An assessment of behavioural syndromes in rangeland-raised beef cattle

Cold therapy and pain relief after hot-iron disbudding in dairy calves

Even when pain control is implemented, calves may experience pain for days after hot-iron disbudding. Whether calves seek pain relief post-disbudding offers a novel approach to assessing pain in these animals. By employing an approach-aversion paradigm, we explored the ability of cold therapy to provide immediate pain relief in disbudded calves. Calves were habituated to the manual placement of a cool or ambient pack on their forehead for a short duration simultaneous to milk reward consumption, prior to disbudding. Calves were then disbudded under local anaesthesia (procaine) and analgesia (meloxicam), and responses to the packs were observed over subsequent days. Individual calves were consistently exposed to either cool or ambient packs in different halves of a two-sided experimental pen, allowing for the testing of approach-aversion and conditioned place preference. We found calves approached milk rewards quicker and maintained contact for longer when receiving cold therapy compared to the ambient control. However, calves did not display any conditioned preference for the pen where they received the cool pack. These results add to the growing evidence of lasting pain following disbudding procedures and suggests that cold therapy provides some form of pain relief post-disbudding. Future studies should seek other ways to use cold therapy post-disbudding to reduce aversiveness and human involvement.

The glutamate metabotropic receptor 5 (GRM5) gene is associated with beef cattle home range and movement tortuosity

Background

The grazing behaviour of herbivores and their grazing personalities might in part be determined genetically, but there are few studies in beef cattle illustrating this. In this study, we investigated for first time the genetic variation within a candidate ‘grazing gene’, the glutamate metabotropic receptor 5 gene (GRM5), and tested associations between variation in that gene and variation in grazing personality behaviours (GP-behaviours) displayed by free-ranging cows during winter grazing in the steep and rugged rangelands of New Zealand. Mature beef cows (n = 303, from 3 to 10 years of age) were tracked with global positioning system (GPS) and, with 5-minutes (min) relocation frequency, various GP-behaviours were calculated. These included horizontal and vertical distances travelled, mean elevation, elevation range, elevation gain, slope, home range and movement tortuosity, variously calculated using daily relocation trajectories with repeated measurements (i.e., 7 to 24 days (d)) and satellite-derived digital elevation models (DEM). The different GP-behaviours were fitted into mixed models to ascertain their associations with variant sequences and genotypes of GRM5.

Results

We discovered three GRM5 variants (A, B and C) and identified the six possible genotypes in the cattle studied. The mixed models revealed that A was significantly associated with elevation range, home range and movement tortuosity. Similarly, GRM5 genotypes were associated (P < 0.05) to home range and movement tortuosity, while trends suggesting association (P <  0.1) were also revealed for elevation range and horizontal distance travelled. Most GP-behaviour models were improved by correcting for cow age-class as a fixed factor. The analysis of GP-behaviours averaged per cow age-class suggests that grazing personality is fully established as beef cows reached 4 years of age. Home range and movement tortuosity were not only associated with GRM5 variation, but also negatively correlated with each other (r = − 0.27, P < 0.001).

Conclusions

There seems to be a genetically determined trade-off between home range and movement tortuosity that may be useful in beef cattle breeding programmes aiming to improve the grazing distribution and utilisation of steep and rugged rangelands.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40104-022-00755-7.

Improving Beef Progeny Performance Through Developmental Programming

Maternal nutritional management during gestation appears to modulate fetal development and imprint offspring postnatal health and performance, via altered organ and tissue development and tissue-specific epigenetics. This review highlighted the studies demonstrating how developmental programming could be explored by beef producers to enhance offspring performance (growth, immune function, and reproduction), including altering cow body condition score (BCS) during pregnancy and maternal supplementation of protein and energy, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), trace minerals, frequency of supplementation, specific amino acids, and vitamins. However, this review also highlighted that programming effects on offspring performance reported in the literature were highly variable and depended on level, duration, timing, and type of nutrient restriction during gestation. It is suggested that maternal BCS gain during gestation, rather than BCS per se, enhances offspring preweaning growth. Opportunities for boosting offspring productive responses through maternal supplementation of protein and energy were identified more consistently for pre- vs. post-weaning phases. Maternal supplementation of specific nutrients (i.e., PUFA, trace minerals, and methionine) demonstrated potential for improving offspring performance, health and carcass characteristics during immunological challenging scenarios. Despite the growing body of evidence in recent years, the complexity of investigating developmental programming in beef cattle production is also growing and potential reasons for current research challenges are highlighted herein. These challenges include: (1) intrinsic difficulty of accurately measuring cow milk production multiple times in cow-calf systems; (2) larger focus on Bos taurus vs. Bos indicus breeds despite the predominance of Bos indicus-influenced beef breeds in tropical/subtropical environments and their specific, and sometimes opposite, physiological and performance outcomes compared to Bos taurus breeds; (3) limited focus on interaction between prenatal and postnatal management; (4) sex-specific outcomes following similar maternal nutrition during gestation; (5) greater focus on nutrient deficiency vs. excess; (6) limited implementation of immunological challenges; and (7) lack of multigeneration and longer periods of offspring evaluation. This review provides multiple evidence that such obstacles need to be overcome in order to significantly advance the scientific knowledge of developmental programming in beef cattle and promote global beef production.

Individual Monitoring of Behavior to Enhance Productivity and Welfare of Animals in Small-Scale Intensive Cattle Grazing Systems

To enhance productivity and welfare of individual animals maintained as a group, management based on individual behavioral tendencies is essential, which requires individual monitoring of animal behavior. Several behavior monitoring systems are currently available to livestock producers. The data obtained from these systems are analyzed to detect significantly high or low frequencies or intensities of behavior associated with estrus, calving and poor health conditions based on thresholds or past trends of the monitored individual. However, because behavior under grazing is more complex and changeable than under confinement, behavioral symptoms are more difficult to detect, and on-farm monitoring of individual animal behavior has been less validated and utilized in grazing systems. Nevertheless, individual monitoring of all animals in a herd is more feasible and cost-effective in small-scale intensive grazing systems because these systems pursue high productivity at the individual level with smaller herd size than large-scale extensive systems. Individually tailored management to enhance productivity and welfare will be possible by focusing on inter-individual differences in behavior within a herd. Behavior of an individual can be analyzed and understood in more detail by comparing it with those of the herd mates. Higher or lower levels of specific activities than the other animals can be associated with health disorders, temporal changes in physiological states, or productivity- or welfare-related traits. More sensitive monitoring and detection of behavioral responses of individuals to changes in nutritional, physical and social environments will lead to more efficient and welfare-conscious management that better meets the needs of individuals.

The Influence of Residual Feed Intake and Cow Age on Beef Cattle Performance, Supplement Intake, Resource Use, and Grazing Behavior on Winter Mixed-Grass Rangelands

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the influence of RFI and cow age on the supplement intake and grazing behavior of beef cattle. Average daily supplement intake (kg/cow/d) displayed an RFI × cow age interaction (p < 0.01), with a linear increase in average daily supplement intake with increasing RFI of 3-year-old cows (p < 0.01). Average daily supplement intake (g ∙ kg BW-1 ∙ d-1) displayed an RFI × cow age interaction (p < 0.01), with a quadratic effect on supplement intake of 3-year-old cows (p = 0.01). Cow age displayed a quadratic effect on variation of supplement intake (p < 0.01), where 1-year-old cows had a greater CV of supplement intake than all other cow ages (p < 0.01). Distance traveled displayed a cow age × RFI interaction (p = 0.02), where high-RFI 5-year-old cows traveled further per day than low 5-year-old RFI cows. The probability of grazing site selection was influenced by cow age (p ≤ 0.03). In summary, heifer post-weaning RFI had minimal effects on beef cattle performance, grazing behavior, or resource utilization; however, cow age impacted both grazing behavior and resource use.

Automatic Supplement Weighing Units for Monitoring the Time of Accessing Mineral Block Supplements by Rangeland Cattle in Northern Queensland, Australia

Time spent feeding by grazing cattle is an important predictor of intake and feed efficiency. This study examined the use of automatic supplement weighing (ASW) units for monitoring voluntary access of breeding cows (n = 430) to mineral block supplements in an extensive rangeland of northern Australia. The ASW units (n = 10) were located within each of experimental sites (5 units per site; Bore and Eldons). Over the 62 days of data collection, 85%, 13%, and 2% of cows spent <600, 600–1200, >1200 min accessing supplements, respectively, with between-animal variation (CV) of 107%. A total of 133 cows visited both sites while 142 and 155 cows visited only Bore and Eldons, respectively. Most visits (80–90%) were recorded during the day (800–1700 h), 7–17% during the night (1800–2300 h), and 3% during the dawn (0–700 h). Time spent accessing supplements differed between ASW units across the two sites (p < 0.001) and varied according to the day of visits (p < 0.001). There was a significant relationship between time spent at the ASW units and supplement intake on a herd basis (p < 0.001; R2adj = 0.70). The results showed that the ASW units were capable of monitoring access to mineral block supplements that may reflect the supplement intake of rangeland cattle.

Factors Affecting Site Use Preference of Grazing Cattle Studied from 2000 to 2020 through GPS Tracking: A Review

Understanding the behaviour of grazing animals at pasture is crucial in order to develop management strategies that will increase the potential productivity of grazing systems and simultaneously decrease the negative impact on the environment. The objective of this review was to summarize and analyse the scientific literature that has addressed the site use preference of grazing cattle using global positioning systems (GPS) collars in the past 21 years (2000–2020) to aid the development of more sustainable grazing livestock systems. The 84 studies identified were undertaken in several regions of the world, in diverse production systems, under different climate conditions and with varied methodologies and animal types. This work presents the information in categories according to the main findings reviewed, covering management, external and animal factors driving animal movement patterns. The results showed that some variables, such as stocking rate, water and shade location, weather conditions and pasture (terrain and vegetation) characteristics, have a significant impact on the behaviour of grazing cattle. Other types of bio-loggers can be deployed in grazing ruminants to gain insights into their metabolism and its relationship with the landscape they utilise. Changing management practices based on these findings could improve the use of grasslands towards more sustainable and productive livestock systems.

Integrating Digital Technologies to Aid Grassland Productivity and Sustainability

Digital technologies provide an opportunity to further increase the sustainability and productivity of grasslands and rangelands. Three resources are key to that change. These are the soil on which forage grows, the forages that grow on those soils and the animals that use the forage resource as food. This paper describes elements of technologies to measure and monitor these resources and provides some insights on combining that knowledge and controlling the animal's utilization through virtual fencing. There are many potential challenges to the application of digital technologies to pastoral farming. These often require the calibration of digital signals to define biophysical characteristics. The significant repository of historic data of pasture growth over many geo-climatic regions, for example, provides New Zealand with an opportunity to accelerate that development. Future advances in rangeland use, nutrient deposition, greenhouse gas emissions and the provision and utilization of high quality and quantity will be enabled by the application of digital technologies at scale, under the control of virtual fencing. Digital technologies may provide the means to maintain or enhance ruminant production from grassland in a sustainable operating space into the future.

On the Search for Grazing Personalities: From Individual to Collective Behaviors

While grazing lands can offer a diverse range of forages, individuals within herds prefer to graze some habitats and not others. They can have consistent differences in grazing patterns and occupy specific spatial domains, whilst developing tactics and strategies for foraging that are specific to their grazing personalities. In this review, we explore the development of our understanding of grazing personalities, as we move away from the search for an "optimal animal" toward designing behavior-customized herds with an arrangement of individual grazing personalities that enhance ecosystem services and productivity. We present a "grazing personality model" that accounts for the personality of individual animals and for collective behaviors of herds. We argue that grazing personalities of grazing ruminants and other large herbivores are in part genetically determined, and that they can act at the individual and collective level. The social and biophysical environments as well as the emotional state of animals regulate the expression of "grazing genes" that are observed phenotypically as distinct grazing personalities. The reproductive and sexual successes of individuals and herds filter for allele variants of grazing genes and in turn determines their relative frequency. While the selection of one grazing personality may be adequate for homogeneous pastoral systems, the design of herds with a range of grazing personalities that are matched to the habitat diversity may be a better approach to improving the distribution of grazing animals, enhancing ecosystem services, and maximizing productivity.

Personality predicts foraging site fidelity and trip repeatability in a marine predator

Animal populations are often comprised of both foraging specialists and generalists. For instance, some individuals show higher foraging site fidelity (spatial specialization) than others. Such individual differences in degree of specialization can persist over time‐scales of months or even years in long‐lived animals, but the mechanisms leading to these different individual strategies are not fully understood.

There is accumulating evidence that individual variation in foraging behaviour is shaped by animal personality traits, such as boldness. Despite this, the potential for boldness to drive differences in the degree of specialization is unknown.

In this study, we used novel object tests to measure boldness in black‐legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) breeding at four colonies in Svalbard and deployed GPS loggers to examine their at‐sea foraging behaviour. We estimated the repeatability of foraging trips and used a hidden Markov model to identify locations of foraging sites in order to quantify individual foraging site fidelity.

Across the breeding season, bolder birds were more repeatable than shy individuals in the distance and range of their foraging trips, and during the incubation period (but not chick rearing), bolder individuals were more site‐faithful. Birds exhibited these differences while showing high spatial similarity in foraging areas, indicating that site selection was not driven by personality‐dependent spatial partitioning.

We instead suggest that a relationship between boldness and site fidelity may be driven by differences in behavioural flexibility between bold and shy individuals. Together, these results provide a potential mechanism by which widely reported individual differences in foraging specialization may emerge.

Optimising cattle grazing distribution on rangeland: a systematic review and network analysis

Optimising beef cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus) distribution, both spatially and temporally, is one of the most significant challenges associated with managing extensive grazed rangelands. Landscape variability and behavioural patterns of cattle may lead to non-uniform and inefficient forage utilisation, damage to critical habitats, and water quality impairment. In order to overcome these distribution challenges, a large suite of tools have been developed and researched to optimise grazing patterns. The objectives of this synthesis paper are 2-fold: (i) to survey and categorise distribution tools; and (ii) to analyse the connectivity of existing research across academic disciplines to identify and isolate knowledge gaps. A systematic literature review revealed specific types of tools and strategies to improve cattle distribution, which were categorised as either ‘animal’ or ‘environmental manipulations’. Animal manipulations utilise aspects of individual behaviour and herd dynamics to alter grazing patterns, whereas environmental manipulations involve transforming aspects of the animal’s surroundings to overcome challenges associated with inefficient distribution. This review reveals that strategies are overwhelmingly studied in isolation, and that there is potential to increase efficacy by integrating multiple strategies to achieve a desired outcome. Motivated by these findings, an author collaboration network analysis was conducted to investigate connectivity within and among author fields of expertise to understand why more integrated management strategies are not currently studied. Authors were classified into five fields of research: animal behaviour science, animal production science, biophysical rangeland science, economics, and other. The network analysis revealed that communities of authors contributing to papers on enhancing cattle distribution are disjointed. These results suggest that in order to fulfil knowledge gaps about the efficacy and cost of management strategies, there needs to be interdisciplinary engagement with particular attention to strategies that integrate animal and environmental manipulations to enhance cattle grazing distribution on extensively grazed landscapes.

Use of GPS tracking collars and accelerometers for rangeland livestock production research

Over the last 20 yr, global positioning system (GPS) collars have greatly enhanced livestock grazing behavior research. Practices designed to improve livestock grazing distribution can now be accurately and cost effectively monitored with GPS tracking. For example, cattle use of feed supplement placed in areas far from water and on steep slopes can be measured with GPS tracking and corresponding impacts on distribution patterns estimated. Ongoing research has identified genetic markers that are associated with cattle spatial movement patterns. If the results can be validated, genetic selection for grazing distribution may become feasible. Tracking collars have become easier to develop and construct, making them significantly less expensive, which will likely increase their use in livestock grazing management research. Some research questions can be designed so that dependent variables are measured by spatial movements of livestock, and in such cases, GPS tracking is a practical tool for conducting studies on extensive and rugged rangeland pastures. Similarly, accelerometers are changing our ability to monitor livestock behavior. Today, accelerometers are sensitive and can record movements at fine temporal scales for periods of weeks to months. The combination of GPS tracking and accelerometers appears to be useful tools for identifying changes in livestock behavior that are associated with livestock diseases and other welfare concerns. Recent technological advancements may make real-time or near real-time tracking on rangelands feasible and cost-effective. This would allow development of applications that could remotely monitor livestock well-being on extensive rangeland and notify ranchers when animals require treatment or other management.

A Hypothesis and Review of the Relationship between Selection for Improved Production Efficiency, Coping Behavior, and Domestication

Coping styles in response to stressors have been described both in humans and in other animal species. Because coping styles are directly related to individual fitness they are part of the life history strategy. Behavioral styles trade off with other life-history traits through the acquisition and allocation of resources. Domestication and subsequent artificial selection for production traits specifically focused on selection of individuals with energy sparing mechanisms for non-production traits. Domestication resulted in animals with low levels of aggression and activity, and a low hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity. In the present work, we propose that, vice versa, selection for improved production efficiency may to some extent continue to favor docile domesticated phenotypes. It is hypothesized that both domestication and selection for improved production efficiency may result in the selection of reactive style animals. Both domesticated and reactive style animals are characterized by low levels of aggression and activity, and increased serotonin neurotransmitter levels. However, whereas domestication quite consistently results in a decrease in the functional state of the HPA axis, the reactive coping style is often found to be dominated by a high HPA response. This may suggest that fearfulness and coping behavior are two independent underlying dimensions to the coping response. Although it is generally proposed that animal welfare improves with selection for calmer animals that are less fearful and reactive to novelty, animals bred to be less sensitive with fewer desires may be undesirable from an ethical point of view.

Grazing management: setting the table, designing the menu and influencing the diner

Pastoral livestock-production systems are under increasing environmental, social and consumer pressures to reduce environmental impacts and to enhance biodiversity and animal welfare. At the same time, farmers face the challenge of managing grazing, which is intimately linked with profitability. Recent advances in understanding grazing patterns and nutritional ecology may help alleviate such pressures. For instance, by managing grazing to (1) manipulate links between ingestive–digestive decisions and temporal patterns of nutrient excretion, (2) provide phytochemically diverse diets at appropriate temporal (the menu) and spatial (the table) scales and (3) influence the behaviour of animals (the diners) on the basis of their specific ‘personalities’ and needs, to overcome or enhance animal differences, thereby enhancing their and farm productivity and welfare, as well as our health. Under pastoral systems, synergies between animals’ and farmers’ grazing decisions have the potential to offer greater benefits to the animal, the environment and the farm than does simple and parsimonious grazing management based on a single component of the system. In the present review, we look at grazing and its management through an alternate lens, drawing ideas and hypotheses to stimulate thinking, dialogue and discussions that we anticipate will evolve into innovative research programs and grazing strategies. To do so, we combined experimental and observational studies from a wide range of disciplines with simulation-modelling exercises. We envisage a more holistic approach to manage grazing based on recent advances in the understanding of the nutritional ecology of grazing animals, and propose management practices that may enable pastoral livestock-production systems to evolve continually as complex creative systems.

When the going gets tough: behavioural type-dependent space use in the sleepy lizard changes as the season dries

Understanding space use remains a major challenge for animal ecology, with implications for species interactions, disease spread, and conservation. Behavioural type (BT) may shape the space use of individuals within animal populations. Bolder or more aggressive individuals tend to be more exploratory and disperse further. Yet, to date we have limited knowledge on how space use other than dispersal depends on BT. To address this question we studied BT-dependent space-use patterns of sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) in southern Australia. We combined high-resolution global positioning system (GPS) tracking of 72 free-ranging lizards with repeated behavioural assays, and with a survey of the spatial distributions of their food and refuge resources. Bayesian generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) showed that lizards responded to the spatial distribution of resources at the neighbourhood scale and to the intensity of space use by other conspecifics (showing apparent conspecific avoidance). BT (especially aggressiveness) affected space use by lizards and their response to ecological and social factors, in a seasonally dependent manner. Many of these effects and interactions were stronger later in the season when food became scarce and environmental conditions got tougher. For example, refuge and food availability became more important later in the season and unaggressive lizards were more responsive to these predictors. These findings highlight a commonly overlooked source of heterogeneity in animal space use and improve our mechanistic understanding of processes leading to behaviourally driven disease dynamics and social structure.

How integrated are behavioral and endocrine stress response traits? A repeated measures approach to testing the stress-coping style model

It is widely expected that physiological and behavioral stress responses will be integrated within divergent stress-coping styles (SCS) and that these may represent opposite ends of a continuously varying reactive–proactive axis. If such a model is valid, then stress response traits should be repeatable and physiological and behavioral responses should also change in an integrated manner along a major axis of among-individual variation. While there is some evidence of association between endocrine and behavioral stress response traits, few studies incorporate repeated observations of both. To test this model, we use a multivariate, repeated measures approach in a captive-bred population of Xiphophorus birchmanni. We quantify among-individual variation in behavioral stress response to an open field trial (OFT) with simulated predator attack (SPA) and measure waterborne steroid hormone levels (cortisol, 11-ketotestosterone) before and after exposure. Under the mild stress stimulus (OFT), (multivariate) behavioral variation among individuals was consistent with a strong axis of personality (shy–bold) or coping style (reactive–proactive) variation. However, behavioral responses to a moderate stressor (SPA) were less repeatable, and robust statistical support for repeatable endocrine state over the full sampling period was limited to 11-ketotestosterone. Although post hoc analysis suggested cortisol expression was repeatable over short time periods, qualitative relationships between behavior and glucocorticoid levels were counter to our a priori expectations. Thus, while our results clearly show among-individual differences in behavioral and endocrine traits associated with stress response, the correlation structure between these is not consistent with a simple proactive–reactive axis of integrated stress-coping style. Additionally, the low repeatability of cortisol suggests caution is warranted if single observations (or indeed repeat measures over short sampling periods) of glucocorticoid traits are used in ecological or evolutionary studies focussed at the individual level.

Genetic associations between temperament and performance traits in Nellore beef cattle

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic associations between temperament and performance traits. Temperament was evaluated in yearling male and female Nellore cattle, using four traits: temperament score (TS), for assessing animals' reactions in a corral pen (n = 25,691); movement score (MOV), for animals' movements recorded inside the crush; crush score (CS), for animal's general reactivity inside the crush; and flight speed (FS), for the speed (in m/s) at which the animals exited the crush (n = 11,697, for the last three methods); for all the temperament traits, lower scores indicate animals with calmer temperament. Performance traits were visual scores for conformation (C), finishing precocity (P) and muscling (M) evaluated at yearlings, and average daily gain (ADG) was estimated from weaning to yearling. Bayesian inference using Gibbs sampling was applied to estimate (co)variance components and genetic and phenotypic parameters. Heritability estimates for the temperament traits ranged from 0.07 (CS) to 0.28 (FS). Genetic correlations of the temperament traits with ADG and C, P and M were negative and ranged from -0.02 to -0.31. Phenotypic correlations were negative and consistently lower than the genetic, ranging from -0.08 to -0.02. It was concluded that the temperament traits assessed had favourable genetic correlation estimates with the performance traits studied. However, indirect responses in temperament when selecting for higher ADG and visual scoring system of C, P and M, will be low.