Dr. Morrow-Tesch spoke on management practices involving stressful procedures, both social and physical. Social stress includes isolation, regrouping, and crowding, all natural components of cattle production. She believes that these social stressors carry a psychologic component not often considered or understood. Wind and dust, transportation, heat and cold stress, and nutritional stresses also should be considered. We need to fully understand how cattle perceive their environment.
Cattle have a much different visual sense than humans.
Their hearing, olfactory sense, and tastes are different than humans'. As such, producers should be aware of and change environmental factors that adversely affect cattle, such as thermal and space requirements, ventilation, and flooring. Dr. Morrow-Tesch said these environmental factors in management are easy to fix. Reemphasizing points of AnnMaria de Grassi's opening overview, Dr. Morrow-Tesch evaluated branding, tail docking and castration. In cattle production, we have to perform some painful procedures on the animal that are generally short term and short in duration.