Temperament of Guzerá cows and heifers

Comprehension of behavior and its particularities is one of the key elements to improve
animal management and welfare allowing the improvement the animal performance in
the livestock production systems. This study proposed to evaluate the temperament as
well as the factors influencing this trait in the Guzerá females using both the flight
speed and temperament score approaches. The data was obtained through of one
admeasurement from two herds, that collaborate to the Brazilian Guzerá Breeding
Program for Milk Production, contained information from 177 Guzerá purebreds
females at different ages and calving. To assess the females’ temperament, the
temperament score test proposed by Mourão et al. (1999) and modified by Pires (2014),
was carried out. This test consisted of containing the females in the scale for 20 seconds
to give the visual score ranging from 1 to 5. Then the scale was opened and the time that
each animal spent to course a distance of 2 m was recorded by an electronic device.
Data were submitted to variance analyzes to evaluate the influence of fixed effects
(herd, entry order and calving categories) on the temperament (flight speed) in the
statistical model. Age (in days) was included as a covariate. For the analysis, the GLM
and CORR procedures of SAS® were used. The effects of herd, calving categories, and
age on flight speed were significant (P<0.05). The property that makes use of taming
and positive management in the herd had lower average (1.04 m/s) than property that
does not use (1.28 m/s). The heifers (nulliparous) and cows (primiparous/multiparous)
flight speed means were respectively 1.26 m/s and 1.03 m/s, indicating that cows were
less reactive than heifers, what can be attributed to the more intense management of
cows. Concerning the effect of age, the results revealed that the older females had a
more docile temperament. It was attributed to the experience throughout their
productive life, becoming them less reactive and therefore more docile. Pearson
correlation between the approaches was 0.25 (P<0.05) indicating that these approaches
can be measuring different aspects of females temperament. These results highlight the
importance of adopting positive and usual management practices to obtain docile
temperament in herds.