Cattle Flashcards
Origin of cattle
The aurochs, Bos primigenius, the
progenitor of current domestic cattle, was a wild ox that lived in most parts of
Europe, Asia and North Africa. It was characterised by a long, narrow head
with powerful horns. The bull was brown black to black, the cow was reddish-brown or dark brown.
From aurochs cattle is domesticate in to
Zebu (Bos primigenius indicus) synonims: Bos indicus, Bos taurus indicus, humped cattle, indicus cattle, Cebu or Brahmin cattle
Domestic cattle (Bos primigenius taurus) synonims: Bos taurus, cattle, taurine cattle
Domestication of cattle
The domestication probable began about 9-10000
years ago.
Today’s European cattle seem to be descended from cattle brought from the Near East by the first farmers.
At the beginnig of the 2000s, there existed more than 1000 breeds of cattle.
Breeds were developed of different sizes, colours, and ability to cope with different climates and types of vegetation.
Natural behaviour traits of Feral cattle
- Close association between mothers and grown-up daughters
- Close social association between calves
- Complex age structure in herds
- Long-lasting associations between individuals animals
- Small herds
- Spend many hours a day grazing
Natural behaviour traits of Cattle in modern, intensive systems
- Mothers and daughters often separated
- Calves often reared individually
- Herds often consist of a few generations of unrelated individuals.
- Frequent culling.
- New animals often bought into a herd.
- Cows and calves often housed separately
- Herds can be very large (>100 individuals is common)
- Often no access to pasture
Vision
Cattle get 50% of their total sensory information from vision
Highly developed sight, but different from us
- does not see the world as clear and sharply focused as human
- easier to notice moving compared to static objects
- visual field of about 330 degrees
- poor depth perception of nearby objects, limited vertical vision
+ Better vision in dark and semi dark conditions
– cones and rods (human: 1:9; cattle: 1:20)
– tapetum lucidum (resolution decreased)
Colour vision
trichromats (human) dichromatic vision (domesticated mammals)
Farm animals are dichromats with cones (color sensitive retina cells) most sensitive to yellowish-green (537-557 nm) and blue-pruple light (439-456 nm)
Differences between human and horse visual field (also applicable to cattle)
The human view is of the city itself and not much more, since our vision is so frontal.
The horse, by contrast, sees the city and everything else simultaneously right back to the man taking the photograph.
Hearing
Cattle also hear differently than humans.
- They can hear both lower volume and higher frequency sounds (23 Hz to 40000 Hz) better than people (31- 17000 Hz, 20-20000 Hz in young)
- Greatest sensitivity at 8 kHz (as in humans)
- They can be frightened of sounds that are not caught by
humans
- They have less ability to locate the source of a sound.
People can pinpoint where a sound came from within 5
degrees, whereas cattle can only isolate the source
down to about 30 degrees.
Exploratory behaviour
- Searching-scrutinising animals.
Examination of objects, examination of humans/group mates commanding posture - Behave cautiously to everything new and strange
- Like other prey animals, they may stampede readily if frightened
by something new or unknown - They stop short when confronted with changes of ground in
unfamiliar areas. - A piece of paper in an alleywall or a frog or just shadows on a
path might make a cow refuse to proceed.
Communication
Visual, but also acoustic and olfactory, signals are an important part of communication between cattle
Vocalisation:
Calves are called by deep pitched tones.
Hunger is expressed by a higher pitched, sharp “moo” tone.
Bulls at perception strange smell or phenomenon give deep, groaning-like or contrary, sharp “moo” voice.
Body language:
Threat
Friendship
Behaviour synchronisation
- Among domestic animals, cattle are the most pronounced group behaviour synchronised .
- Cows in herd essentially perform resting and grazing simultaneously
- During the grazing period the cows are mostly oriented in the same direction
Grazing
Cattle, by nature, have a need to search for feed and spend about 10-12 hours actively looking for it. This behavioural need exist even if a cow has its nutritional requirements satsfied by a very concentrated feed in 3 hours Cattle never graze on spots contaminated by manure. They try to find uncontaminated areas.
Circadian rhythm
Cattle divide their time on pasture in principle between grazing, ruminating and resting Their natural day-night rhythm is considered to include two grazing periods, one in afternoon before sunset and one in early morning (depending on pasture quality). Between these periods animals Grazing Mertolenga cows rest and ruminate.
(Évora, Portugal)
Eating
While grazing, cattle holds the muzzle against the grass and takes a mouthful portion by its tongue then press the grass against its lamina dentalis and tears the grass off. Meal concentrates are shovelled into the mouth by the tongue, then is suckled into and swallowed. Roughage and TMR are also directed into the mouth by the tongue.
