The focus of this chapter will be on the concept of reinforcement and how it is different from punishment. It also includes more examples from wild animals under the management of humans. Horses and calves are also featured, and clicker training will be briefly described, as it is based on the...

The assessment of welfare cannot always be totally objective. What level of physiological stress is acceptable? How hungry or thirsty can an animal become before the condition is not acceptable? Degrees of hunger, dehydration and other stresses can be assessed with objective biochemical or other...

Dairy cattle are handled intensively, especially when compared to other livestock production systems. The task of milking involves daily human interaction in varied measures dependent upon parlour design. The relationship between the stockperson and the cow is important. Calm handling should be...

This chapter discussed the two types of cattle production systems namely beef production and milk production. Topics under beef cattle farming focused on rangeland and cattle production, pastoral nomadism, suckled calf production, and finishing stored cattle, finising dairy cows, mixed...

In this chapter the factors affecting the growth of calves and milk production in dairy cows were discussed.

The different aspects that affect the welfare of cattle in feedlots are described, including mud and manure, heat and cold stress, lameness, bovine respiratory disease (BRD), Mycoplasma bovis, liver abscesses, other internal lesions and preconditioning to prevent these health problems. Handling,...

Captivity often restricts animals' abilities to perform natural behaviour and explore novel stimuli. Here, we review how this constraint affects psychological welfare by preventing the meeting of motivations. One means by which this happens is through frustrating specific motivations pertaining to...

This chapter describes the housing and environment for both beef and dairy cattle. It is established that different classes of cattle have different requirements for space, light and other resources and it is important that stock people understand the needs of animals within their care. Extremes of ...

This chapter considers how animals can (and historically have been) protected with limited or even no public resource, and indeed with limited or no animal protection laws. Given emphasis are cruelty (a positive act to deliberately cause unnecessary suffering of an animal) and negligence (an action ...

An overview of the essential aspects of cattle health and specific practical biosecurity (internal and external) measures for dairy, beef and veal calf farms was highlighted in this chapter.