By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
Finding out which calves act naughty or nice can help cattlemen
add value to their herds and manage them better.
Different dispositions
Jerry Baker, an associate professor with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is
working on a scoring system farmers can use to list the
good and the bad.
“Calves with poor dispositions can cause costly damage to
equipment, gates and fences and harm handlers,” he said, “and
can generally take longer to work.”
Calmer calves, on the other hand, are easier on equipment, he
said. They’re more easily handled. And their meat might even be
more tender than their cantankerous counterparts.
Speed test
Baker believes the speed at which a calf leaves a squeeze chute
and close human contact can say a lot about that calf’s
disposition.
To check for health or give medications, a cattleman will place
a calf in a squeeze chute to hold it. After he’s worked with
the
calf, he releases it from the chute.
A troubled, angry calf will bolt from the chute when released,
Baker said. A calm, happy calf will ease out when released.
At the UGA Tifton, Ga., campus, Baker devised a way to measure
a
calf’s chute-exit speed. He also worked with R.D. Randel at
Texas A&M University.
Two infrared sensors were set up, one as the chute opened and
one 6 feet away. The sensors started and stopped a clock as the
calf passed them.
Exit speeds were dramatically different, he said. One calf
covered the 6 feet in 0.14 seconds. Another leisurely made the
distance in 19 seconds.
To get accurate disposition responses, all of the calves were
placed quietly and not prodded into chutes.
They were then given a number score relating to how fast they
left the chutes. For example, a calf that covered the 6 feet in
a second or more scored in the calm range. Female calves tended
to exit the chute faster than males.
Fast v. slow
Baker found that calves with higher chute-exit speeds tended to
gain less weight after weaning than those with lower speeds.
This is important to know, because how fast and how much weight
a calf gains during a given time can affect the farmer’s bottom
line when he sells that calf.
Steaks of slow and fast calves in Baker’s study have been
checked for tenderness. The steaks of slower calves are more
tender than those from faster calves. The muscles of stressed
calves are more often rigid with angst. This could lead to
tougher steaks, Baker said.
Cattlemen can use the chute-exit speed score, along with other
scoring systems that judge a calf’s behavior while in the chute
and holding pin, to make herd management decisions.
With the information, a cattleman can know which calves he
wants
to keep or sell. He could keep calm calves in hopes that
their “calm” genes, and the benefits linked to those genes,
might be passed on to offspring.
Baker will continue the study to find out if calm calves have
calm offspring. He believes they will. With clear, documented
scores about his herd’s disposition, a cattleman could better
market his cattle, too.
“It would depend on the direction the grower wanted to go with
his cattle management and breeding,” Baker said.
A herd that’s too calm could be a problem, too, he said.
Georgia cattlemen sell about $325 million worth of cattle each
year.
