Send Nasty Cows Packing

Send Nasty Cows Packing

Susan Allen
Susan Allen

 

Got an ornery cow, well despite being dangerous and pain to deal with there is now another good excuse to send her packing. I’m Susan Allen welcome to OpenRange stay tuned after the break for the story. Veterinarians and livestock producers that artificially inseminate cattle and horses know that nervous Nelly’s and animals with poor dispositions often are less likely to conceive. Until now this problem has been attributed to fear and frustration over being restrained and handled while inseminated. University of Florida animal scientists have recently completed a study on nearly 400 cows giving the animals numerical ratings for temperament from one to five.  (One being calm, five  being where’s the rodeo bullfighting clown.)  Anyway, the team wanted to see if temperament  effected the cows ability to breed naturally in a pasture situation. Along with this they analyzed blood samples for cortisol ratios. Cortisol is a bit like adrenaline, it’s released in the blood when animals are stressed or overexcited. The conclusion was that cows with wary dispositions, easily upset , have elevated plasma cortisol concentrations and that’s not a good thing as it goes hand in hand with poor conception rates. Thus anything a rancher can do to keep his herd happy can help insure calving success. The findings were telling in that bad tempered cattle even in a bucolic pasture situations can still have a difficult time conceiving thus the recommendation by beef magazine .com who just ran an aritlce on their findings is to cull them from the herd. I’m Susan Allen thanks for joining me on Open Range.
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