Mother-offspring bonding revisited: a blueprint for the future of beef cattle farming

Abstract

This review summarizes the status of the art of cow-calf relationships at birth and during lactation, including the physiological mechanisms throughout suckling/nursing and weaning which can impact on productive and reproductive parameters, social behaviour across the mother-offspring pairs, and the required positive cow-calf welfare approach in beef cattle. The time spent close to the calf after birth, latency to nurse, nursing time, grooming and vocalisations can be considered fair proxies of oxytocin release and maternal care during the neonatal period. Besides, maternal contact during the first days after parturition will be crucial to guarantee the adequate establishment of mother-offspring bonding and the correct social and emotional development of young calf in beef cattle. During lactation, restricted nursing systems have been demonstrated as cost-effective management alternatives to improve reproductive herd performance. As artificial weaning of calves is considered a significant stressor in the lives of beef cattle, the use of a fence-line or the two-step weaning have been proposed, although no clear benefits in reducing cow-calf distress have been found. Modelling the perspective from a productive to a welfare approach in a beef cattle system is required. The ability of cows and calves to engage in voluntary, self-generated and goal-directed behaviour must be considered in the design of tailored management practices that maintain the trade-off between animal performance, cow-calf interactions, and positive mental state. Likewise, social interactions may be considered as part of environmental optimization to provide cow-calf pairs with opportunities for positive experiences and improve cattle welfare. The Five Domains Model is proposed to develop welfare-orientated management strategies considering aspects such as maternal deprivation, behavioural stress and socio-emotional development in beef cattle. This holistic approach of mother-offspring bonding focused on nutrition (Domain 1), physical environment (Domain 2), health (Domain 3), behavioural interactions (Domain 4) and animal’s mental state (Domain 5) will help to improve management decisions and cow-calf welfare state. Some management recommendations and opportunities for future studies to deeply enlarge the welfare perspective in the dyad are discussed.