Docile cattle are better earners

Nervous and aggressive cattle are a pain in the wallet reports The Weekly Times.

That is the finding of a study presented recently to the Midwest American Society of Animal Science, in Des Moines, Iowa. Gary Fike, beef cattle specialist for the Certified Angus Beef brand in the US, said docile cattle in a feedlot graded premium choice and prime at more than double the rate of nervous to very aggressive cattle. Docility in the feedlot paid off with better performance, improved carcass merit and reduced morbidity and treatment costs, Mr Fike said.

Data was collected on nearly 50,000 cattle from 18 Iowa feedlots over eight years, to 2009. Using a six-point scoring system, calves were grouped into three categories – docile (DC), restless (R) and nervous to very aggressive (NVA). Calves in the study had similar arrival weights, but the DC and R calves were on average 10 days younger than the NVA calves. DC calves made up for their age, gaining 1.45kg/day compared with NVAs 1.36kg and outweighing them by 17.69kg in final liveweight.

Mr Fike said docile calves ate more and gained weight faster as they were spending more time feeding and did not react to every disturbance.The gains were also reflected in the carcass. There was a 30.7-point difference in marbling score between the most and least docile cattle. After accounting for quality, yield, cost of grain, death, loss and treatment costs, the DC calves showed an average profit of $46.63 per head, while NVA calves made $7.62.