Early imprinting
Training of young animals during the imprinting period offers an opportunity to permanently mould an animal’s personality, reported veterinarian Robert Miller at the annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Imprinting, a process that creates a visual and tactile bond with a newborn animal, is an age-old concept that has only recently been widely accepted by farmers and ranchers around the world. Traditionally, humans were taught to stay away from newborn animals because it was thought the human scent on a newborn would cause the mother to reject it.
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According to Miller, newborn foals, calves and lambs will create a bond with whatever they see immediately after birth, even an inanimate object. Newborns cannot differentiate among species. Images leave an imprint on the animal’s mind, which leads to more responsiveness to humans and a more docile nature that stays for life.
“The brain is like a computer,” said Miller. “Basically what you are doing during imprint training is programming the animal’s brain, and the changes that result are permanent.”
The key to proper imprint training is not only visual bonding, but a physical handling of the body with repeated motions that will be used in future handling of the animal.
The process also helps with certain responses, such as a foal being taught to respond to head and flank pressure. Miller’s imprinting program consists of three one-hour sessions performed in the first three days of the newborn’s life.
“l didn’t invent this idea,” said Miller. “Certain North American tribes practised imprint training before a foal was even born by talking to the abdomen of the mare and then worked with the foal daily for the first few days after birth.”
There are four major ways that imprint training shapes an animal’s behavior:
- A bond develops with the trainer that lasts for a lifetime.
- The training creates submission to, but not fear of, humans.
- The animal gets used to most frightening events.
- The animal is sensitized to performance-related punishments and rewards.
“Back in the late 1950s, I noticed that when I handled my own foals immediately after birth, they were generally much less fearful of humans and had a more gentle disposition,” said Miller.
“In fact, I noticed that there was a special three-way bond between the mare, foal and myself. It was a complete turn-around from the common belief at the time.”
Miller started to introduce imprinting to his clients in the mid-1960s, although most were hesitant to break with tradition. The catalyst was a video produced in the mid-1980s which featured Miller and the imprinting process.
– American Veterinary Medical
Association news
Gray mould on Alberta pulses
Gray mould, caused by the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea, has become an important disease of dry beans and lentils in southern Alberta. The mould attacks roots of young seedlings causing blight and it can attack stems, leaves and pods of mature plants. Severe losses in seed yield and quality can result.
Surveys conducted from 1993-95 show gray mould is the second most important disease of dry beans, next only to white mould caused by another fungus, sclerotinia.
Gray mould was also found to be the most important disease of lentils in southern Alberta. In 1995, gray mold of dry beans was found in 83 percent of the fields surveyed and the disease was severe in 17 percent of the surveyed fields.
In lentils it was found in all fields surveyed in southern Alberta in 1995, and was severe in 36 percent of fields.
The problem is widespread in the dry bean production area, especially between Grassy Lake and Bow Island, and the lentil production area in the black soil zone, especially between New Dayton and Warner.
The gray mould pathogen can also attack dry peas, safflower and sunflower.
Its dramatic rise may be related to the large increase in the area seeded to these host crops.
To reduce losses from gray mould, producers should use clean seed and grow non-host crops such as cereals in rotation. Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre has started a search for new dry bean cultivars with improved resistance to the disease.
– Agriculture Canada
