Cattle form strong social bonds with herd mates. Disruption of these bonds through regrouping, sales, and transport causes significant distress that is often underestimated.
Cattle are social animals with cognitive capacities that allow them to form individual relationships with specific herd mates. These relationships matter to them in ways we are only beginning to understand through behavioural and physiological research. The commercial practice of regular regrouping — mixing unfamiliar cattle at weaning, housing, and before sale — repeatedly disrupts these bonds and causes both acute distress and chronic social instability. The welfare-positive approach maintains stable social groups throughout production, avoids unnecessary mixing, and minimises the frequency and duration of disruption when it is unavoidable.