Using contact logging devices to explore animal affiliations : quantifying cow–calf interactions

Understanding animal affiliations has important implications for determining social interactions; an example is maternal interactions within beef production systems. The objective of this study was to test whether contact loggers could be used to identify cow–calf pairs. Fifty-two pairs of Belmont Red cows with calves that were between 1- and 14-days old, were fitted with contact logging devices for 1 week in groups ranging in size from five to nine pairs of cows and calves. The contact logging devices recorded the duration of contacts that were less than 7 m distance between individual animals in the group. There was a highly significant difference in both contact duration and contact frequency between cows and their own calves and cows and all other calves. It is concluded that contact logging devices have the potential to provide useful data on animal affiliations.