Beef calves react differently to different handlers according to the test situation and their previous interactions with their caretaker

Since birth, twenty-four beef calves received either minimal or extensive contact with one experimenter and were observed in three tests between three and four months of age. In the first test, the calves observed with the familiar motionless experimenter spent less time away from a feeding bucket (5.6 +/- 4.0 s) than when with an unfamiliar experimenter (21.3 +/- 19.5 s) during the first repetition of test (P < 0.01). Differences between experimenters during the second repetition were not significant. The effects of clothes (familiar or unfamiliar) and of the two rearing treatments were also not significant. In the second test, the calves that had received extensive contact with their caretaker during rearing allowed themselves to be touched on the shoulders more quickly (50.4 +/- 52.4 s) when they were eating in the feeding bucket than those which had received minimal contact (89.6 +/- 55.5 s). Animals that had minimal contact during rearing allowed the familiar experimenter to touch their heads more quickly (106.7 +/- 64.1 s) than an unknown experimenter (161.7 +/- 34.6) (P < 0.05). However, the identity of the human did not affect time taken by calves to allow their heads to be touched if they had been reared in extensive contact with a caretaker. No difference was observed between calves when led on to an unfamiliar weighing crate. Cattle, thus, show different reactions to human beings depending on their familiarity with the human, their previous human experience and the properties of the testing conditions for the animal. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.