Reading behavior can also help you improve care. The author is professor emeritus of animal science and veterinary medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. Automation, considered by some to be detrimental to the husbandry and welfare of animals in intensive units, needs to be reconsidered. The time saved, together with reduced work and drudgery, should release workers for more human-animal interactions, thus allowing better care. For as long as cows have been milked, there has been the art of cow care that results in more milk from healthier, contented cows. It has been recognized that the dairy cow s productivity can be adversely affected by discomfort or maltreatment.
Alert handlers have the perception and ability to read body language in animals.
For example, healthy calves, cows, and bulls will exhibit a good stretch after they get up, then relax to a normal posture. Yet, higher rates of standing, oftentimes with an arched back and with their head and ears lowered, is taken as a sign of discomfort or discontent in studies of cow and calf confinement. Cattle under duress show signs by bellowing, butting, or kicking. Behavioral indicators like these are always useful signs that the environment needs to be improved. In some cases, the way animals behave is the only clue that stress is present.