Livestock cognition: stimulating the minds of farm animals to improve welfare and productivity

Animal cognition is a branch of psychology that has not traditionally been considered extensively on farms. It is defined as: ‘all ways in which animals take in information through the senses, process, retain and decide to act on it’ (Shettleworth, 2001: p.277). There is a suggestion that domestication could have led to decreased cognitive abilities in livestock because of reduced brain sizes (Briefer et al, 2014), especially because the domestic environment does not offer the same dynamic environment found in the wild. However, intelligence in animals is difficult to directly observe (Pearce, 2008), and it can be perceived that livestock species are not as complex as other species under human care, perhaps because of how we view their purpose. For example, research from a college in the United States of America as recently as 2005 showed that some veterinary students believed that dogs and cats have more complex cognitive capabilities than livestock species (Levine et al, 2005). This perception may have altered in recent times, but it highlights how production animals have been perceived differently to companion animals in terms of their capabilities. However, it is now known that stimulating the minds of farm animals is an important welfare consideration, and suitable environmental enrichment should be provided to stimulate a positive behavioural response that directly relates to their cognitive capabilities (for review see Bolt and George, 2019). This review summarises the literature on farm animal cognition and provides an overview of specific methods of providing cognitive stimuli for pigs, cattle, sheep and goats, with the goal of minimising stress, promoting positive welfare and increasing productivity through such practices.