Crawford County 4-H Dairy Skills
16 year old
Dairy Cattle Body Language
Every animal has its own form of body language. When we don’t feel well, it quickly
becomes apparent to our friends and family without saying a word. How we posture ourselves,
our interest in activities and responses to stimulation all reflect upon the human condition. Like
us, dairy cattle can tell a lot about themselves and their condition through body language.
Those that manage and take care of dairy cattle must be good students of animal behavior and
be intuitive in order to properly read and respond to the signals animals give us to various
conditions.
If your 4-H project goes off feed, your response is to investigate further. You may take
your project’s temperature and look for other symptoms of illness, such as rapid breathing.
You may examine her feed and check for spoilage that may make it unpalatable. You may want
to check her water supply to see if it is clean and adequate.
Bellowing is not unusual behavior in cattle, but when it occurs, one must consider the
circumstances. Is the animal in heat? Is she without feed and water? Is there something more
serious wrong?
Standing in the gutter or not using a stall or free stalls is frequently a barometer of cow
comfort. Stall size may not be inadequate, there could be other reasons. Maybe the neck rail is
too low or the front of the stall is too restrictive to allow adequate lunge room. If only one
animal is showing this symptom it could be a sign of abdominal pain.
Cold ears, muscle twitching, and being down or having difficulty getting up may suggest
some serious health problems. If such symptoms occur at or around the time of calving,
chances are the cow is showing signs of milk fever. Milk fever is a serious condition that may
occur at or near the time of calving and is the result of low blood calcium levels. Calcium is
necessary for proper muscle function. Cattle demonstrating signs of milk fever require prompt
treatment to avoid loss of life.
Sunken eyes usually indicate a condition of dehydration exists. Its presence indicates an
animal is not feeling well and has lost considerable body fluid from disease and lack of fluid
intake.
Rough hair coat can be the result of a number of conditions including cold
temperatures, poor nutrition, lice and intestinal worms.
Constant ear flickering and tail switching along with head throwing is most frequently
associated with biting insects during the summer months.
Milk with flakes and clots is considered abnormal. Its presence indicates a condition in a
cow’s udder called mastitis. Mastitis usually occurs one quarter at a time and is most often
caused by a bacterial infection or by injury. Severe cases of mastitis cause the infected quarter
to swell and be tender to the touch. Cow’s with such cases of mastitis frequently objects to
normal stimulation at milking and frequently kick, acts restless and have no milk let down.
Nasal discharge, accompanied by coughing is a good indicator of respiratory disease.
Such symptom can be demonstrated when moldy hay is fed and mold spores are inhaled. They
can also be seen when viral or bacterial pneumonia exists. Under these conditions, infected
animals frequently breathe rapidly in addition to coughing and the presence of a heavy,
sometimes white nasal discharge.
Cattle standing with their back arched and reluctant to walk often have abdominal pain
(bellyache). This may be a symptom of hardware disease, over eating grain or perhaps a
twisted stomach. In addition, cattle with laminitis (sore feet) often demonstrate similar
behavior.
A cow or heifer that demonstrates head pressing with a herd mate and/or stands to be
mounted by a herd mate is most likely in heat. The intensity and frequency of such behavior
varies depending on age, stage of lactation, and nutritional status. Not all cows demonstrate
good visible signs of heat when they are in heat.
Questions:
1. Tail switching, ear flickering, and head throwing are behaviors frequently associated
with _______________________ during the summer months.
2. Cattle are social creatures. When a cow becomes separated from her calf or heifer
becomes separated from her herd mates, what kind of behavior might you expect?
________________________________________
3. Hardware disease can be discovered by a cow showing what symptom?
_____________________________________________________________________
4. What do sunken eyes indicate? ___________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________