Futurity Shorthorns are amongst Shorthorn breeders who have begun collecting temperament phenotypes to be used for the development of a Shorthorn Docility EBV.
Shorthorns have always enjoyed an excellent reputation for temperament, however with the ageing farming population and ever-rising costs, maintaining that reputation has never been more important.
Collecting data is best done at weaning before too much handling has impacted on the animals natural temperament. The process is recorded on farm and by the breeder and requires no extra equipment and there is no cost involved.
Whilst some may see it as just one more trait for breeders to measure, few traits have a greater impact on the profitability of breeders, feedlotters and processors. As a single trait measurement it is also one of the easiest traits to measure and report and it has similar heritability to growth traits in cattle.
Cattle are given a score from 1 to 5 with 1 being docile and 5 being aggressive.
A detailed understanding of how to measure temperament is available in the following link. Breeders should download these descriptions before they begin taking scores.
-Shorthorn Beef