The effect of shade on cow behaviour and calf survival on the Barkly Tableland, Northern Territory

Dr. Kieren McCosker will present his seminar The effect of shade on cow behaviour and calf survival on the Barkly Tableland, Northern Territory on Tuesday 22 November 2022 between 12:00 – 1:00pm via Zoom.

ABSTRACT 

Grazing conditions for many beef herds in northern Australia are harsh, consisting of large distances between water points, high temperatures and humidity during summer months, and substantial areas of relatively treeless grasslands. In regions with largely open grazing plains, such as the Barkly Tableland, grazing animals can be exposed to heat stress events that elsewhere have adversely affected production. The provision of artificial shade has been shown to mitigate some production impacts from heat stress (da Silva et al 2019). This paper presents preliminary results from the ‘Reducing calf loss from exposure study’, comparing the reproductive performance of two groups of Wagyu with and without shade, with replication achieved by repeating the study over 3 years.

PROFILE

Kieren’s research interests extent across many aspects of the northern Australia beef production system with him currently leading the the MLA funded ‘Reducing calf mortality from exposure’ study as well is collaborating on several other beef production focused studies, including ‘Paddock Power’, ‘Sweet Spot’ and ‘CalfAlive. Embedded within some of these is employing GPS sensors and other remote technology to gain further understanding of animal production and grazing behaviour. He also has been a key collaborator in several Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research funded studies aiming to improving the reproductive performance of cows and performance of fattening cattle in low input systems of Indonesia.