A SPECIAL PRODUCERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® CALIFORNIA Dairy & Livestock
These cattle at the University of California Sierra Foothill Research Extension Center in Browns Valley are part of a study on administering an ionophore feed additive, monensin, to promote weight gain. The Yuba County property facilitates cattle ranching research, hosting livestock and researchers for as many as 20 study projects at any given time during the year.
Foothill center offers vital grounds for cattle studies By John Watson
optimize cattle distribution on rangeland? The study, a part of UC Davis graduate Maggie Creamer’s doctoral dissertation, investi- gated the consistency of grazing patterns across two summers among 50 2- to 8-year-old pregnant Angus and Hereford beef cows, all fitted with GPS collars. Over two summers, they roamed 625 acres of grasslands and treed areas, elevation of which ranged from 600 to 2,020 feet. The results show animals that were generally calmer—for example, when being handled or going through a chute—tended to graze more widely than animals that were skittish and nervous. Those grazing behaviors remained largely unchanged when a water site incentive was introduced at higher elevation in year two. “Before opting for expensive interventions to get cattle to graze a different way, ranchers might want to explore this topic,” said Creamer, who now works as a postdoctoral scholar in North Carolina. Kristina Horback, an associate professor at the UC Davis Department of Animal Science, joined Creamer in presenting their findings in a study published in February in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science. She explained that fertile areas for further study in- clude the role that genetics and breeds might play in determining personality traits, along with investigations involving different landscapes and analyses of individual behavior when the animal is handled.
During the summers of 2021 and 2022, as cattle roamed pastures and shaded woods of the University of California Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center in Browns Valley, a UC Davis research team closely monitored potential ties between each animal’s personality and its grazing habits. The project, resulting in a peer-reviewed paper published this past February, was just one of hundreds of studies conducted at the center in Yuba County during the past six decades. Stretching across more than 5,700 acres of river, grassland, oak woodland and riparian habitat, the center supports research on beef cattle production, nutrition and health, range- land water quality management, oak woodland restoration, native plant conservation and invasive plant management, among other related topics. A hefty percentage of the studies the center supports aims to make cattle ranching more productive and profitable. The cattle personality study, for instance, looked at benefits of matching herds to land- scape. It analyzed whether selecting or subdividing herds by personality type could serve as an alternative to placing expensive incentives in undergrazed—and often higher-ele- vation—parts of the pasture, trying to lure herds to those spots. The study hypothesis: There might be little need for water, mineral supplements, fencing or other incentive methods in undergrazed pastureland if the herd comprises very active, hill-climbing animals to begin with. In other words, could consideration of personalities
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10 Ag Alert May 22, 2024
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