Hidden sickness, hidden cost
They’re easy to spot….except the ones that aren’t. There are times you wonder, “Is he moving a little slow today? Nah, I guess not.” Think about that runny nose when you debated if you should treat the calf.
But unless they’re really sick, it’s probably no big deal, right?
Wrong.
Myth: Cattle have to show dramatic outward signs of sickness for it to impact performance and quality later on.
Fact: Many cattle go untreated at the home ranch or in the feedyard, and that matters to everything from daily gain and carcass weight to marbling scores.
Harvest records on more than 62,000 records from Iowa’s Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity show that about 5% had lung adhesions. That indicates some type of respiratory challenge at some point during their life.
Of that subset only one-third of the cattle (1,042) were treated in the feedyard.
What about the other two-thirds? They were sick but apparently not sick enough. They didn’t get caught and treated, but they still suffered with reduced performance and carcass quality.
Here are all the numbers:
- Cattle that were never visibly sick and had no adhesions were heavier at harvest (1,185 lb. compared to 1,167 those with lung adhesions but never treated) and took fewer days to get there (165 days on feed vs. 170).
- The non-treated, healthy cattle had the lowest cost of gain and the highest carcass weights.
- The non-treated, no adhesion cattle reached 68.4% USDA Choice and above, compared to just under 63% for those non-treated cattle with adhesions. That dropped to 53.8% for the cattle that had adhesions and received treatment. Even more dramatic was the drop in Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand acceptance from 17.8% to 7.6%.
The stats (weight, average daily gain, dressing percent, etc.) are all stacked against those sick calves, regardless of treatment.
TCSCF manger Darrell Busby sums it up: “That all adds up. Lung adhesions are pretty costly to the industry.”
May your bottom line be filled with black ink,
Miranda
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