-
Feedlots are
production systems, just one segment of the beef cattle industry, private business and therefore must have profit
-
cattle behaviors are
actions and posture
-
feedlot cattle welfare refers to
- the 'quality' of a bovines experience
- (well-being is more holistic and harder to measure)
-
What does 'normal' cattle behavior show feedlot stock attendants?
- shows that cattle have contentment
- via bedding down, grooming, feeding, social interactions
-
Abnormal cattle behaviors are intuitively used by feedlot cattle stock attendants to recognise...
- hunger, discomfort, distress, disease
- pull sick based on behavior
-
Categories of feedlot behaviors
- 1. Feeding behaviors
- 2. social behaviors
- 3. interactions with their enviro (eg bedding down)
- 4. interactions with their handlers (ie flight zone)
- 5. many others
-
why separate males form females in feedlots?
to prevent stress level
-
Clinical signs are evidence of....
- disease
- some feedlot cattle behaviors are clinical signs (most are not)
-
None eaters
- cattle that have adequate feed available but will not eat
- seen occasionally in in feedlots
- stock attendants know which cattle these are based on behavior
- "shit eaters" "straw eaters"
- these cattle will not eat the feed presented for behavioral reasons
feedlots were built for the average cow and not picky eaters so this may result in death
-
problems with non eaters
- this behavior can really cause problems on backgrounding rations (lower E) in cold weather
- (non eaters = behavioral issue)
-
Gross pathology in "non-eaters" that go on to die
- serious atrophy of fat- easiest to see on the base of the heart, perirenal, in the stifle joint, within the mesentery, and seem to get a "gelatinous" or "wet" look everywhere
- small dark, firm liver
- often have thickened wall of small intestine
- 'white' does not necessarily mean fat
- absence of gross lesions indicative of pneumonia, BVD, enteritis, histophilosis, impaction, bloat, etc...
- nothing in their stomachs and intestines (possibley bedding)
- even when dead they often look just like new thin cattle
-
why are non eaters hard to pick out clinically in pens?
- -rough, long haircoat so don necessarily look thin
- -first few days- months might not necessarily look diff from cohorts
- not lame, not depressed, not sick
- keep up with cohorts
- may hid from pen checkers by sticking heads in feedbunk
- often occur in groups
- the first 1 or 2 deaths may be the tip of the iceberg
- they will gain wt quickly once they start to eat
- in warm weather they can survive in this state for months
-
why do non eaters die?
- for behavioral reasons they aren't taking in enough E in the cold weather
- they arrive thin and cont to lose weight
- if they die, it is usually from hypothermia
-
recommended solutions for non-eaters
- be able to recognise them through PM and gross pathology
- remember this is a behavior and not a feed problem directly
- pulling and treating for sickness is unlikely to help
- pull the animals behind by about 10DOF and put them in a smaller pen with new pen mates and no straw
- bed with shaving or no bedding at all
- feed them on the ground with grain, hay or whatever- just get them to eat as much as possible
- bunk train them at the same time
|
|
