Social interactions and movement patterns of rangeland-raised beef cows and their calves

Authors: SAWALHAH, MOHAMMED - The Hashemite University; Cibils, Andres; PRILESON, VANESSA - Pima County Flood Control District; WESLEY, ROBERT - Turner Enterprises, Inc; MULLINKIKS, TRAVIS - Oregon State University; PETERSON, MARK - Retired Non ARS Employee

Submitted to: Livestock Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/29/2024
Publication Date: 10/30/2024
Citation: Sawalhah, M., Cibils, A.F., Prileson, V., Wesley, R., Mullinkiks, T., Peterson, M. 2024. Social interactions and movement patterns of rangeland-raised beef cows and their calves. Livestock Science. 290. Article 105594.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2024.105594.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2024.105594

Interpretive Summary: Grazing impacts of beef cattle on semiarid rangelands are the result of animal behavior patterns thought to be learned at an early age. We studied cow-calf social interactions to make inferences about the potential for dams vs. other cows in the herd to influence learned foraging behaviors of rangeland beef calves. We placed GPS collars on cows and their newborn calves to track their movement and location at 1, 2, and 4 months of age. We calculated the time that calves spent close to their mothers vs. other adult cows in the herd and computed the distance traveled by each. Calves spent more time close to an adult cow during night- vs. daytime hours and spent less time close to their mother (2.5 h/day) vs. other lactating adult cows in the herd (8 h/day). Calves tended to spend more time close to an adult cow when they were 2 vs. 1 or 4 months old. Both calves and their mothers traveled farther as calves grew older. If calves imitate foraging behaviors of adult cows without discriminating between their mother and other herd members, then early life learning of grazing behavior may be more strongly influenced by herd members vs. an individual mother cow. Further investigation of early life learning mechanisms is needed.

Technical Abstract: Dam-offspring proximity and movement patterns were documented using GPS collars fitted on cow-calf pairs on semiarid rangeland. Location data collected on 46 crossbred cows and 34 calves that grazed two adjacent 219 and 146 ha pastures were used to determine the spatial and temporal relationships among beef calves, their dams, and other nursing cows in the herd at three different calf ages (1, 2 and 4 mos.). Over a 24 h period, calves spent on average 10.5 and 17.5 h within 5 or 10 m of an adult cow, respectively, and spent 2.6, 5.6 and 2.3 h within 5 m of their dams, other adult cows and a guard cow (cow other than the dam that spent the most time in the proximity of a calf), respectively. Calves spent more time within 5 or 10 m of an adult cow during night vs. daytime hours and spent detectably (P < 0.05) more time within 5 or 10 m of other adult cows vs. their dam (5.6 vs. 2.6 or 10.3 vs. 3.5 h). Calves spent a similar (P > 0.05) amount of time within 5 or 10 m of their dam vs. the guard cow (2.6 vs. 2.3 or 3.5 vs. 3.7 h) regardless of age during both day and nighttime hours. In general, calves spent more time within 5 and 10 m of an adult cow at 2 vs. 1 or 4 mos. of age. Greater mother-offspring clustering occurred at 2 vs. 1 or 4 mos. of age regardless of the spatial threshold considered. Regardless of calf age, calves and nursing cows traveled on average 4.5 and 6.7 km/day, respectively. Calves at 4 mo of age traveled farther than younger calves. Nursing cows traveled farther when calves were 4 mo. vs. 1 or 2 mos. of age and tended to travel farther when calves were 1 vs. 2 mos. old. Calves spent more time close to other nursing cows vs. their dam. The role that dams vs. other nursing cows play in shaping foraging behaviors of rangeland beef calves requires further investigation.