In this moment, you may consider reaching for the electric prod, shouting at the top of your lungs, twisting her tail, pushing her with all your might, slapping her on the rump or using some other creative strategy to get her to move a few feet forward.
Resorting to negative handling techniques like these to move cows can be stressful for farm personnel and can have a major impact on the animal. Does this heifer find a loud shout or a hit to be negative?
Will she remember that you treated her poorly and be even more difficult to move in the future? Is she going to let down as much milk as she would have if she wasn’t handled negatively?
These questions are important to consider before resorting to negative handling techniques for calves, heifers or cows in your herd. Although it may seem intuitive that negative handling should be avoided, farm personnel may not recognize how much their behaviours are affecting the cows.
Which handling techniques are aversive to cows?
A handling technique is “aversive” to a cow if she avoids the person using that technique. Hitting, shouting or using an electric prod is aversive, but using a gentle tail twist is not. To determine this, researchers from Purdue University and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada conducted a study using a large maze in the shape of a Y.
First, cows were walked through both arms of the Y, where they would either encounter nothing or a handling technique like a shout, hit, electric prod or tail twist. Cows were then allowed to choose which side they wanted to visit.
When researchers compared an empty side to a person using a gentle tail twist (the handler held the tail near its base and careful twisted clockwise until slight resistance was felt, repeated four times), the cows visited both sides equally.
When an empty side was compared to a person shouting (“Hey you stupid cow! Let’s go! Let’s go!” repeated four times), cows consistently chose the empty side. These results tell us that a gentle tail twist is not aversive, but cows clearly avoided a handler that was shouting at them.
When researchers compared a shout to one second of electric shock from a cattle prod, or four hits on the rump with an open hand, cows chose all sides equally.
This result tells us that cows find shouting, hitting and an electric shock to be negative. It may not be surprising that cows avoid these behaviours; however, these findings also tell us behaviours we may consider to be mild, like shouting, are as aversive to cows as an electric shock.
Can cows recognize people and remember who treats them poorly?
When I ask this question to dairy producers, I get an overwhelming “yes” – usually followed by a story about how their cows become anxious as soon as they see, hear or smell the herd veterinarian coming.
Indeed, cows can recognize individual people and can remember who treats them poorly. To test this idea, researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada conducted a study where cows were handled by two people: one handled the cows negatively (hitting or using an electric prod), and the other handled them gently (brushing, speaking in a gentle voice, offering hay).
Cows were then brought into the parlour and either the gentle or negative handler stood close to them as they were being milked. Compared to the gentle handler, the presence of the negative handler increased residual milk by 70 percent (milk remaining in the udder after milking).
For the cows that were best able to discriminate between the handlers, the presence of the negative handler increased overall movement and heart rate (a sign of stress) during milking. In a follow-up experiment, researchers discovered that cows use a combination of body height and facial features to distinguish between individuals.
Can negative handling impact herd milk production?
The short answer: Yes. To test this question, researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Animal Welfare Science Centre conducted two studies. In the first study, researchers visited 66 farms and recorded farm personnel attitude toward the cows and their use of negative handling techniques.
Researchers discovered that use of negative handling was correlated with milk yield; that is, farms that used more negative handling had cows with lower milk yields.
It was not clear if the negative handling was the cause of the low milk yield, so researchers conducted another study to see if improving personnel handling skills could improve production.
In the second study, half of the farms received training designed to improve both attitude and behaviour of farm personnel, and the other half did not get trained.
Researchers discovered the farms with the training had an increase in milk production after the training compared to those that were not given training. Researchers suggest that reducing negative behaviour decreases cows’ fear of people which, in turn, reduces stress and increases productivity.
What do I do if handling is a problem on my farm?
The results of these studies provide evidence that cows can be negatively impacted when they are hit, shouted at or prodded, which can translate into both poor animal welfare and milk loss.
If we think back to our heifer that will not enter the milking parlour, it may take a bit more time to coerce her into the parlour using hay or a gentle tail twist, but these techniques may be less likely to interfere with her ability to let down milk and her willingness to enter the parlour next time.
For those who know that animal handling is a problem on their farm, providing training is a good start. Ask your herd veterinarian or an extension specialist for help in this area.
They will have the expertise to either provide you and your employees with training on low-stress handling skills or direct you to some online resources that can assist you as well.
Ideally, training interventions should impact both personnel attitude and behaviour; if attitude remains poor, behavioural changes may not be long-lasting after the training. Creating a culture of good animal handling is key, as farm personnel may learn bad habits from each other.
If training all farm personnel is not possible, those that work closely with the animals (e.g., milkers, handlers that move cows to the parlour, calf or transition cow caretakers) should be a priority.
It is the best interest of you, your employees and your cows to ensure that good animal handling techniques are encouraged and used on your farm. PD
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Katy Proudfoot
- Assistant Professor
- Ohio State University
- Email Katy Proudfoot
