Cattle Handling and Behavior

by Donald Lay, Jr., Ph.D., Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University

Understanding cattle behavior requires insight into the various factors involved with control of behavior in individual animals and how such factors may relate to the behavior of a group of animals. Such understanding is critical in evaluating the animal’s response to its environment and the relationship of observed responses or actions to the well-being of individual animals. Genetic influences controlling behavior are important in making judgements about environmental needs and how animals may respond to given environments. Behavioral influences such as learning, stage of the animal’s life cycle, and stress are examples of factors that are important in understanding behavior and how animals may be able to cope in the environment provided.

One of the most important points to remember is that cattle fear humans to some degree. Depending on previous experience, learning and genetics, cattle can be extremely fearful (such as range cattle) or extremely tame (such as dairy cattle). Common to both types of cattle, however, is the idea that both are fearful to some extent and when put into fearful situations may react dangerously. The state of being fearful and the response when in such a state is largely based upon the cattle’s ability to sense its environment through vision, hearing, smell, etc. Thus, understanding cattle fear, vision and hearing will work more safely with cattle and decrease the stress experienced during handling, thereby increasing their productivity.

Fear

Cattle bolting past as you herd them into a holding pen, a quick kick as you place your hand unexpectedly on the back of a restrained heifer, and the nervous twitching of the tail of cows in the squeeze chute; all of these circumstances illustrate cattle that are experiencing some level of fear. Given the opportunity, in this state the animal is likely to do something that could cause harm to itself or you. The fear response is ingrained in every animal alive today; it is what has allowed animals to survive. It is referred to as the “flight or fight” response, and is commonly seen in stock that are cornered which will either escape passed you or attempt to charge. When this situation occurs it indicates that you have entered the animals “flight zone.”

By understanding and using the animals’ flight zone we can effectively and safely handle our livestock. Dr. Temple Grandin has conducted much research to the idea of using flight zone and point of balance to move stock safely. The Figure at right was taken from Dr. Grandin’s web page (http://grandin.com/index.html) and illustrates that the flight zone encompasses the entire animal. If the handler moves inside the zone, the animal will move away. If the handler moves to the outside of the zone, the animal will stop. The direction the animal moves depends on the position of the handler in relation to the point of balance. If the handler is in front of the point of balance, the animal will move back, and if the handler is behind the point of balance, the animal will move forward. Although this concept seems very simple, if you have ever had an animal bolt past you, then you were not attending to the concept of flight zone.

It is important to remember that the flight zone can change quickly and does not stay the same distance over time. Moving parallel to stock causes them less alarm than moving directly at them, and once you have started to move directly toward them they will increase their flight distance. Likewise, training can decrease the flight zone and the amount of fear an animal experiences when in close contact to people. Training is often used when using artificial insemination to breed cows, a situation that requires very low levels of stress if conception is to occur. In this situation, cows may be herded through a handling facility on a routine basis with the handlers allowing her to quietly walk through without any aversive act occurring. When it is actually time to breed the cow, she will walk quietly into the chute, which will allow conception rates to be much greater than in cows that are stressed during insemination.

Vision

The blind spot, that area in which cattle can not see behind them, is illustrated in the Figure below. Obviously, movement in this area can be dangerous, as cattle will startle and may kick out. Because this area is very small, about 30 degrees, cattle have almost a 360 degree visual field. This helps them to detect movements off to the side and behind to which they may need to attend. However, because binocular vision can only occur when the visual field of each eye overlaps, cattle have very poor binocular vision. Cattle are capable of seeing with both eyes in an area of only about 30 degrees in front of their head. This is very important because it means that this is the only area in which they have accurate depth perception. So, when startled from the side, the cattle must turn their head to determine how far the threat may be. Likewise, when being herded through a handling facility, shadows across the ground and images seen through open sided alleys, must be examined with their limited binocular vision. This characteristic of cattle vision is the reason that handling facilities should be designed with solid sides. Handling facility design is also recommended to have curved alleys leading to the squeeze chute as in Figure I. at left. This design characteristic prevents the cattle from seeing what appears to be a dead end, and the curves give a perception that the alley continues so that cattle keep moving forward. A wealth of information on facility design, complete with dimensions for building, can be obtained on Dr. Grandin’s web page (http://grandin.com/index.html).

Hearing

Cattle hear a range very similar to humans. The biggest concerns with noise during handling is that strange sounds or excessively loud sounds may startle cattle and prevent their movement toward the desired location. White noise is noise which is constantly heard in the environment and can be used to an advantage in handling facilities. For instance, constantly having a radio playing can help to cover up the sounds of noises that are intermittently created and could startle cattle during handling.