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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

An Assessment Of Behavioural Syndromes In Rangeland-Raised Beef Cattle, Robert Wesley, Andrés Cibils, J. Mulliniks, Emily Pollak, Mark Petersen, Ed Frederickson Jun 2012

An Assessment Of Behavioural Syndromes In Rangeland-Raised Beef Cattle, Robert Wesley, Andrés Cibils, J. Mulliniks, Emily Pollak, Mark Petersen, Ed Frederickson

Ed L. Frederickson

Individuals in most animal groups exhibit consistent behavioural differences across situations or over time known as behavioural syndromes. We conducted a study with a herd of young rangeland-raised cows to determine whether animals exhibited consistent differences in foraging behaviours across contexts (confinement vs. rangeland pasture) and could be clustered into behavioural type groups on the basis of a suite of correlated behaviours. We also investigated whether cows with different behavioural types performed differently in this environment. Supplement consumption rate (SCR) in confinement was used to select two groups of cows (fast eaters vs. slow eaters). This classification was validated by …


Characterising The Spatial And Temporal Activities Of Free-Ranging Cows From Gps Data, Dean Anderson, Craig Winters, Rick Estell, Ed Frederickson, Marek Doniec, Carrick Detweller, Daniela Rus, Darren James, Barbara Nolen May 2012

Characterising The Spatial And Temporal Activities Of Free-Ranging Cows From Gps Data, Dean Anderson, Craig Winters, Rick Estell, Ed Frederickson, Marek Doniec, Carrick Detweller, Daniela Rus, Darren James, Barbara Nolen

Ed L. Frederickson

Electronic tracking provides a unique way to document behaviour by cows on a continuous basis. Over 2 years 17 beef cows with calves were fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices programmed to record uncorrected GPS locations at 1-s intervals in a semi-desert rangeland. Each cow was periodically observed during daylight hours and foraging, walking and stationary (standing/lying) activity times were recorded across days and individual cows to calculate a mean travel rate for each activity. Data without observers present were collected immediately preceding and following the abrupt weaning of calves at between 223 and 234 days of age to …


Managing Livestock Using Animal Behavior: Mixed Species Stocking And Flerds, D. M. Anderson, E. L. Frederickson, R. E. Estell Feb 2012

Managing Livestock Using Animal Behavior: Mixed Species Stocking And Flerds, D. M. Anderson, E. L. Frederickson, R. E. Estell

Ed L. Frederickson

Mixed-species stocking can foster sound landscape management while offering economic and ecological advantages compared with mono-species stocking. Producers contemplating a mixed-species enterprise should reflect on several considerations before implementing this animal management strategy. Factors applicable to a particular producer's landscape must be considered together with goals and economic constraints before implementing mixed-species stocking. A major consideration when using mixed-species stocking is how to deal with predation losses, especially among small ruminants. An approach being adopted in some commercial operations capitalizes on using innate animal behaviors to form cohesive groups of two or more livestock species that consistently remain together under …