SOCIAL-BEHAVIOR IN DOMESTIC BEEF-CATTLE WHEN YEARLING CALVES ARE LEFT WITH THE COWS FOR THE NEXT CALVING

The present paper describes the changes in the social behaviour of 11 Salers cows with their yearlings when the following calving occurs. The presence of the yearling did not alter the establishment of the maternal bond with the newborn calf: all cows suckled their newborn calves and had more licks and other non-agonistic contacts with them than with any other animals. However, the preferential relationship that linked the dam to her previous calf was not broken: after calving, they still had more contacts and stayed closer to each other than unrelated cows and yearlings did. Moreover, the dam spent more time near her yearling than near her newborn calf, probably because of the similarity in general activities with the former. Calving did not strengthen bonds between yearlings as complete weaning has been reported to do. © 1990.