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Tag: Post Weaning

Control stocker risk with management

 

by Miranda Reiman

Backgrounding may seem simple: Buy calves right, feed them well, keep them healthy and sell them for more.

But all the details behind that list prove how difficult the job can be, as noted during the recent “Backgrounding for Quality” field day at White Brothers Cattle Co., near Chickasha, Okla.

At the seminar, co-sponsored by Oklahoma State University (OSU), Pfizer Animal Health and Certified Angus Beef ®, local veterinarian Bruss Horn emphasized that good management starts with the buy.

“You can purchase your cattle at a salebarn, you can purchase them on a video but you have to know what you’re getting,” he said, noting that he considers most salebarn cattle “high risk.”

Previous history and management give a producer clues as to how to handle them upon arrival—a step that requires advanced planning.

“Be ready to go,” he suggested, citing equipment, labor and planned operating procedures.

“Are you going to process them right off the truck or are you going to let them rest?” Horn asked. Local calves are less likely to benefit from a break than long-distance arrivals, where the plan might be, “I am going to give them some good clean hay and water and they are going to lie down and rest before we process them the next day.”

He said using preventative antibiotics on high-risk cattle—co-mingled groups, those with no history or known problems—helps maintain health. That’s in tandem with a good vaccination program on all cattle. At Horn’s practice, it’s common to give shots for blackleg, BVD (bovine viral diarrhea) and IBR (infectious bovine rhinotracheitis).

“I am a big proponent of modified-live vaccines. I just think you’ll get a whole lot better response with them,” he said.

They also “double deworm” cattle at receiving, using an injectable and an oral dose at the same time.

Horn brought up other best management practices, like dehorning, castrating any bull calves and testing for persistently infected (PI) BVD cattle.

“So, it’s time to turn them out—the herd health does not stop there,” he said. “You know there is a difference between vaccination and immunization. Vaccination is getting a shot and immunization is if it worked.”

Free-choice trace minerals, including iron and copper, can help that response.

“You have got to have them on a good plane of nutrition,” Horn said.

OSU professor Gerald Horn, ironically no relation to the Dr. Horn who preceded his own talk, covered all things on that front.

 

“Sustained corn prices will result in a paradigm shift, accentuating the importance of growing those cattle to heavier weights on grass before bringing them forward,” said the animal scientist.

He shared research that included both fall and spring calves that were either weaned directly into a feedyard or grown on grass or wheat pasture first.

As expected, the yearlings had worse feed-to-gain ratios (6.83 vs. 5.44 lb.), but heavier hot carcass weights. The average daily gains (ADG) were similar, calves at 3.63 lb. and 3.81 lb. for yearlings.

“We all know that the growth potential of our cattle has increased over quite a few years and I think that’s the primary explanation for that,” he said.

Turning cattle into yearlings did not hurt quality grade.

“That is different than some of the data recorded up in the northern Great Plains,” he noted.

Mostly that’s due to high-quality forage—full of protein and energy—or supplementation.

“For long feeding programs in Oklahoma, supplementation programs have been an absolute game changer,” he said.

Talking about the development of fat deposits during grazing, Horn said there is a strong, positive relationship between marbling and ADG, indicating that adding pounds and quality are mutually beneficial.

Veterinarian Mike Nichols, of Pfizer Animal Health, reminded stockers that their charge is to make money by eliminating the gamble in the high-risk cattle.

“No segment of the beef industry is more focused on health,” he said. “If nutrition is not right, the animal health aspect will not be right.”

And in today’s climate, full of high input prices, sometimes it’s good to reflect. “With investment in the calf, the results of our decisions have more impact than they ever have before,” he said.

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Healthy gains hit quality target

 

The first step in achieving goals is to set them. That’s why feedyard managers aim for the best live and harvested performance, and that means a few points better than last year. Carcass value is especially important to those who sell cattle on a grid.

Producers may think efficiency comes from choosing genetics for feedlot performance over marbling and beef quality. But thesis research by Kansas State University Master’s student Marisa Hands-Kleysteuber and academic advisor, animal scientist Chris Reinhardt, says otherwise.

Data from 17,919 cattle fed at a southwest Kansas feedlot were evaluated for the paper, “Relationships between feedlot health, average daily gain and carcass traits of Angus steers.” Results show the highest quality grade cattle were also the highest gaining, regardless of disease status. They also suggest managing for a consistant end-point can be as influential as genetics.

“Even if cattle with similar genetics are fed for the same period of time, differences in carcass qualities will arise,” Reinhardt says.” Many times that is because of illnesses in certain animals.

Healthy animals tend to perform better, and the steers in this study provide an example. All marketed at an individually identified, fat-constant endpoint, those requiring no treatment for disease or illness graded 72% USDA Choice or Prime, compared to 59% for those treated two or more times. They weighed more coming in, and gained more with fewer days on feed to extend their advantages over steers that required treatment.

Reinhardt examined data on those steers that were never sick to look for correlations between average daily gain and quality grade because earlier work has noted that higher gaining cattle tend to grade better. This study found nothing to dispute that, and noted, “performance dramatically dropped for those cattle that were ungraded [Standard or No-Roll].”

On the other hand, the more times cattle were treated, the lower performance in the yard and in carcass value; ungraded cattle turned out to be those that required treatment just about twice as often as other cattle.

Sickness usually means a temporary setback. While cattle showing morbidity deposit less external and intramuscular fat, feeding to the same fat-constant endpoint as healthy cattle cuts down on those differences in marbling scores and performance. Of course, it takes more days on feed in a setting where clearly time is money.

“The relationship between Yield Grade (YG) and Quality Grade in treated cattle is actually greater than in non-treated cattle,” the report states. “Allowed to reach an adequate degree of finish, marbling should also follow.”

Regardless of health, the study suggested all cattle optimize marbling by feeding them with the goal of achieving YG 3 (See tables and full study on page 4 of the 2012 KSU Cattlemen’s Day Report at http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/srp1065.pdf).

Steers reaching that level of cutability made 16.1 percentage points more Choice and Prime as compared to those steers falling within the range of YG 1 or 2. Premium Choice carcasses were increased by 10.3 points in the same comparison.

“It pays to keep cattle healthy, yes. But these results also tell us if we want to raise high-quality beef, we do not need to bypass performance genetics for high-marbling traits,” Reinhardt says. “We can select a combination of both.”

Management counts, certainly. The research report concludes producers who “reduce opportunities for nutritional stress (e.g. nutrient restriction, health challenges) and ensure their cattle are fed to their target fat content endpoint … will more consistently achieve both excellent performance and quality grade [goals].”

Crucible for quality

The Taylors win CAB honors

by Steve Suther

September 22, 2011

In this decade, Jimmy and Tracy Taylor’s data-driven herd south of Cheyenne, Okla., expanded to its practical capacity of 600 Angus cows on 12,000 acres in 38 pastures. Last year, 315 steers and heifers hit the mark with 58.4% Certified Angus Beef ® brand (CAB®) and CAB Prime.

But months went by without rain while the sun baked the withered roots on the plateau bordering Black Kettle National Grasslands west of Elk City, where the Taylors live.

Heavily supplemented and strategically culled, the top 95% of their spring cows weaned creep-fed calves a month early as the smaller fall herd began making the best of a bad situation.

For all the challenges, the Taylors love it. Having to feed cows on summer grass each day? Great opportunity to check on water, health and head counts while calves get used to a grain ration.

Pastures cut up by old gas-well access roads? Great infrastructure for ranch access. Drought of the century? Brings individual cow evaluation to the forefront as the profit makers get even better.

Silver linings abound, even without a cloud in the sky.

Recipients of the 2011 Commercial Commitment to Excellence Award at the CAB Annual Conference in Sunriver, Ore., Sept. 20-22, they make the best of just about anything. Tracy puts her husband in the starring role, but Jimmy says he couldn’t do it without her support.

Dale Moore, Cattleman’s Choice Feedyard, Gage, Okla., nominated his customers for three consecutive years. “They base their program on the CAB and Prime goal, and have made some of the most dramatic and positive changes among all of our customers,” he says.

The ranch was started in 1914 by Jimmy’s great-grandfather, but his father, Jim, was the first to actually manage the place, beginning in 1953. He pioneered intensive rotational grazing with long resting periods for the land.

Hereford cattle were the mainstay, later crossed with Simmentals when Jimmy formed a father-son partnership in 1980. Newlyweds then, the young Taylors learned every rock, ridge and creek before buying sole interest in 1993.

“Our goal was simply to sell the most pounds of beef at weaning,” Jimmy says. “Over time, we began to see there is more security for our ranch and for the whole industry if we reoriented to give the consumer a better eating experience. We changed with the incorporation of registered Angus bulls to a goal of producing the best steak we can possibly make.”

Those first Angus-cross calves arrived in 2006.

As low-stress handling, a rising plane of nutrition through weaning, selection indexes and artificial insemination (AI) became the rule, the www.cabcattle.com website became a favorite.

That’s how they found Moore and began retaining ownership. “I found out real quick that our goals were very similar,” Jimmy says. “We’ve been with him ever since.”

They’ve used the AngusSource® program for genetic and source verification since 2007 and won the regional AngusSource Carcass Challenge with those calves the next year.

Because of the data they have on each animal, purchased females no longer enter the herd.

Information from Cattleman’s Choice and CAB, combined with Jimmy’s observations and ultrasound scans for intramuscular fat (% IMF) are all organized in Tracy’s spreadsheet.

Her report on the 18 herd bulls starts with year purchased, tag number, registered name, maternal and carcass EPDs (expected progeny differences), ultrasound data and $ Values. The cow report/field-data sheet lists cows in ranch-tag order with source, calf tag, Bangs number, sire, progeny carcass history, % IMF since ’08, due date, calved date, location, calf tag, sex, sire, pasture bull and turn-in date, plus a few comments columns.

“Over the years we sit down together and keep adapting the program, tweak it until it gives us exactly what he wants to see,” Tracy says.

Small pastures let Jimmy match certain cows with the bulls that best complete their genetics.

“We look at them one at a time,” Jimmy says. “We’re just now getting to the point where data factors in enough to eliminate those weaker in carcass value.” They can sort by sire groups, too, and consider sire effect on progeny from each cow.

“Jimmy calls off a number and I read out to him what she has done,” Tracy says. “It’s kind of tedious, but he’s building up a good herd this way. Good genetics that we know we want to keep. That’s why he’s supplementing instead of selling.” Winter pasture was secured in Nebraska as well.

Creep feeding was an innovation last year, a necessity in 2011. For weaning, the herds come into corrals adjacent to the trap rotation for what seems like just another supplement session, but the calves get shots to booster the May round of vaccines and cows go back out to the rotation.

“We watch the calves for four or five days and then they are turned out on the traps, too,” Jimmy says. “It has worked well for us.”

Part-time help fills in for big jobs like working calves, weaning and AI, but otherwise, the Taylors run a “ma and pa” ranch, where they’re in it together. Just another way they show that commitment.

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Pre-grass stocker health management pays

April 19, 2011

Cattle health matters at every segment, but it could be the single biggest profit determinant for the stocker phase.

Mitch Blanding, senior veterinarian with Pfizer Animal Health, and rancher Mike Collinge shared tips for managing health at last month’s “Backgrounding for Quality” field day on the ranch near Hamilton, Kan.

The first weeks of ownership are some of the most critical, so Collinge keeps that top of mind when he procures 450- to 500-pound (lb.) calves to graze on his native grass Flint Hills range.

Within 24 hours of arrival, the calves move through processing facilities for a first round of vaccines and initial temperature readings. “I’ve yet to find anything as effective as temperature to really measure a calf’s health,” Collinge said.

In the following week, calves run through the processing facilities again, temperatures are checked and antibiotics administered as needed. The process is repeated four to five days later.

“We like to play offense, not defense on animal health. You can never catch up if you’re playing defense,” Collinge explained. “Monitoring and recording temperatures indicate health issues long before they start showing physical signs.” 

Blanding said there are three ways to intervene with respiratory disease: prevention, control (mass treatment) and therapy (individual treatment). Prevention offers the highest return on investment, but that doesn’t mean just making sure they get their shots.

 “What are our realistic expectations of vaccinations?” Blanding asked. “There are some groups with less than 40% of the animals capable of responding to vaccines. There are even some groups that we’d be lucky to get 30% responding. What causes that? Stress.”

“The only thing we’ve guaranteed is that the animal is exposed to it,” he said. “The next step is that they have to respond. Then we have to get protection, immunity. That still leaves a lot of room for error.”

The take-home point is that prevention also includes reducing stress, Blanding said.

At the Collinge Ranch, daily handling and movement helps. Load lots are kept in separate grass traps and brought in one at a time once a day. That first two or three weeks is a critical time to get the calves proper nutrition that gets them ready to be on their own for grazing.

“Copper, zinc and selenium are incredibly important parts of a starter ration when it comes to the health of these calves,” the rancher said.

After feeding, a group is kicked back out to pasture and the next group is brought in. The feeding crew monitors calves as they come into the feed pen. If they spot a calf that looks sick at the end of the group, they’ll separate the tail end and bring five to 10 calves in to have their temperatures checked and monitored. Not only is this less stressful on the calves, Collinge explained, but it’s also a good indication of the health of the rest of the herd.

Calves that are slow to the feedbunk and hanging around others already showing physical signs of illness are the most likely candidates. “You might find one or two in that group that are running a temperature besides the one that looked sick,” he noted. “You can get ahead of that illness and treat them before it becomes a problem.”

commercial angus cow

Another “must” to prepare cattle for the feedlot is deworming. In fact, an Iowa State University study says it’s worth about $24 per head.

“The immune system is a finite thing,” Blanding says. “If the immune system is being occupied by parasites, it’s less capable of dealing with the organisms that cause respiratory disease.”

Of course, all of Collinge’s procedures are geared toward reducing labor, stress and costs for the ranch, but there’s a greater reason: “We hope that these things are having an impact on carcass quality and performance. The goal is to create cattle that will do better down the line,” he said.

Research confirms that’s the right approach. Gary Fike, beef cattle specialist with the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand, shared Iowa data that shows calves that had to be treated twice have a lower average daily gain (2.93 lb. vs. 3.22 lb.) and poorer feed conversions.

“Those healthy cattle lay on intramuscular fat more easily, too, thanks to that added gain,” Fike says. That shows up in higher marbling scores and increased CAB acceptance for the calves that were never treated, 18.7% compared to 11.1% for their twice-treated counterparts.

“We know these stress-free, healthy cattle can really bring home the carcass quality,” Fike said.

For more information on the meeting, search “Backgrounding for Quality” on the Black Ink Blog, www.blackinkwithcab.com.

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