Sometimes the simple solution is the best. For most livestock producers in the state, fall is weaning time for calves which is a stressful but necessary event for livestock.

Now, the only essential oils I’m into are the ones that run out of a taco, and I’m no proponent of the many fluffy stress reduction methods touted by influencer types. However, a Texas-based veterinarian has bottled the pheromones that create a sense of calm and belonging in cattle, and I’m all in. Despite the opposing narrative, livestock producers aren’t only interested in reducing stress in cattle to increase their bottom line, but livestock producers truly care about the wellbeing of the livestock in their care.

While in veterinary school in Brazil, Dr. Rodrigo Bicalho completed an externship in the U.S. and became intrigued by the American dairy industry. He and his wife, Dr. Marcela Bicalho, also a veterinarian, moved to the U.S. from Brazil. He began as a field veterinarian within his beloved dairy industry and then earned his PhD. He served as a professor at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine Department of Diagnostic Sciences while conducting research — some of it in partnership with Colorado State University — on topics such as intrauterine administration of bacteriophage and the resulting effects on uterine health and fertility of dairy cows. Bicalho, his DVM and PhD in hand, spent 13 years at Cornell, publishing well more than 120 white papers related to cattle health, microbiology and infectious disease.

Four years ago, he and his wife created a line of diagnostic tests and other technologies created and licensed while at Cornell. The couple took a leap of faith and relocated their family to College Station, Texas, left academia, and grew their existing business about 200-fold. During that time, he also figured how to bottle the stress-fighting phenomenon of a mother cow.

FerAppease is a synthetic analog of bovine maternal appeasing substance (mBAS), the chemical substance released by an animal that influences the behavior of another animal of the same type and kind.

Initially, the science came about nearly 40 years ago when Dr. John McGlone, a professor at Texas Tech University hypothesized nursing piglets were calm while nursing as a result of a pheromone present on the skin of the lactating sows. In a simple trial, he gathered a group of lactating sows and removed their piglets. On half the sows, he thoroughly washed and cleaned the skin of the mammary glands. When he returned the piglets, the ones returned to a soap-and-water-washed buffet were, as Bicalho said, mad as hell. They didn’t want to nurse, they were upset, and they were fighting. The pheromones present on the unwashed sows resulted in content and nursing piglets, proving maternal pheromones exist and affect the behavior of animals. More trials followed and pheromones began being used in companion animals in a Glade Plug In-type product that emits maternal pheromones to calm cats.

Eventually, Bicalho began focusing on creating a product for livestock and the multiple settings in which it can be used across livestock production has ballooned and had a significant effect on livestock health. Bicalho himself was initially skeptical, but as the studies rolled in, he realized it’s viability. It has since become a near revolution among cattle producers who are using it in multiple ways.

In embryo transfer work, using FerAppease resulted in higher numbers of embryos and higher pregnancy rates. In fresh weaned calves, it has resulted in lower stress and anxiety and less time between weaning and the calves bellying up to the bunk and water tank. Bulls treated before comingling don’t fight, which is a miracle in itself. Fewer treated dairy cows are retaining their placentas or combatting mastitis, which are the two major challenges in dairy females. In cattle on feed, steers are eating more, gaining more weight, their carcasses are more heavily marbled, and in all, treated steers are bringing in $60 more per head than untreated in tests conducted by Texas Tech.

The bottom line from my perspective is animal welfare and profitability don’t exist apart from one another. They haven’t for generations. Animal rights activists raise alarms about welfare and reducing stress. Livestock producers are doing what they are able to reduce stress and anxiety and not because it translates to profit. They’re doing what is right because that’s what they do and something as simple as pheromones is making it even easier. If Bicalho could add something to the applicator that produces the same anxiety-fighting effects in the person applying the substance (it’s me — I’m wielding the applicator) I would be grateful. He told me it doesn’t work that way, but I’m holding out hope.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.