Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin's Livestock Behavior, Desin of Facilities and Human Slaughter website contains biographical information and Temple Grandin's Ph.D  professional resume. The website also contains articles, pictures, diagrams, guidelines, surveys, translations and rituals on livestock subjects, There is listings of books and videos and information on designing animal handling facilities, animal behavior, animal welfare and rights, and humane slaughter.

Facilities Temple Grandin has designed are located in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants. Curved chute and race systems she has designed for cattle are used worldwide. Temple Grandin's writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many to reduce stress on their animals during handling.

She has also developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants. This scoring system is being used by many large corporations to improve animal welfare. Other areas of research are: cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, horse perception of novel objects, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants.

https://www.grandin.com/temple.html

Center Track Restrainer System:

Within the book Resued by a Cow and a Squeeze there is a description along with a photograph of the center track restrainer system. This is an invention for which Temple Grandin received the most acclaim. It is used to reduce the stress when moving the animal. 

Carpenter, M. (2003). Rescued by a cow and a squeeze : temple grandin. PublishAmerica. 

Curved Shutes and Race Systems:

In the article Cattle Handling Sytems and Layout of Cattle Corrals and Races Temple Grandin offers practical tips with diagrams and photographs on why some handling systems work better than others. 

Figure 1. A well designed round crowd pen takes advantage of the tendency of cattle to go back in the direction they came from.

Grandin, T. (September,1998). Cattle handling systems and layout of cattle corrals and races, Beef, pp. 50-52. https://www.grandin.com/inc/cattlecorrals.html 

Flight Zone:

Temple Grandin's article Understanding Flight Zone and Point of Balance For Low Stress Handling of Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs discusses the flight zone with diagrams and photographs.

Grandin, T. (Updated May, 2019) Understanding flight zone and point of balance for low stress handling of cattle, sheep and pigs, https://www.grandin.com/behaviour/principles/flight.zone.html.

Principle of Grazing Animal Behavior:

Temple Grandin, Jennifer Lanier and Mark Deesings discusses grazing animal behavior with pictures and diagrams in the article Low Stress Methods for Moving and Herding Cattle on Pastures, Paddocks, and large Feedlot Pens.

Grandin.T, Lanier. J, Deesing. M. (Updated May 2019) Low Stress Methods for Moving and Herding Cattle on Pastures, Paddocks, and large Feedlot Pens, https://www.grandin.com/B.Williams.html

Scoring Systems to Improve Animal Welfare:

In the article Auditing and Scoring of Vocalization of Cattle and Pigs at Slaughter Plants as an Indicator of Poor Practices that are Detrimental to Animal Welfare Temple Grandin discusses the scoring and auditing of vocalization of cows (moos and bellows ) and pigs (squealing).

Grandin, T. (Updated February 2020) Auditing and Scoring of Vocalization of Cattle and Pigs at Slaughter Plants as an Indicator of Poor Practices that are Detrimental to Animal Welfare, https://www.grandin.com/auditing.scoring.poor.practices.html.

Cattle Tempermant:

In Temple Grandin's and Mark Deesings chapter on Genetics and Behavior during Handling, Restraint, and Herding they discuss cattle temperment with pictures and diagrams.

Grandin, T., Deesing, M. (2013) Genetics and Behavior During Handling, Restraint, and Herding, https://www.grandin.com/references/cattle.during.handling.html.

See also:

Grandin, T., & Deesing, M. (Eds.). (2013). Genetics and the behavior of domestic animals (2nd ed.), Chapter 4, Genetics and Behavior During Handling. Restraint, and Herding. Academic Press.

Environmental Enrichment for Pigs:

Temple Grandin's article Environmental Enrichment for Confinement Pigs presents a series of experiments conducted at the University of Illinois by Temple Grandin, Stan Curtis, and Ian Taylor to learn more about the effects of environmental stimulation on pig behavior. Their conclusion was that through the development of simple economical environmental enrichment procedures they can improve animal welfare and possibly improve meat quality by calming down excitable pigs.

Grandin, T. 1988. Environmental enrichment for confinement pigs. pp 119 - 123, Livestock Handling Committee Proceedings of the 1988 Annual Meeting, Kansas City, Missouri.

Reducing Dark Cutters:

Cuases and prevention of dark cutters are listed at: https://www.grandin.com/meat/dkcut.html.

https://www.grandin.com/meat/dkcut.html

Reducing Bruises:

Preventing injuries and bruises on cattle, pigs, and sheep is discussed at: https://www.grandin.com/behaviour/principles/preventing.html, (Updated January 2011.)

https://www.grandin.com/behaviour/principles/preventing.html

Bull Fertility:

Bull fertility is discussed in the Quality of Spermatozoal Morphology in Angus Yearling Bulls may be related to Hair Whorl Shape - Hair Whorls and Bull Fertility article written by M. Meola, T. Grandin, P. D. Burns, R. G. Mortimer.

https://www.grandin.com/references/bull.hairwhorl.html 

Meola, M., Grandin, T., Burns, P. D., and Mortimer R. G., (2002). Quality of Spermatozoal Morphology in Angus Yearling Bulls may be related to Hair Whorl Shape - Hair Whorls and Bull Fertility, pp. 124 - 126, Proceedings, Western Section, American Society of Animal Science.

Training Procedures:

Teaching Principle of Behavior and Equipment Design of Handling Livestock describes a course in which students are taught principles of livestock behavior and how an understanding of behavior can facilitate handling. Some of the principles that are covered in the course are livestock senses, flight zone, herd behavior during handing, and methods to reduce stress during handling. To teach problem solving and original thinking, the students design three different types of handling facilities. Design of restraint equipment and humane slaughter procedures are also covered. Both existing systems and ideas for future systems are discussed. Students are provided with information from both scientific studies and practical experience. Educating undergraduate students in the behavioral principles of animal handling will help produce leaders in the livestock industry who recognize both the ethical and the productivity benefits of good animal handling and restraint practices.

https://www.grandin.com/behaviour/principles/teach.html

Grandin, T. (1993). Teaching Principles of Behavior and Equipment Design of Handling Livestock, Journal of Animal Science, pp. 1065 - 1070. https://www.grandin.com/behaviour/principles/teach.html.

Horse Perception of Novel Objects:

In the article "Acclimate, Don't Agitate": Cattle and horses with excitable temperaments must be introduced gradually to new experiences Temple Grandin discusses that for both horses and cattle it's important that their first experiences with something new be good.

Grandin, T. (June 1999). "Acclimate, Don't Agitate": Cattle and horses with excitable temperaments must be introduced gradually to new experiences, Beef, pp.14 - 16.

https://www.grandin.com/references/acclimate.cattle.horses.html

Effective Stunning Methods for Cattle and Pigs at Meat Plants:

Temple Grandin's 1999 Audits of Stunning and Handling in Federally Inspected Beef and Pork Plants shows that handling and stunning of animals has improved..

https://www.grandin.com/survey/99.audits.beef.pork.html

Grandin, T. (February 8 - 9, 2000). 1999 Audits of Stunning and Handling in Federally Inspected Beef and Pork Plants, 2000 Conference on Animal Handling and Stunning.

Temple Grandin iis known throughout the country for her work designing humane animal handling systems in livestock facilities. Her new book is called "Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior." Temple Grandin is autistic and believes that there are many similarities between certain ways animal think and respond and the way people with autism do. In her 1995 book "Thinking in Pictures," she described how her inner-autistic world led her to develop an empathy for how animals cope. Terry Gross interviews Temple Grandin in this Fresh Air program.

Gross, T, Grandin, T (2005) Temple Grandin: a key to animal behavior Audiobook on CD Naional Public Radio.

Transcript at: https://freshairarchive.org/segments/temple-grandin-key-animal-behavior