bring a calf home, that cow was culled,” says Bohnert. Some progressive producers have
been selecting and culling on fer- tility, mothering ability and tem- perament for a long time, but just haven’t had the data to prove that temperament was an important part of the equation.
Effect on pounds of calf weaned The Oregon study showed that
cattle with aggressive tempera- ment have reduced pregnancy rate and reduced calving rates. “When we looked at the weight of calves weaned per cow in the herd, the ag- gressive cows had reduced amount of weight in terms of calves born,” says Bohnert. This means they had fewer
calves born than the herd average and therefore lower weaning weight in their total calves produced, com- pared to the calm and moderate temperament cows. “This was in our study cattle,
not in cattle that have to calve out in big pastures or on the range. Our cattle spend the spring and summer out, and we bring them in closer to home to calve,” he says. On a big ranch where cattle
might not be gathered but once a year, perhaps an aggressive cow might protect her calf from preda- tors better than some calm cows, but even if the aggressive cow was able to fend off predators, there might be indirect losses because the aggressive temperament cows had lower pregnancy rates. “Now with the work we’ve been
doing here, and a few other groups working with temperament, we’ve shown that those moderate-temper- ament cattle are what we should select for,” he says. They are con- sistently the best performers.
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PORTABLE & STATIONARY SYSTEMS December 2013 The Cattleman 47
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