Weaning behaviours in beef cattle and their progression in naturally weaning cow-calf dyads: An observational study

Early separation of mother and offspring remains common in the beef cattle industry, despite several reported animal health and welfare concerns related to this practice. Public and research interest in extending the cow-calf contact period in the dairy industry is increasing. However, few published works have described weaning as a behavioural process as it occurs naturally between cows and calves towards full nutritional independence, perhaps due to this commonly practiced early separation of cow and calf. Understanding the role of domestic cow and calf behaviours towards weaning will support management of weaning in a way which is better aligned with the natural process. We aimed to 1) identify and describe suckling and cow-calf behaviour around suckling in beef cattle (Aberdeen Angus (AA), AA – White Park crosses), and 2) ascertain how the identified behaviours changed as weaning progressed. To inform our first aim, one herd of 73 AA – White Park cows and their current and past offspring was observed from October to November 2017. The herd was managed as a single group, in an extensive outdoor natural weaning system with calves left with their mothers. To inform our second aim, sixteen cow-calf dyads (mean calf age 9.9 months, range 7–11; mean parity 1.7, range 1–6) within the larger herd of 73 were observed during suckling from first light until darkness once per week for five weeks. During the behaviour identification, thirty behaviours performed by the cow, calf, or dyad were identified by focal sampling. An ethogram containing these behaviours was created, and the progression of each behaviour was tracked over time by scanning the herd until a suckling dyad was observed and subsequently carrying out focal sampling of that dyad (January – February 2018). These behaviours were grouped into seven behavioural categories for further analysis (informing aim 2); cow walk, cow still, cow move, cow stationary movement, kick calf, calf seeking, and calf move. Each of these categories were included in univariate two-level models as dependent variables. Each category was the dependent variable in two models, where the independent variables were either ‘days until calving’ or ‘days since calving’. The independent variables were selected to represent 1) weaning being driven by offspring maturity and 2) weaning being driven by gestational state of the dam. We found that behaviours related to the cow terminating the suckling bout increased and behaviours linked to the calf terminating suckling decreased as time passed from the previous until the next calving. We also found an increase in “kick calf” behaviour as the birth date of the next calf approached, and that the duration of cow’s stationary behaviour during suckling bouts increased and duration of cow’s and calf’s mobile behaviour decreased as time passed from the previous calving. Overall, few empirical works have explored the natural weaning process in domestic cattle, despite large interest in increased cow-calf contact within the cattle industry. This study presents an investigation of these behaviours as a basis for future research and application.