

Neuendorff²,

Riley

et al. 2014

Journal of Animal Science

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The objective of this study was to estimate the heritability of 3 measures of temperament in Brahman and Brahman-influenced calves (n = 1,209). Individual animal pen scores (PS) were determined by a trained observer who evaluated groups of 5 or 4 calves at a time for willingness to be approached by a human. Exit velocity (EV) was the rate (m/s) at which each calf exited a squeeze chute. Temperament score (TS) was calculated individually as (PS + EV)/2. Temperament was evaluated at 5 different times of record (28 d preweaning, weaning, 28 d postweaning, 56 d postweaning, and yearling). Contemporary groups (n = 34) comprised calves of the same sex born in the same season of the same year. There were an average of 36 calves per contemporary group and group size ranged from 3 to 78 calves. Average weaning age (186 d) ranged from 105 to 304 d. Calves were born from 2002 through 2012. Random effects included additive genetic and the permanent environmental variance. The fixed effects analyzed were age of dam, sex of calf, contemporary group, fraction of Brahman (2 levels: 1 and 0.5), age of calf at record, and weaning age. At weaning, the mean PS was 2.68 ± 0.1, the mean EV was 2.41 ± 0.1, and the mean TS was 2.48 ± 0.1. The PS was affected by fraction of Brahman (P = 0.034) and tended to be affected by age of dam (P = 0.06). The EV was affected by contemporary group (P < 0.001) and tended to be affected by weaning age (P = 0.074). Contemporary group affected TS (P < 0.001). All 3 methods of temperament evaluation were affected by time of record (P < 0.001). The regression coefficients for PS, EV, and TS were 0.0023 ± 0.0014, 0.0022 ± 0.0012, and 0.0015 ± 0.0012 m·s(-1)·d(-1) of age, respectively. Estimates of maternal genetic effects were always 0 and omitted from final models. Estimates of heritability were 0.27 ± 0.1, 0.49 ± 0.1, and 0.43 ± 0.1 for EV, PS, and TS, respectively. Estimates of permanent environmental variances as proportions of phenotypic variance were 0.33 ± 0.1, 0.23 ± 0.1, and 0.33 ± 0.1 for EV, PS, and TS, respectively. There appears to be sufficient additive genetic variance for selective improvement of temperament characteristics in Brahman cattle.

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Quality of handling and holding yard environment, and beef cattle temperament: 1. Relationships with flight speed and fear of humans

Cited by 72 publications

References 26 publications

Lairage time effect on meat quality in Hereford steers in rangeland conditions

Lairage time effect on meat quality in Hereford steers in rangeland conditions

Only 7% of the variation in feed efficiency in veal calves can be predicted from variation in feeding motivation, digestion, metabolism, immunology, and behavioral traits in early life

Genetic parameters of three methods of temperament evaluation of Brahman calves 1

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