At Stellar, we have a strong focus on producing cattle with excellent temperaments. Not only does this ensure that our cattle are easy to handle, but that they are also more productive and profitable.
Docility, or temperament, in cattle refers to the way in which cattle behave when handled by humans or placed in unfamiliar environments. It is a heritable trait and can greatly impact the ease with which cattle can be managed and handled. In the wild, poor docility can be seen as a survival trait – a fear of anything unusual and a strong desire to escape from potentially threatening situations. However, in domesticated beef cattle it is often expressed as excitability and nervousness, making cattle difficult and potentially dangerous to handle and manage effectively.
Poor temperament not only makes cattle difficult to work with but can have significant negative impacts on productivity and profitability. A recent scientific review of the evidence[i] concluded that consistently, across multiple studies, excitable cattle had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and that many studies “reported that excitable beef females have poorer reproductive performance compared to calmer cohorts, including reduced annual pregnancy rates, decreased calving rate, weaning rate, and kg of calf weaned/cow”.
As temperament is moderately heritable, this means that it can be bred for. Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) have been developed in Breedplan for some other breeds and these can then assist, in those breeds, in the selection of temperament on a genetic level. Stellar, along with other Speckle Park studs, collects and submits data on docility to Breedplan which will assist in EBVs being developed for Speckle Park animals.
Breedplan Scoring Criteria for Crush Test
| Score | Code | Description |
| 1 | Docile | Mild disposition, gentle and easily handled, stands, and moves slowly during handling, undisturbed, settled, somewhat dull, exits crush calmly. |
| 2 | Restless | Quieter than average but slightly restless, may be stubborn during handling, may try to back out of crush, some flicking of tail, exits crush promptly. |
| 3 | Nervous | Manageable but nervous and impatient, a moderate amount of struggling, movement, and tail flicking, exits crush briskly. |
| 4 | Flighty | Jumpy and out of control, quivers and struggles violently, may bellow and froth at mouth, continuous tail flicking, defecates and urinates during handling, frantically runs the fenceline and may jump when penned individually, exhibits long flight distance, and exits crush wildly. |
| 5 | Aggressive | May be similar to score 4 but with added aggressive behaviour, fearful, extreme agitation, continuous movement which may include jumping and bellowing while in crush, exits crush frantically and may exhibit attack behaviour when handled alone. |
[i] Brandão,A.P.;Cooke,R.F., Effects of Temperament on the Reproduction of Beef Cattle. Animals 2021,11,3325.
