Fall is here, and with it comes the fall run of cattle to feedlots across the country. Many of the cattle that come in are, unfortunately, from a long distance away, with questionable weaning and vaccination status.
As we get nearer to spring calving season, our clinic will begin to get calls of aborted fetuses, near-term stillbirths and lost calves. These cases can be frustrating, as often we will not get a definitive diagnosis of what caused the problem. It is important for producers to understand a couple of things when deciding if it is worth the expense and effort to run diagnostic tests on individual ill or dead animals.
Fly control is one of the summer chores we all dread. It is frustrating, time-consuming and dips into our profits. When dealing with flies on cattle, there are essentially two species involved: horn flies located on the backs of cattle and face flies.
It is important to have resources positioned to help make management decisions that will influence the profitability of an operation for years to come.
