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Behaviour of cattle in yards. I. Weighing order and behaviour before entering scales
BEHAVIOUR OF CATTLE IN YARDS . I. WEIGHING ORDER AND BEHAVIOUR BEFORE ENTERING SCALES By N . M . TULLOH School of Agriculture, University of Melbourne bulls were castrated on April 29th (mean age 241 days) . Half of the herd was weaned on June 2nd (mean age 275 days) and the remaining calves were weaned on July 21st (mean age 324 days). Animals were allocated to these various treatments after considering birth date, birth weight, growth rate and sex . The experimental animals normally grazed with other cattle of similar age, making a total herd size of 80 cattle . When the herd was yarded, unwanted animals were removed by drafting . The experimental animals were then moved into a large holding yard near the scales . Groups of 5 to 10 animals were then moved into a small yard just behind the scales . From there an animal could be driven along a short narrow race and held by sliding gates until required for weighing . A plan of the yards is given in Fig. 1 . When the experiment started, the herd had been weighed by this method on only one previous occasion some two months before . Dogs were never used when handling these cattle in the yards . Animals were weighed off grass at the rate of approximately one a minute, weighing normally starting at 0930 hours . As each animal was weighed its order of appearance in the range 1 to 36 was noted . This was called its "weighing order" . The scheduled .weighings when order was recorded, were as follows
Introduction Irrespective of his specialist interest, the man who carries out research involving live animals must inevitably study to some extent the behaviour of his experimental subjects . Indeed it frequently happens that such behaviour observations enable the researcher to make a more critical interpretation of his results. A knowledge of the effect that an experimental treatment may have on an animal's behaviour is often essential before a suitable experimental design can be made . Just as an appreciation of the importance of behaviour assists the worker in various disciplines, so the behaviour observations, usually recorded incidentally by the man in other specialist fields, have often proved of interest to the behaviourist . The observations recorded by Braude (1948) on pigs, and by Walker (1950) on calves, are examples of this reciprocity of interest . The observations now reported were carried out on an experimental herd of beef cattle which was being used primarily for a study of physiological processes of growth and development . For this purpose it was necessary to weigh cattle regularly and when doing this it was noticed on several occasions that the animals appeared to arrive at the scales in similar order . It was therefore arranged to determine whether this was in fact the case, and, if so, whether an animal's weighing order was related to one of its characters such as sex, weight, and horned or polled condition . The behaviour when entering the scales also differed between animals, yet it seemed to be constant for an individual . The opportunity was also taken to study this aspect of behaviour. Method A herd of 18 male and 18 female horned Hereford cattle was grazed on irrigated pastures at the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works sewage disposal Farm, Werribee, Victoria . These animals were born in AugustSeptember, 1957, and observations on behaviour commenced on January 26th, 1958, when the mean age of all calves was 156 days . On February 3rd, nine of the bulls were castrated and nine of the heifers were dehorned . The remaining
Period. I
Number of weighings 4
Pre-experimental period (January 26 to February 3) II Period between dehorning, and castration of half the bull calves (February 3) and castration of remaining bull calves (April 29) III Period between April 29 and weaning first half the herd (June 2) IV Period between June 2 and weaning of remaining calves (July 21)
8 5 4
The behaviour of animals immediately before entering the scales was scored as follows : Score Entry to Scales 1 Without hesitation 2 Hesitantly, vocal encouragement necessary 3 Only if urged with cane, then enters easily 4 Difficult to get into scales
20
TULLOH : BEHAVIOUR OF CATTLE IN YARDS . 1. I II lI 111 III IV IV -all periods
SCALE
: : : :
21
0 .29 0. 36 0 . 58 0 . 70
(not significant) (significant, P<0-05) (significant, P<0O001) (significant, P<0 . 001)
It was thought that this weighing order may have been related to the experimental procedures imposed on the herd, and therefore the weighing order was compared with each of the procedures for each of the periods . Statistical tests showed that weight, sex, horned condition, and weaning were not related to mean weighing order . The data for body weight, sex and horned condition are shown in Figs . 2 and 3 . 40
30
cs Z Y z
a A
A
•
a
~~ •
e • :
20
•
a: to
•
~
• A
0 420
460
SOo
Soo
$40
420
LIVE WEIGHT - POUNDS
• •
MALES FEMALES
Fig . 2 . Comparison of ranking (mean weighing order for all periods) and live weight at end of period 1V . LATE CASTRATION
Fig. 1 . Plan of cattle yards .
Behaviour immediately before entering the scales was recorded on eight occasions between May 26th and August 18th, 1958 . Results Weighing Order The mean weighing order for each animal in each of the periods 1, II, III, IV and for all periods is given in Table I. A ranking test using Kendall & Babington Smith's (1939) coefficient of concordance gave the following results : Period I Ranking not significant Periods 11, III, IV Ranking highly significant for each period (P<0.01) . Ranking highly significant . throughout the ex- (P<0-01) . periment) . All periods (i.e .
The correlation between mean rankings for the various periods were calculated using Spearman's coefficient (as described by Kendall, 1943) . They were as follows
or •
I< EARLY CASTRATION
• me
HORNED FEMALES A
!_AA
DEHORNED FEMALES
a ,o
A
f 1aa =o RANKING
=o
.o
Fig . 3 . Relation between ranking (mean weighing order for all periods) and effects of castration and dehorning .
There appeared to be some association of pairs of animals in the weighing order. On five occasions out of 23 (including two later weighing orders not included in the four periods mentioned above) animals 1099 and 1028 appeared together or separated by one other animal . Similarly, 1028 and 1058 appeared together or separated by one other animal on seven occasions . There was no association between 1099 and 1058 except on one occasion when 1099,
22
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR, IX,
1-2
Table I. Weighing Order and Behaviour Immediately Before Entering Scales. Mean weighing order Period 11
Period III
Period IV
All periods
Mean behaviour score
7 6 7 14 11 16 8 13 19 21 19 19 14 24 9 17 12 16 15 18 22 22 22 23 13 29 25 19 25 25 25 27 27 29 20 31
13 10 12 4 8 5 10 18 17 17 15 14 19 7 24 19 26 21 24 19 11 13 30 18 25 15 28 28 19 19 31 23 21 21 28 33
6 16 10 17 12 10 13 17 8 11 11 17 18 15 23 18 21 21 22 23 22 26 15 18 32 17 15 25 29 19 26 15 21 23 27 29
9 9 10 11 11 12 13 16 16 16 17 17 17 17 18 18 18 18 19 19 20 20 20 20 21 21 22 23 23 23 23 23 24 25 25 31
2 .4 1 .3 missing 1.9 2.3 1 .5 1 .9 2.3 1 .0 1 .0 1 .3 2.3 1 .0 1 .0 1.1 1.5 1 .4 1 .4 1 .3 1 .1 1 .3 1 .0 1 .5 1 .3 1 .0 1.1 2.4 1 .4 1 .5 1.6 1 .1 1 .5 1 .5 1.1 1 .6 1.1
Animal Period I 1047 1099 1072 1003 1096 1062 1128 1024 1058 1098 1086 1012 1073 1065 1100 1059 1101 1093 1079 1094 1056 1082 1133 1027 1126 1028 1000 1125 1134 1090 1076 1095 1075 1060 1018 1092
12 9 13 9 15 13 29 17 19 12 21 18 20 20 24 20 19 17 23 19 24 18 11 19 20 20 13 20 19 28 7 26 21 20 28 28
1028 and 1058 all appeared together . These associations became obvious during Period III of the experiment . Behaviour Before Entering Scales The mean scores for behaviour immediately before entering the scales for 35 animals on eight occasions are given in Table 1 . Seven animals were entirely consistent in scoring "1" on each occasion . A x2 test showed that the mean score for behaviour before entering the scales for each animal was not related to its weighing order . There was a downward trend from 1 . 5 to 1 .3 in the mean score for behaviour for all animals during the experiment. An analysis of variance showed that this downward trend was not significant. The mean score for all animals on all occasions was 1 .4 .
Discussion When a few animals have to be separated from a herd of yarded cattle which is itself on the move, those standing or moving near an appropriate gateway are driven through by the stockmen. Animals appear to be moving at random in the milling herd and they may appear to be treated roughly and forced to move quickly . In spite of this treatment, the cattle used in this experiment managed to develop and maintain a significant weighing order . From an experimental point of view this is important in relation to loss of fill ; that is loss of weight due to urination and defaecation whilst standing in the yards . Animals which appear early in a weighing order will weigh relatively more than they should, compared with those which appear late . Repeated weighings will not eliminate this ex-
TULLOH : BEHAVIOUR OF CATTLE IN YARDS . 1.
perimental error . However, apart from loss of fill, as weighing order appears to be unrelated to factors concerning growth and development, it need not be considered when allocating animals to experimental groups . No attempt was made to find the order of social dominance in this herd . However, Woodbury (1941) has suggested that "hook order" is largely determined by the size, shape and effectiveness of horns, whereas in dehorned cows "bunt order" is largely determined by an animal's strength and tenacity in pushing . Schein & Fohrman (1955) in their analysis of social dominance in a herd of dairy cattle have shown a good relationship between dominance and weight . On the basis of this evidence and the fact that weighing order appears to be unrelated to sex, weight or horned condition, it seems unlikely that weighing order is related to dominance . Schein & Fohrman (loc . cit.) also suggest that "the social position of each animal is probably determined at three to six months of age Therefore it is probable that this herd was old enough to have developed an order of dominance before or during the experiment . All animals were held in the yards until weighing was completed, and then they were returned as a herd to their grazing paddock ; there was therefore no immediate reward after weighing . It is unlikely, then, that weighing order is conditioned by a reward factor. It appears that weighing order is an order in the herd based on leadership which may not be related to social dominance, animals developing this leadership during a succession of similar experiences on each weighing day, namely, movements through yards, drafting and weighing. The evidence of Kilgour & Scott (1959) working with milking cows also suggests that leadership and dominance arc poorly related . The association of pairs of animals in the weighing order suggests that certain animals developed friendly relations with others during the experiment . In fact, some animals recognized as pairs in the weighing order were occasionally observed grazing together. "Friendly pairs" do not necessarily have similar mean weighing orders . For example the mean weighing orders (all periods) for 1099, 1028 and 1058 were 9, 21 and 16 respectively. 1099 (castrate male) and 1058 (female) appeared to have no regard for one another, but 1028 (castrate male) frequently associated with 1099 and 1058 . The pattern of behaviour immediately before entering the scales is not an effective measure-
23
ment of temperatment because it was observed that some docile animals scored high or low, for behaviour immediately before entering the scales, as did some animals regarded as nervous . These observations on temperament have been continued on other cattle and will be reported in another paper. Behaviour immediately before entering the scales was unrelated to weighing order . In this instance, it may have been strongly influenced by the steel ramp leading into the scales and the dark weighing cage which, except for the top and small inspection grills near the doors, was covered with sheet metal and painted black inside . Summary The observations reported in this paper concern the behaviour of 36 young Hereford cattle yarded for weighing at regular intervals . During the experiment the cattle developed a significant weighing order which was unrelated to sex, weight, horned condition, or the effect of weaning . It is suggested that this weighing order is not related to social dominance, but represents another order of herd leadership . The practical importance of weighing order is discussed . The behaviour of these cattle immediately before entering the scales was consistent for a number of individuals . It was not a satisfactory measure of temperament and appeared to be related to the design and installation of the scales . Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank the Reserve Bank of Australia (Rural Credits Development Fund) for financial assistance, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works for permission to use their cattle and their facilities, and particularly their staff for assistance with this work . The advice of Mr . T . Verhagen, Division of Mathematical Statistics, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, and Mr . R. Jardine of the Victoria Department of Agriculture, on the statistical methods used in this paper is greatly appreciated . REFERENCES Braude, R . (1948) . Some observations on the behaviour of pigs in an experimental piggery . Bull. anim . Behav., 6, 17-25 . Kendall, M. G. (1943) . The advanced theory of statistics. Vol . 1 . London : Charles Griffin . Kendall, M . G . & Babington Smith, B . (1939). The problem of m rankings, Ann. inaths . Stats., 10, 275-287.
24
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR, IX, 1-2
Kilgour, R. & Scott, T . H . (1959) . Leadership in a herd of dairy cows . Proc . N.Z. Soc. anim . Prod., 19, 36-43 . Schein, M . W. & Fohrman, M . H. (1955) . Social dominance relationship in a herd of dairy cattle . Brit. 1. anim . Behav., 3,45-55 .
Walker, D. M . (1950) . Observations on behaviour in young calves . Bull. anim. Behav. 8, 5-10 . Woodbury, A. M. (1941). Changing the hook order in cows . Ecology, 22(4), 410-411 . Accepted for Publication 20th September, 1960.
Introduction Irrespective of his specialist interest, the man who carries out research involving live animals must inevitably study to some extent the behaviour of his experimental subjects . Indeed it frequently happens that such behaviour observations enable the researcher to make a more critical interpretation of his results. A knowledge of the effect that an experimental treatment may have on an animal's behaviour is often essential before a suitable experimental design can be made . Just as an appreciation of the importance of behaviour assists the worker in various disciplines, so the behaviour observations, usually recorded incidentally by the man in other specialist fields, have often proved of interest to the behaviourist . The observations recorded by Braude (1948) on pigs, and by Walker (1950) on calves, are examples of this reciprocity of interest . The observations now reported were carried out on an experimental herd of beef cattle which was being used primarily for a study of physiological processes of growth and development . For this purpose it was necessary to weigh cattle regularly and when doing this it was noticed on several occasions that the animals appeared to arrive at the scales in similar order . It was therefore arranged to determine whether this was in fact the case, and, if so, whether an animal's weighing order was related to one of its characters such as sex, weight, and horned or polled condition . The behaviour when entering the scales also differed between animals, yet it seemed to be constant for an individual . The opportunity was also taken to study this aspect of behaviour. Method A herd of 18 male and 18 female horned Hereford cattle was grazed on irrigated pastures at the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works sewage disposal Farm, Werribee, Victoria . These animals were born in AugustSeptember, 1957, and observations on behaviour commenced on January 26th, 1958, when the mean age of all calves was 156 days . On February 3rd, nine of the bulls were castrated and nine of the heifers were dehorned . The remaining
Period. I
Number of weighings 4
Pre-experimental period (January 26 to February 3) II Period between dehorning, and castration of half the bull calves (February 3) and castration of remaining bull calves (April 29) III Period between April 29 and weaning first half the herd (June 2) IV Period between June 2 and weaning of remaining calves (July 21)
8 5 4
The behaviour of animals immediately before entering the scales was scored as follows : Score Entry to Scales 1 Without hesitation 2 Hesitantly, vocal encouragement necessary 3 Only if urged with cane, then enters easily 4 Difficult to get into scales
20
TULLOH : BEHAVIOUR OF CATTLE IN YARDS . 1. I II lI 111 III IV IV -all periods
SCALE
: : : :
21
0 .29 0. 36 0 . 58 0 . 70
(not significant) (significant, P<0-05) (significant, P<0O001) (significant, P<0 . 001)
It was thought that this weighing order may have been related to the experimental procedures imposed on the herd, and therefore the weighing order was compared with each of the procedures for each of the periods . Statistical tests showed that weight, sex, horned condition, and weaning were not related to mean weighing order . The data for body weight, sex and horned condition are shown in Figs . 2 and 3 . 40
30
cs Z Y z
a A
A
•
a
~~ •
e • :
20
•
a: to
•
~
• A
0 420
460
SOo
Soo
$40
420
LIVE WEIGHT - POUNDS
• •
MALES FEMALES
Fig . 2 . Comparison of ranking (mean weighing order for all periods) and live weight at end of period 1V . LATE CASTRATION
Fig. 1 . Plan of cattle yards .
Behaviour immediately before entering the scales was recorded on eight occasions between May 26th and August 18th, 1958 . Results Weighing Order The mean weighing order for each animal in each of the periods 1, II, III, IV and for all periods is given in Table I. A ranking test using Kendall & Babington Smith's (1939) coefficient of concordance gave the following results : Period I Ranking not significant Periods 11, III, IV Ranking highly significant for each period (P<0.01) . Ranking highly significant . throughout the ex- (P<0-01) . periment) . All periods (i.e .
The correlation between mean rankings for the various periods were calculated using Spearman's coefficient (as described by Kendall, 1943) . They were as follows
or •
I< EARLY CASTRATION
• me
HORNED FEMALES A
!_AA
DEHORNED FEMALES
a ,o
A
f 1aa =o RANKING
=o
.o
Fig . 3 . Relation between ranking (mean weighing order for all periods) and effects of castration and dehorning .
There appeared to be some association of pairs of animals in the weighing order. On five occasions out of 23 (including two later weighing orders not included in the four periods mentioned above) animals 1099 and 1028 appeared together or separated by one other animal . Similarly, 1028 and 1058 appeared together or separated by one other animal on seven occasions . There was no association between 1099 and 1058 except on one occasion when 1099,
22
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR, IX,
1-2
Table I. Weighing Order and Behaviour Immediately Before Entering Scales. Mean weighing order Period 11
Period III
Period IV
All periods
Mean behaviour score
7 6 7 14 11 16 8 13 19 21 19 19 14 24 9 17 12 16 15 18 22 22 22 23 13 29 25 19 25 25 25 27 27 29 20 31
13 10 12 4 8 5 10 18 17 17 15 14 19 7 24 19 26 21 24 19 11 13 30 18 25 15 28 28 19 19 31 23 21 21 28 33
6 16 10 17 12 10 13 17 8 11 11 17 18 15 23 18 21 21 22 23 22 26 15 18 32 17 15 25 29 19 26 15 21 23 27 29
9 9 10 11 11 12 13 16 16 16 17 17 17 17 18 18 18 18 19 19 20 20 20 20 21 21 22 23 23 23 23 23 24 25 25 31
2 .4 1 .3 missing 1.9 2.3 1 .5 1 .9 2.3 1 .0 1 .0 1 .3 2.3 1 .0 1 .0 1.1 1.5 1 .4 1 .4 1 .3 1 .1 1 .3 1 .0 1 .5 1 .3 1 .0 1.1 2.4 1 .4 1 .5 1.6 1 .1 1 .5 1 .5 1.1 1 .6 1.1
Animal Period I 1047 1099 1072 1003 1096 1062 1128 1024 1058 1098 1086 1012 1073 1065 1100 1059 1101 1093 1079 1094 1056 1082 1133 1027 1126 1028 1000 1125 1134 1090 1076 1095 1075 1060 1018 1092
12 9 13 9 15 13 29 17 19 12 21 18 20 20 24 20 19 17 23 19 24 18 11 19 20 20 13 20 19 28 7 26 21 20 28 28
1028 and 1058 all appeared together . These associations became obvious during Period III of the experiment . Behaviour Before Entering Scales The mean scores for behaviour immediately before entering the scales for 35 animals on eight occasions are given in Table 1 . Seven animals were entirely consistent in scoring "1" on each occasion . A x2 test showed that the mean score for behaviour before entering the scales for each animal was not related to its weighing order . There was a downward trend from 1 . 5 to 1 .3 in the mean score for behaviour for all animals during the experiment. An analysis of variance showed that this downward trend was not significant. The mean score for all animals on all occasions was 1 .4 .
Discussion When a few animals have to be separated from a herd of yarded cattle which is itself on the move, those standing or moving near an appropriate gateway are driven through by the stockmen. Animals appear to be moving at random in the milling herd and they may appear to be treated roughly and forced to move quickly . In spite of this treatment, the cattle used in this experiment managed to develop and maintain a significant weighing order . From an experimental point of view this is important in relation to loss of fill ; that is loss of weight due to urination and defaecation whilst standing in the yards . Animals which appear early in a weighing order will weigh relatively more than they should, compared with those which appear late . Repeated weighings will not eliminate this ex-
TULLOH : BEHAVIOUR OF CATTLE IN YARDS . 1.
perimental error . However, apart from loss of fill, as weighing order appears to be unrelated to factors concerning growth and development, it need not be considered when allocating animals to experimental groups . No attempt was made to find the order of social dominance in this herd . However, Woodbury (1941) has suggested that "hook order" is largely determined by the size, shape and effectiveness of horns, whereas in dehorned cows "bunt order" is largely determined by an animal's strength and tenacity in pushing . Schein & Fohrman (1955) in their analysis of social dominance in a herd of dairy cattle have shown a good relationship between dominance and weight . On the basis of this evidence and the fact that weighing order appears to be unrelated to sex, weight or horned condition, it seems unlikely that weighing order is related to dominance . Schein & Fohrman (loc . cit.) also suggest that "the social position of each animal is probably determined at three to six months of age Therefore it is probable that this herd was old enough to have developed an order of dominance before or during the experiment . All animals were held in the yards until weighing was completed, and then they were returned as a herd to their grazing paddock ; there was therefore no immediate reward after weighing . It is unlikely, then, that weighing order is conditioned by a reward factor. It appears that weighing order is an order in the herd based on leadership which may not be related to social dominance, animals developing this leadership during a succession of similar experiences on each weighing day, namely, movements through yards, drafting and weighing. The evidence of Kilgour & Scott (1959) working with milking cows also suggests that leadership and dominance arc poorly related . The association of pairs of animals in the weighing order suggests that certain animals developed friendly relations with others during the experiment . In fact, some animals recognized as pairs in the weighing order were occasionally observed grazing together. "Friendly pairs" do not necessarily have similar mean weighing orders . For example the mean weighing orders (all periods) for 1099, 1028 and 1058 were 9, 21 and 16 respectively. 1099 (castrate male) and 1058 (female) appeared to have no regard for one another, but 1028 (castrate male) frequently associated with 1099 and 1058 . The pattern of behaviour immediately before entering the scales is not an effective measure-
23
ment of temperatment because it was observed that some docile animals scored high or low, for behaviour immediately before entering the scales, as did some animals regarded as nervous . These observations on temperament have been continued on other cattle and will be reported in another paper. Behaviour immediately before entering the scales was unrelated to weighing order . In this instance, it may have been strongly influenced by the steel ramp leading into the scales and the dark weighing cage which, except for the top and small inspection grills near the doors, was covered with sheet metal and painted black inside . Summary The observations reported in this paper concern the behaviour of 36 young Hereford cattle yarded for weighing at regular intervals . During the experiment the cattle developed a significant weighing order which was unrelated to sex, weight, horned condition, or the effect of weaning . It is suggested that this weighing order is not related to social dominance, but represents another order of herd leadership . The practical importance of weighing order is discussed . The behaviour of these cattle immediately before entering the scales was consistent for a number of individuals . It was not a satisfactory measure of temperament and appeared to be related to the design and installation of the scales . Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank the Reserve Bank of Australia (Rural Credits Development Fund) for financial assistance, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works for permission to use their cattle and their facilities, and particularly their staff for assistance with this work . The advice of Mr . T . Verhagen, Division of Mathematical Statistics, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, and Mr . R. Jardine of the Victoria Department of Agriculture, on the statistical methods used in this paper is greatly appreciated . REFERENCES Braude, R . (1948) . Some observations on the behaviour of pigs in an experimental piggery . Bull. anim . Behav., 6, 17-25 . Kendall, M. G. (1943) . The advanced theory of statistics. Vol . 1 . London : Charles Griffin . Kendall, M . G . & Babington Smith, B . (1939). The problem of m rankings, Ann. inaths . Stats., 10, 275-287.
24
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR, IX, 1-2
Kilgour, R. & Scott, T . H . (1959) . Leadership in a herd of dairy cows . Proc . N.Z. Soc. anim . Prod., 19, 36-43 . Schein, M . W. & Fohrman, M . H. (1955) . Social dominance relationship in a herd of dairy cattle . Brit. 1. anim . Behav., 3,45-55 .
Walker, D. M . (1950) . Observations on behaviour in young calves . Bull. anim. Behav. 8, 5-10 . Woodbury, A. M. (1941). Changing the hook order in cows . Ecology, 22(4), 410-411 . Accepted for Publication 20th September, 1960.