Movement orders in spontaneous group movements in cattle: 6-year monitoring of a beef cow herd with changing composition

Abstract

Few studies have investigated group movements of domestic ungulates in farming conditions where the groups are subjected to repeated composition changes across years. We stocked a beef cow herd (23–34 cows; some with a calf) maintained in a farm in a grazing plot comprising two subplots, and monitored inter-subplot movements of cows on 39 days for 6 years. Movements of the entire cow herd, pooled over the two directions, occurred 4–23 times daily. Time required for individual movements ranged from < 1 to 34 min, with nearly 90% of the movements being completed within 10 min. Daily movement orders of cows were consistent (Kendall’s W = 0.13–0.36, P < 0.05) on 34 days out of the 39, with some cows appearing in the first three (front) or last three (rear) positions more frequently than the chance (binomial P < 0.05). The front- and rear-positioned cows did not differ (P ≥ 0.05) in age, body weight, years from the first introduction into the herd, days from the last calving, days in pregnancy, or proportion of days with a calf. More studies are needed to understand the factors affecting leadership to use this trait for management of herd movements.