Animal health
Most winters take a toll on cattle, but this winter has been tougher than most.
Beef producers have many options available to include in beef cattle diets that can offer many benefits in a small package.
As spring calving season approaches, it is vital that your calves receive adequate immunity at birth.
Along with the decreased temperatures and decline in forage growth, comes an increase in calories needed for farm animals.
Cold dominated the weather reports since Jan. 1 and it has made managing livestock during these frigid times more difficult.
Water quality issues continue to worsen as drought and high temperatures increase the risk of high sulfate water.
USDA’s heat stress forecasts show emergency heat levels in the central U.S. through July 6th. Take caution with livestock.
Cattle producers need to maintain tire feeders regularly to keep cattle from swallowing wire.
Comfortable cattle are profitable cattle. That’s why many feeders take steps to acclimate new arrivals.
The ability to estimate the live bodyweight of cattle can affect whether animals receive too little drug or too much,
Producers who think their heifer reproduction program is on track may want to look again.
An enzyme helps dry distillers grain and researchers find a link between three profit robbing diseases.
Weaning is the time to begin the immunization program and determine a nutritional plan.
Veterinarian Brian Heuedepohl of Williamsburg, Iowa, and feedlot owner Mike Finnegan of Parnell, Iowa, work together closely on a replacement heifer development program.
Producers facing rising production costs can hardly afford to not use legumes.
The gold standard prevention measure is to control environmental contamination.
While preventing disease in the cattle herd should always be the top priority, it is not always possible to avoid all illness.
There are more myths about distillers’ grains and gluten feed than I can list. One of the more interesting is that distillers’ grains will cause foot rot and bloat, when in fact distillers’ grains, with their dense mineral content, improve bone and hoof hardness and will reduce the chance of bloat if fed correctly.
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.
As frost begins to cover fields, cattle producers should protect grazing livestock against prussic acid poisoning and bloat.
Fall means there are a lot of calves being weaned, shipped and received. By now, hopefully, you have a plan of action in place to keep the process as calm and stress-free as possible for the animals. Additional stresses at weaning and processing can inhibit immunity.
While the type of vaccine administered is a central part of herd health, the proper timing of vaccinations is also significant.
High heat and humidity in parts of Kansas has killed more than 2,000 head of cattle.
The health, management, and vaccination history for the majority of feeder calves sold at sale barns are not known to the buyer.
Spores of the bacteria Bacillus anthracis, which cause anthrax when consumed, can survive in the soil for years.
Now we have another good excuse to cull cows due to bad temperament. Producers that routinely breed cows artificially realize that cows that are unruly and nervous are less likely to conceive by AI.