Maternal Behavior of Beef Cows at Parturition

Abstract

Over an 11-yr period maternal behavior, calf birth weight and calf condition were recorded within 24 h for 2,684 parturitions. Maternal behavior was rated on a scale from 1 to 11, where 1 indicated extreme aggressiveness and 11 indicated no maternal attentiveness. Birth condition was rated on a scale from 1 to 9, with 9 being fattest and 1 thinnest. Respective breed means of Hereford, Angus, Charolais and Red POll were 6.2, 5.3, 6.0, and 5.7 for maternal behavior rating; 30.6, 27.3, 39.2 and 32.6 kg for birth weight, and 5.5, 4.7, 5.6 and 5.5 for birth condition. Heritability estimates for maternal rating, birth weight and birth condition were .06 +/- .01, .48 +/- .02 and .19 +/- .01, respectively. Genetic correlations between maternal rating and birth weight and condition were .04 +/- .05 and -.02 +/- .06, respectively. These results suggest that, in the population of cows studied, nongenetic influences were the primary cause of differences in aggressiveness of cows at parturition.

Relationship between maternal defensive aggression, fear of handling and other maternal care traits in beef cows

“…The genetic component of maternal aggressiveness in beef cattle reported by Buddenberg et al (1986) and Morris et al (1994), although significantly different from zero and possibly underestimated as a result of frequent handling, is lower than that reported for other temperament traits measured in non-lactating cattle. These traits, which include response to isolation, flight distance, restlessness in the crush and flight speed from the crush have a mean heritability of 0.36 when measured in unrestrained conditions and 0.23 when the animal is held in a crush (Burrow, 1997).…”

“…A heritability of 0.09 (S.E. 0.03) for a maternal responsiveness score, measured when tagging calves within 24 h of birth on a similar scale to that of Buddenberg et al (1986), was reported by Morris et al (1994) using several purebred beef and beef cross dairy breeds. In this study, a total of 2121 cows were observed over a mean of 2.8 parturitions each, and the repeatability across parturitions was 0.20.…”

“…Maternal responsiveness has been recorded by Buddenberg et al (1986) whilst ear tagging Hereford, Angus, Charolais and Red Poll calves within 24 h of birth. Behaviour was scored subjectively after 2684 parturitions on a scale of 1 (aggressive) to 11 (exhibited no interest).…”

“…In younger animals, Becker and Lobato (1997) also found that frequently handled calves were less likely to be aggressive towards a handler than infrequently handled animals. The fairly small amount of phenotypic variation seen in the study by Buddenberg et al (1986), which was performed on a research unit, may also be partially due to frequent handling. With a smaller sample of 428 births, Brown (1974) estimated that the maternal protectiveness of the calf had a heritability of 0.32 in Herefords and 0.17 in Angus cows, although neither the frequency of previous handling nor the methodology employed is described, standard deviations are not provided and the correlation across parities is not presented.…”

“…To best estimate this, the trait must be defined unambiguously and measured using a validated approach in the most relevant environment. To date, maternal defensive aggressiveness has been assessed whilst ear tagging the calf (Buddenberg et al, 1986;Morris et al, 1994), allowing assessment to be integrated with a routine husbandry task. Tagging has also been chosen as the time to assess maternal attentiveness of ewes (O'Connor et al, 1985;Lambe et al, 2001).…”