Whorl position and cow personality

[littlecowfl]

I studied animal science when Dr. Temple Grandin was still teaching at CSU back in the mid-90s. For those that have never heard of her, she is autistic and a genius when it comes to understanding animal behavior. I highly recommend her books. They can be a little dry but she covers, not only her own work in understanding animal behavior, but the work of many others as well. Amazing woman! I learned a lot about cattle from her.

So, what do you think of her study on whorl position and cow personality? Is it true in your herd? She didn't look at Dexters, specifically. She used feedlot cattle for her study.

Here is the abstract from the article:

www.grandin.com/references/abstract.html

Basically, she noted that cattle with hair whorls positioned higher on their heads (between the eyes or above) were more excitable than cattle with lower whorl positions.

[legendrockranch]

Very interesting, I have read articles about the hair on a bulls head, nothing about the hair whorls on a cow. I'll have to check out my girls tonight.

I think Temple Grandin is a genius with animals. Last February when the TV movie about her aired, I suggested to the folks on this board to watch it.

Thanks for the link.

Barb

[dexterfan]

Interesting article, but not true with our herd sire bull. He is curly up high on his head and he's the most laid back dexter we own (and we have 4 heifers and we had 4 steers til two weeks ago).

Our bull is so laid back it's a household joke you have to wake him up to eat. His personality is a lover not a fighter or flighter. Calm and mellow.

We have had him at vet's for a checkup and he was run through the chute. At the end, he stood perfectly calm for vet to remove some very strategically placed cockle burrs. (ouch).

It will be interesting to hear others' experience with whorls.

Say, Barb, share what you've heard about curly tops. Made me smile.

[dexterfan]

Now that I've read Barb's post, I better double check our bull has whorls rather than just curly hair. Will double check and get back on that.

[dexterfan]

Ok. I checked whorl position on our laid back bull. He actually has 2 whorls. The biggest one is high on his head, right below his top knot. He does have a very small whorl right above his nose. Hmmmm. That complicates things. Haha. Who knows. I hope it doesn't mean we have a schizophrenic bull on our hands! (actually, he's anything but that!)

But it would be interesting to hear others' opinions.

[legendrockranch]

Sorry for the late response. Our neighbor had a cow delivery problem.

Here are a few links to Gerald Fryes website:

Bovine Engineering homepage:
www.bovineengineering.com/index.html

Link to article about bulls head hair & fertility:
www.bovineengineering.com/NL_fertile_bull.html

Here is a link to his archive articles:
www.bovineengineering.com/NL_fertile_bull.html

Mr. Frye was a spokesman at one of our AGMs several years back.
As with anything written, this is his opinion.

Barb