Basic principles of a species appropriate animal breeding

Pre-conditional breeding includes the establishment of species appropriate conditions in different fields:

• physical (livestock management, stable),
• psychic (feeding, exercise),
• and mental (care, attention).

The most important point is the improvement of the conditions for the part of the organism, where the centre of the mental state of the respective species is. This centre can be identified by the animals' organs. The apparatus of humans and mammals can, according to Steiner, be classified in three areas:

• the nerve-sense-organisation (the stress laying on the area of the head),
• the rhythmic organisation (blood circulation/respiration, the stress laying on the area of the chest),
• and the metabolism-extremity-organisation (the stress laying on the lower regions of the organism).

It can be shown, that within most animal species, one of these three areas is especially differentiated and specialised. Regarding cattle, those are the extremities on the one hand and the digestion and metabolic organs on the other hand. Cattle are the ruminants, which are most strongly concentrated on digestion and metabolism. The also highly differentiated extremities manly serve the cattle's digestion and metabolism organisation: Cattle walk to eat. This means that first of all, the cattle feeding needs to be optimised. At the same time, the livestock management and the care need to be improved.

Four important premisses for conditional breeding

1. Even in conditional breeding, selection is required. One premiss is a clearly defined breeding goal. The breeding goals should be oriented on the digestion-metabolism-organisation: The build should be a good base for a good and high digestion activty (e.g. low flank). The milk performance should not be below 5000 l per year, as this points at a high metabolic activity. If a cow's calves should be bred, the animal needs to be at good health over several lactation periods, moreover it needs to be robust and should display a good character.

2. The conditions need to be uniform over several generations, otherwise the animal can not adapt, can not orient and can thus not pass on its experiences. This means that the exterior conditions, keeping, feeding and care, should possibly remain uniform.

3. The purchase of animals should be as low as possible. If animals are purchased, they should come from biodynamic farms with a similar management.

4. The animals' juvenile development may not be enhanced, moreover the animals may not be mated too early (this means at about 2 years).

Reproduction techniques
In biodynamic cattle breeding, the only possibility is natural service as the single nature appropriate way of fertilisation.

Source:
SPENGLER NEFF, A.; RIST, L.; RIST, M. (eds.) (1997). Studien zur biologisch-dynamischen Rindviehzucht. Bericht, Johannes Kreyenbühl Akademie und Arbeitsgruppe Forschung des Vereins für biologisch-dynamische Landwirtschaft, Schweiz; CH-Reinach

Assessment of the constitution of dairy cows according to the occurence of their generic characteristics

In this project, the digestive and metabolic chracteristics as well as the temperament of dairy cows are observed. These observations are put into relation with the liability to disease of the respective animal. Thus it should be assessed if and how the occurrence of the for the animal essential, species specific characteristics are connected with its general constitution.

Methods:
The rumination behaviour, the consistence of the dung, the physic constitution and the temperament of 60 diary cows of one herd was observed on a biodynamic farm in North-East Switzerland. It was aimed, to keep the practical conditions for all cows as equal and good as possible.

Results (selection, as the study is not yet finished):
Rumination behaviour
Primiparous cows ruminate faster and with more maxillary movements per bite than multiparous cows (p<0.05). The cows' milk performance was negatively correlated with the number of maxillary movements per bite (p<0.05). The chewing time per bite was negatively correlated with mastitis incidence (p<0.05).

Temperament
Calm cows displayed lower numbers of somatic cells than nervous cows (p<0.05).

BCS (Body-Condition-Scoring)
The standard deviation of the BCS was positively correlated with the incidences of metabolic diseases, claw disease and fertility problems. The mean of the BCS was positively correlated with the incidence of metabolic diseases (p<0.05).

Preview:
Especially the physic conditions, the rumination cycles and the temperament of the animals should be observed in further diary cow herds and on further farms to confirm the connections, which were so far assessed only on one farm. A next step should be the observation of animals with an especially good constitution (e.g. with a high lifetime performance) in the named characteristics. Moreover the heredity of the observed characteristics should be studied.

Source:
SPENGLER NEFF, A.; SCHNEIDER, C.; SPRANGER, J. (2003). Beurteilung der Konstitution von Milchkühen anhand der Ausprägung ihrer wesentlichen arttypischen Eigenschaften. 7. Wissenschaftstagung Ökologischer Landbau; Wien, 24.-26. Februar 2003; 253-256 fulltext