Beef cattle behavior in integrated crop-livestock systems

ABSTRACT: Temperament often depends on the animals’ reaction to people, social and environmental conditions. However, little is known about the influence of changes in the pasture environment on cattle temperament. Thus, this study was designed to evaluate if an animals’ temperament changes in response to being kept in a silvopastoral system. This study evaluated the effect of the tree components in a pasture environment on the temperament of any grazing cattle in integrated crop-livestock systems. A total of thirty-two Angus steers were allocated to either a livestock (L) or livestock-forest (LF) system and observed from December 2019 to February 2020. Each animal was evaluated for their reactivity score, flight speed, and number of vocalizations. The statistical model established that the animals were random effects and that the treatments and periods were fixed effects using the MIXED procedure, and the means were compared using LSMeans. The flight speed and number of vocalizations were similar in both production systems, while the reactivity score was lower for animals kept in the LF system when compared to those in the L system. This suggested that the LF system interferes positively with the animal’s temperament in relation to the L production system. However, additional research is needed to understand the influence of the production system on animal temperament.摘要：动物的性情通常取决于其对人类、社会及环境条件的反应。然而，目前学界对牧场环境变化对牛只性情的影响尚知之甚少。据此，本研究旨在评估牛只在林牧复合系统（silvopastoral system）中饲养时，其性情是否会发生变化。本研究同时评估了农牧复合系统（integrated crop-livestock systems）中牧场环境内的林木组分对放牧牛只性情的影响。本研究共纳入32头安格斯阉牛，将其随机分配至纯畜牧（L）系统与林牧复合（LF）系统两组，观测周期为2019年12月至2020年2月。对每头试验牛的反应性评分、飞行速度及发声次数进行了评估。本研究采用混合模型过程（MIXED procedure）构建统计模型，将试验个体设为随机效应，处理组与观测周期设为固定效应，并通过最小二乘均值（LSMeans）进行组间均值比较。结果显示，两种生产系统下牛只的飞行速度与发声次数无显著差异，但林牧复合系统组牛只的反应性评分显著低于纯畜牧系统组。这表明相较于纯畜牧生产系统，林牧复合系统对牛只性情具有积极改善作用。但未来仍需开展更多研究，以明确不同生产系统对动物性情的具体影响机制。