Profit pressure test for low-stress cattle handling in the feedlot

Glacier FarmMedia – Calmer cattle and better-trained crews could improve everything from animal health to worker safety in the feedlot, according to champions of low stress cattle handling.

Whether that translates to profit gains as well is far less clear.

“There’s a lot of opinion,” said Justin Unrau, who is taking over operations at Rockin U Feeders in McGregor, Man.

Why it Matters: Low-stress cattle handling may make sense in theory, and the philosophy has already been pushed with cow-calf producers, but feedlot operators say the real question is whether it actually pays.

Unrau’s operation already focuses on keeping cattle comfortable and minimizing stress, and he links that to healthier animals and lower losses, even if he doesn’t put exact dollar figures on it.

“I definitely think the handling is a huge part of comfort,” he said.

At the same time, he believes feedlot economics are driven by a long list of harder-to-control factors, including inflation, fuel costs and fixed contract pricing.

Those pressures can easily dwarf any incremental gains from day-to-day management tweaks.

“I think the biggest problem is just the inflation and the uncertainty of everything,” Unrau said.

Less stress, better performance?

Advocates of low-stress handling argue that reducing fear and injury in cattle can improve feed conversion, health and carcass outcomes.

Stress affects how animals use energy, said Michelle Calvo-Lorenzo, chief animal welfare officer with Elanco, a global animal health company that develops products, vaccines and medicines for pets and farm animals.

“If we reduce stress … animals cope with things that happen to them as they move through their feeding phase,” Calvo-Lorenzo said.

She describes cattle as having a limited “energy budget” where stress can divert resources away from immune function and growth.

“So then that’s when we see those metrics of things, like bovine respiratory disease cases, go up,” she said.

Training programs aimed at improving human-animal interactions, facility design and handling consistency have been linked, at least anecdotally, to smoother cattle movement, fewer injuries and even better staff retention, she added.

However, more formal research is still in progress, including work on how handling during shipping affects cattle behaviour later on, Calvo-Lorenzo said.

Feedlot managers say the concept makes sense, but proving a direct financial return is another matter.

Henriette Breedt, a feedlot manager in Alberta, has adopted low-stress handling methods and made small facility changes to help put it in practice, but said it’s difficult to pin performance improvements on any single factor.

“I cannot for sure say now that it’s because of low-stress cattle (handling),” Breedt said.

“We kind of have to rule out the other side.”

That includes overlapping influences such as bedding, feeding, health protocols and overall management.

“It’s a combination of things,” she said.

Tracking the impact is also challenging without controlled trials, Breedt added.

Profit’s not everything

Even without clear proof of higher profits, good handling practices are still worth doing, Unrau said.

Injuries and stress can have longer-term impacts on cattle performance, even if they don’t show up immediately.

“If you have 100 cattle, you chase them across ice and 10 of them fall and get hurt, one might not get better and a few of the others will probably come up with something later on,” he said.

That can translate into poorer gains or lingering health issues.

For many operators, the motivation is as much about animal care and reputation as economics.

“My goal, my main bottom line, is to look after what we get no matter what it is,” Unrau said.

Breedt believes that lower stress can improve immunity and reduce sickness, factors that likely have financial implications, even if they’re hard to quantify.

“If an animal (is) sick, (it) doesn’t eat, doesn’t grow, doesn’t perform,” she noted.

Human benefit

There’s also the worker safety and labour element.

Better training and workplace culture can improve retention and reduce injuries, which is a major concern for feedlots facing ongoing labour shortages, Calvo-Lorenzo said.

Unrau agreed.

“Employees are the only reason any business goes,” he said.

Investing in staff training and engagement can pay off in how animals are handled day to day, Breedt said.

“If you put in effort training and making your crew feel important, then they will actually apply passion … for animal space handling.”