Why stress-free stock handling is key to boosting profit

Travelling significant distances is an inevitability for cattle produced in northern WA, as feedlots, processors and backgrounding properties can be more than 1,000km from where they were bred.

When unprepared, the change in climate and feed, as well as shock from travel, can cause a lag in growth and weight loss in cattle.

For producers like Sean D’Arcy from the Gascoyne region, it’s taken years of work to ensure this doesn’t negatively impact productivity and profitability.

“Pretty much everything which goes for sale up here goes down to the Perth area – to live export, abattoirs and feedlots,” Sean said.

Over the past decade, Sean has implemented strategies to prepare his stock for transporting and reduce shrinkage i.e. liveweight loss resulting in less profit for producers.

“We use stress-free stock handling methods to de-stress the cattle and make sure they’re completely relaxed when they get to the other end,” he said.

In 10 years, shrinkage for Sean’s business – caused by transportation stress – has reduced from more than 5% to zero.

“We’ve found that if we rehydrate the cattle down the other end and weigh them the next day, the figures are the same as when they left.”

Slow and steady

While Sean has successfully reduced shrinkage in his cattle, there were no shortcuts to the end goal.

“It takes time for the de-stressing to flow right through your herd, because of epigenetics,” he said.

Epigenetics refers to factors like diet, activity and stress level impacting the health of descendants.

“Some of the effect is generational, so if you’ve been handling your cattle badly, it’s going to take a few generations to get that baseload level of anxiety out of them.”

It can take years to slow the effects of high-stress stock handling due to epigenetics. Image: Agrishots.

Something for the senses

Many of the approaches Sean has implemented on-property were learned from Bruce Maynard of Stress Free Stockmanship. These techniques delve beyond low-stress stock handling to incorporate behavioural, swarm theory and animal training research.

“Another strategy is to introduce assimilation techniques, so everything at the other end is familiar to the animals as well.

“Having the familiar sights, sounds and smell at both ends means they’re putting weight back on straight away when they arrive, and they don’t lose any productivity.”

Get the gear

Part of identifying progress – or a lack thereof – is having the data on hand.

While producers on large stations often go months without seeing their cattle, monitoring weights is key to seeing what is or isn’t working.

“That was a problem for us, but now we have the right equipment, good weighing gear and a crush up on scales,” Sean said.

“We weigh the cattle just before transport and then at the end of the journey at the backgrounding property. If we sell them, we get the sale weights.”