11 lessons on stress-free cattle handling from Dr Temple Grandin
This information came from AHDB’s July 27, 2023 Webinar “Stress-free stockmanship with Temple Grandin.”
World-renowned for her work in developing low-stress livestock handling practices and livestock handling systems, Dr Temple Grandin is an industry pioneer in animal behaviour research.
Here are 11 lessons Dr Grandin has for British beef and dairy producers on creating stress-free cattle handling systems.
#1 Cattle handling has improved, but there is still room to get better
A 2020 study found:
46% of handlers overload the crowding pen
30% of handlers make too much noise
28% of handlers stand in the wrong position
All of these factors impact cattle working flow and stress levels.
#2 Calm cattle are easier to handle
Once an animal becomes fearful or excited, it takes a minimum of 20 minutes for it to become calm again, says Dr Grandin.
Some stressful events are unavoidable, such as calmly bringing cattle in from pasture to working pens.
However, agitation can be escalated or unnecessarily brought on by:
Using too much force
Making a lot of noise such as screaming, yelling and loud whistling
Waving arms and driving aids around erratically
Slipping on flooring
“Calm cattle are easier to handle. If you’re bringing cattle in from the pasture, it is worth taking a little break and allowing them to settle down before handling.”
Cattle also remember whether a handling experience was positive or negative, which will impact how easy they are to work in the future.
“When you’re handling (cattle) a lot, like TB testing, give them some treats after they go through,” says Dr Grandin. “You don’t have to feed them very much, just a taste of a treat is enough to work.”
#3 Cattle show physical signs of stress
These include:
Excessive pooping
Swishing their tails
Seeing the whites of their eyes
Vocalization during handling, including when you are restraining them
Additional panels can be added to the sides of Arrowquip’s adjustable Easy Flow cattle races to block off distractions.
#4 Distractions in the cattle handling facility will cause animals to balk and refuse to move
Common distractions Dr Grandin comes across include:
Shadows and high contrasts of light and dark
Reflections on metal or water
Shiny metal
Seeing people up ahead of where they need to move
Moving objects inside and outside the handling system
Pieces of string tied to gates and fence
Air blowing in their faces
Coats hung on fences
Objects lying on the ground
Drain grates
Changes in flooring type causing visual contrast
Dripping water
Dangling chains
Turning fan blades
#5 Lighting and shadows require extra attention to avoid balking
Shadows
Both research and Dr Grandin’s observational experience show that sharp shadows are likely to stop cattle from moving forward. An example of this would be a shed roof casting a sharp shadow across a forcing pen, causing cattle to not want to cross over it and into a race entry.
Because these have a wide range of variable causes such as cloud coverage, time of day and even a handler’s positioning, Dr Grandin recommends farmers assess their handling systems at multiple times throughout a day and in a variety of conditions.
Lighting
Cattle want to move towards light, but not blinding light, says Dr Grandin. Animals will enter into a cattle crush more easily if the entrance is lit. Because of this, it is important headgates and systems don’t close off light coming through at the exit.
Arrowquip’s 3E Q-Catch head gate allows light through to utilise natural animal behaviour.
Dr Grandin recommends farmers experiment with different lighting sources and LED lighting, but to make sure they don’t flicker.
It’s also important to avoid the “dark movie theatre” effect, which is caused when an animal is expected to move from a sunny crowing pen into a dark working system.
#6 Animals will look right at what they don’t like in a handling facility
If cattle are balking at something in a handling facility, “they will show you the stuff they don’t like,” says Dr Grandin.
According to her, a calm animal will stop and look directly at something that is bothering them. This gives farmers and opportunity to assess their handling facility to see what is causing the issues.
A large abattoir in the US was having issues with cattle getting halfway up the race and stopping. Dr Grandin advised them to take a calm group through and to pay attention to where they stopped and assess their behaviour and the area. It ended up being leftover lights stored at the edge of the building from a construction project.
#7 Use inexpensive materials to experiment with changes
Rather than making assumptions and then investing time and resources into making immediate big changes to a handling system, Dr Grandin recommends farmers experiment with simple tools like portable lighting and cardboard.
#8 Invest in non-slip flooring
“I cannot emphasize this enough. In all cattle handling facilities – no matter where they are – the importance of non-slip flooring,” says Dr Grandin.
Slippage is a major point of agitation for animals but also jeopardizes safety. While grooved concrete flooring is a good option, Dr Grandin cautions that it does wear over time and at a gradual enough rate that it is hard to notice.
Rubber mats or woven tire mats are especially good options for cattle crush exits.
With all flooring, visual contrast between materials must be avoided to prevent animals from balking. If there is contrast, Dr Temple recommends spreading a uniform material like dirt over the floor to cover up any contrasts.
#9 Work cattle in small groups
The amount of cattle brought into a forcing pen/tub should never exceed filling the pen halfway full. Dr Grandin also recommends timing groups of cattle so there is room for the majority of them to enter into and move up the race.
If the forcing pen is filled too full and/or there is no room for them to move up the race, cattle will turn around away from the race entry.
“Good handling is going to require a lot of walking to move up small groups of animals,” she says.
#10 Use scoring to keep a record of changes made to a handling system
Dr Grandin recommends scoring cattle on the following before and after any changes are made to a facility to improvements or regressions can be assessed:
Vocalization when restrained
Balking
Slips and falls
Animal exit speed from crush
When applied pressure is required to move cattle through the race
#11 Cattle move based on flight zone, pressure zone and point of balance
Flight zone – This is what causes an animal to move away from a handler and is an animal’s safety zone
Tame animals will have no flight zone
Calm animals will have a smaller flight zone
Pressure zone – This is when an animal will turn and face the handler
Point of balance – This is at the shoulder and will dictate which direction an animal will move.
Dr Grandin’s low-stress cattle handling webinar with AHDB goes into more detail on these points and explores other areas of cattle handling. To learn more, watch the “Stress-free stockmanship with Temple Grandin” webinar.