
Farm Animal Behavior Becoming
More Critical to the Bottom LineBy Don Comis September 7, 2000
Take away a steers right to a good sundown grazing and youll
have a fight on your hands. Thats what Agricultural Research
Service animal behaviorist Julie Morrow-Tesch found during periodic 24-hour
surveillances of cattle pens in one of the numerous feedlots that hold a total
of 6 million head of cattle in the Texas Panhandle. Morrow-Tesch, who studies animal behavior and physiology with ARS in
Lubbock, Texas, found that feeding cattle just before sunset--instead of the
usual morning meals--cut the number of aggressive incidents by almost half. These evening melees cost feedlots $70 a head, on average, in injuries and
could cost more in U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency fines because pushing and shoving can raise dust levels above
allowable limits. The free-for-alls are a substitute for cattles
instinctive twilight grazing. The study of applied animal behavior is fairly new to agriculturalists. It
has given rise to ARS national program on animal well-being, begun in
1994. ARS is the chief scientific agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Morrow-Tesch will describe her research at the 24th annual Beltsville
Symposium, Healthy Animals, September 10-12 in Beltsville, Md. View
the full program on the Internet at: http://www.barc.usda.gov/fmod/symposium She will discuss other examples of her research, including how: - social ranking affects responses to stresses such as heat or transport;
- some standard agricultural practices can cause stress;
- proteins may indicate psychological and physical stress;
- misting animals with water to cool them down may increase E-coli;
- alternative management systems may reduce chronic stress; and
- objective measures of stress can be used to assess practices.
Other symposium presenters will discuss relationships between animal
well-being and food safety, including how World
Trade Organization rules may affect U.S. livestock-raising practices. Scientific contact: Julie Morrow-Tesch,
ARS Livestock Issues Research Unit
Staff, Lubbock, Texas, phone (806) 742-2826, fax (806) 742-2335,
[email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture |