Cattle responses to handling are probably not only a reaction to human, but also depend on other elements of the situation such as social context, physical environment, and the novelty of the situation. In particular, the social context may be important for cattle, which, in common with other species of domestic ungulates, are very gregarious. As handling can be stressful for farm animals, it can be hypothesised that social partners modify individual responses to handling. The present study investigated the effect of the presence or absence of social partners on behavioural reactions of beef calves in a handling test. At the age of 10 months, 38 calves from two breeds (Salers and Limousine) were individually subjected to the docility test (reactions to handling), once while in visual contact with four familiar peers, and once in the absence of peers. The docility test procedure included physical separation from peers (30 s; period 1), exposition to a stationary human (30 s; period 2), and handling by human (30 s to 2.5 min, according to the success in handling; period 3). In absence of human (period 1), calves in visual contact with their peers spent more time motionless than when peers were totally absent. The social environment also influenced the duration of handling (period 3); the human required more time to successfully handle calves when peers were present. In conclusion, the results of this study show that the presence of peers affects individual calves’ reactions to docility test.