Differences in behaviour between aubrac and Lithuanian black and white bulls kept for beef

Abstract

In Lithuania, there is a tendency to have mized cattle breed farms, where dairy farmers support the financial viability of their businesses with beef cattleę as an additional production source. In such cases, all male offspring of dairy cows are kept for veal in the same conditions as hybrid or purebred beef bull calves. This situation raises some questions about the welfare and behavioural needs of such different animals. This study aimed at comparing the behaviour of finishing bulls from two different breeds - Lithuanian black and white (dairy cattle breed, LBW) and aubrac (beef cattle breed). Two groups of 11 to 14 month old bulls, one of the Aubrac (n=17) and the other group of the LBW breed (n=22) have been observed. At the start of the experiment, average weight of Aubrac and LBW bulls was 372.7±8.9 and 296.9±5.7 kg respectively. Animals were raised in insulated barn in pens with deep litter, both breeds under similar conditions (animals were 11 to 14 month old, each group in separate 100 m² pen). The behaviour was observed for a period of 24 hours (00:00-24:00 h) in June. The bulls were observed using instantaneous sampling with a 5-min sampling interval. The following behaviours were considered: total lying, eating feed at the feeding trough, drinking, standing ruminating, lying ruminating, walking, standing idling, lying resting and aggressive behaviour. In the present study, we found that total lying time of Aubrac and LBW bulls was 652 min (45.3±3.3%) and 677 min (47.0±3.0%) per day respectively, total standing time 720 min (50.0±2.8%) and 692 min (48.0±3.0%) per day respectively. The study indicated that there were no significant differences between the two groups of animals as regards moving behabiours. Aubrac bulls spend more time in standing idling (17.2±1.5 vs 12.5±1.1%, P<0.025), standing ruminating (10.7±1.1 vs 27.1±2.3%, P<0.05) than the LBW bulls. LBW bulls spent more time lying with less lying bouts (6 lying bouts) com[...].