Can a cow’s eating habits reveal insights into its health? Researchers at Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine believe so. Led by Hans Coetzee, interim vice president of research, and Eduarda Bortoluzzi, assistant professor of animal welfare, the team is developing a Bovine Rate of Consumption Index (BROCI) to assess pain and heat stress in cattle.
The project is one of 37 initiatives funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which has invested $17.6 million to advance research on animal health and welfare. Of this, $4.8 million supports 10 projects, including Kansas State’s, under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s “Welfare of Agricultural Animals” program.
Using precision feed intake measuring technology developed by ranchers, the Kansas State team aims to validate BROCI as an objective indicator of animal welfare. Preliminary findings show that high temperatures negatively impact feed intake, milk production, weight gain, and fertility while increasing cases of lameness.
By correlating BROCI with pain and heat stress, the researchers hope to create a reliable tool for on-farm welfare assessments, heat mitigation strategies, and pain management protocols. The project is being conducted in collaboration with Irvine Ranch, a Manhattan, Kansas-based cattle producer that has developed the Bovabytes system, a patented technology for improving beef genetics.
The study focuses on three key objectives:
- Optimizing and validating BROCI to measure pain and evaluate pain relief after surgical castration.
- Comparing different castration methods and pain management strategies to assess their impact on feeding behavior.
- Using BROCI to evaluate how heat stress affects beef calf welfare.
By developing an automated, noninvasive method to monitor cattle well-being, this research addresses a critical need in livestock management. The findings could lead to improved practices for reducing stress and enhancing the overall health of cattle.
