Tracking performance and evaluating herd success is a year-round process. Similar to tracking athletes, consider developing a scorecard to monitor your herd. Understanding how your herd is performing throughout the year is important when considering management, nutrition and culling decisions.
The first scorecard suggested was post-calving; the next one to consider is herd health metrics. Illness and death loss in a cow herd are situations cattle producers must routinely address.
To help producers know where their herd health metrics should be, experts at Kansas State University’s Beef Cattle Institute offered some guidelines during a recent “Cattle Chat” podcast.
“The first metric in cow-calf operations that I look at is the first treatment response percentage,” says Brian Lubbers, K-State veterinarian.
He recommended producers aim for an 85% to 90% treatment success rate when treating one of the most common illnesses: Bovine Respiratory Disease, also referred to as BRD. He says that metric can be deceiving.
“Producers who aggressively treat BRD cases are likely treating some animals that didn’t have BRD, and that leads to a high spontaneous recovery rate,” Lubbers says. “If you are seeing a 100% first treatment success rate, you may be treating some animals who didn’t need the treatment. Very high treatment response rates should at least trigger a conversation with your veterinarian about case definitions.”
K-State veterinarian Bob Larson says another metric that producers should be aware of is the percentage of death loss in the calves. During the first year of life, there are three key times when calves are more susceptible to death: at birth, between birth and three weeks of age, and from about one month to weaning, he says.
For each of these periods, producers can expect a 1% to 2% loss, Larson explains, however, that percentage will vary from year to year.
“In the first year of life, difficult births, scours and pneumonia are some of the reasons that calves get seriously ill and sometimes die,” Larson says.
K-State beef nutritionist Phillip Lancaster says what he monitors in the herd is the body condition of the cows.
“If the cows are receiving good nutrition and maintaining their body condition, that is an indicator of the overall health of the herd,” Lancaster says.
Along with those metrics, Logan Thompson, K-State beef cattle extension sustainable grazing specialist, recommends producers treat the herd against parasites as part of an overall wellness program.
“Treating the herd against parasites is an easy win from a production efficiency and cattle longevity standpoint, and it increases the rate of passage of grass through the rumen,” Thompson says. “It is a hard metric to measure, but in some herds, cattle that are treated for parasites have an increased efficiency between 20[%] to 30%.”
In summary, the key takeaways from the podcast are:
- Health metrics are multifaceted and require careful tracking.
- Different perspectives (veterinary, nutritional, sustainability) offer comprehensive insights.
- Metrics should be specific, measurable and contextualized.
- Collaboration with veterinarians is crucial for effective health management.
Your Next Read: Early Shedding Cows Produce Heavier Calves at Weaning
