Antibiotic Use, Variable Costs, Average Age of Farmers, Vaccinating Cows

Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat!  Please click on any links below to be taken to sources mentioned in the podcast. Keep an eye out for news regarding the podcast on Facebook and Twitter.

3:54 Antibiotic use in calves

6:15 Variable vs. total cost

19:20 Average age of farmers

25:00 Vaccinating/ processing cows

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter @The_BCI, and check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Animal Welfare and Consumer Relations

Bob L. Larson, DVM, PhD
Beef Cattle Institute
Kansas State University

Providing a safe and healthy environment for cattle is not only the foundation for good animal welfare and efficient production, but is also necessary in order to maintain a positive image of cattle production for consumers.

Day to day care for cattle requires that producers meet each herd’s nutritional and health needs as well as provide housing and handling facilities to ensure their safety and welfare. Cattle are able to eat a wide variety of forages and feeds to meet their nutritional needs. When cattle of almost any age and stage of production are housed on green, growing pastures, they are not likely to require a great deal of additional feed. However, salt and other minerals are required in all cattle diets, and growing calves and yearlings, and lactating cows and heifers require diets that are higher in energy and protein than dry cows and bulls. Cattle grazing dormant forage or being fed harvested hay or other forages may require a supplemental feed or forage that has higher concentrations of energy or protein than the base forage. This supplement may be in the form of high quality hay, grain or grain-byproducts, or other processed feeds. Evaluating weight gain in growing animals and body condition in mature animals provides cattle producers with a simple measure of whether or not a diet is meeting the energy and protein needs of their cattle.

Providing plenty of readily accessible water is another key component in meeting the daily needs of cattle. While well-informed people may disagree about how long cattle can be held away from water without adversely affecting their health and welfare, the basic principle that cattle need plenty of clean water is undisputed. The time of year, the number of cattle, and whether the cattle are near the water source throughout the day or only part of the day all impact the amount of space and the flow rates required. Hot temperatures in summer increase the daily requirement for water and the potential for freezing increases the risk of failed water delivery in the winter. Range situations when cattle are only near the water source for a limited amount of time each day require greater one-time access space and water reserve than cattle housed in small pastures or drylots with continual access to water. Stock tanks or waterers that are not cleaned can result in reduced water intake; and mud, erosion, or other obstacles that make it difficult for cattle to approach a water source can lead to health and welfare problems.

Beef cattle are nearly always housed outside on pastures or drylots which usually means that air quality and sanitation is good. However, cattle housed outdoors in most parts of North America must contend with extremes in temperature and humidity during certain times of the year. Extremely cold and hot temperatures can cause severe stress and health problems. When rainfall is heavy, excessive mud can prevent comfortable resting and be a barrier to feed and water access. Making sure that cattle are protected from extreme wind chills by the use of natural or man-made wind breaks and providing access to shade or other relief during periods of high heat index are important considerations for cattle housed outdoors. In addition, all fences, feed bunks, water troughs, and handling facilities should be designed and maintained so that cattle are not likely to injure themselves and so that the facilities can be used as they were intended. Everyone who works with cattle should understand and implement low-stress handling techniques to minimize the risk of cattle becoming injured or exhausted during handling. To implement low-stress handling, a ranch must have appropriate facilities and well-trained cowboys or animal handlers.

Providing cattle with proper diets, treating for internal parasites (worms) and external parasites (flies, lice, ticks, etc.), protecting the herd from avoidable contact with disease carriers, and using appropriate vaccines not only helps to protect the health and welfare of cattle, but supports high productivity of the herd. By concentrating on nutrition, sanitation, parasite control, biosecurity, and vaccination, ranchers can ensure that they are focusing their efforts to meet the health and welfare needs of their herd.

In addition to meeting cattle’s daily needs, every cattle producer must be prepared for potential challenges such as drought, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fire, blizzards, and other natural or man-made disasters. While most disasters cannot be avoided, those that are reasonable possibilities should be thought about ahead of time. Planning for ways to provide feed, water, and shelter to the herd as soon after a disaster as possible guarantees that animal welfare will be minimally compromised.

And finally, every cattle producer needs to have a plan for how he or she will deal with a severely injured or ill animal. Although providing an excellent environment with appropriate diets and a good herd health program will minimize the risk of disease and injury, all ranchers know that recognizing when an animal should be euthanized is critical to ensuring the humane care of their herd. Appropriate methods to euthanize (put to sleep) cattle have been recommended by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and the American Veterinary Medical Association. Every ranch should have at least one person who is trained to appropriately euthanize cattle or should have access to a veterinarian to perform this important function.

Time-tested principles of good cattle management are the keys to assuring the health and welfare of cattle herds. Increasingly, consumers are also interested in knowing that cattlemen are concerned about the welfare of their animals. It is becoming very important that you have a management plan that you can share with anyone who asks so that beef consumers can be assured that you also value the health and welfare of your herd.

KFMA Data, Grazing Crop Residue, Listener Question, More Resources

Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat!  Please click on any links below to be taken to sources mentioned in the podcast. Keep an eye out for news regarding the podcast on Facebook and Twitter.

5:42 Kansas Farm Management Association data report

11:54 Grazing crop residue

18:02 Listener question: quality and quantity of hay

25:15 Resources for more information

KSUBeef.org
Kansas State Extension
eBeef
AgManager
UNL Beef Extension
Iowa State Beef Extension
Oklahoma State Beef Extension
Missouri Beef Extension

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter @The_BCI, and check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Does beef production really use that much water?

Beef production often gets labeled as unsustainable partly because of its large water footprint. Estimates of the water used to produce one pound of beef are 1,675 gallons compared with 545 gallons to produce one pound of pork and 257 gallons to produce one pound of poultry. However, not all water has the same importance when it comes to sustainability. There are primarily 3 types of water used in the livestock production chain: green, blue and gray water. Green water is rainwater that landed on the field or pasture that required no human intervention to use. Blue water is primarily irrigation water for crops and drinking water for animals. Gray water is water used for cleaning animal facilities, processing plants, etc.

From a water sustainability perspective, blue and gray water are more important than green water because they involve removing water from its natural cycle, and blue and gray water could be used directly by humans. When we compare the water footprint of animal protein sources based on water type, it becomes clear that the important water footprint of beef is much more like poultry and pork (Figure 1). Over 90% of the water footprint for beef production is green water compared with 73% for pork and 79% for poultry. The blue and gray water footprint of beef is 158 gallons per pound compared with 146 gallons per pound for pork and 55 gallons per pound for poultry.

For all species of livestock, the vast majority (> 85%) of water use is to produce feed and the important type of water is blue water used to irrigate crops. Advances in irrigation technology and drought resistant crop varieties will further reduce blue water use for feed production. For example, subsurface drip irrigation can reduce irrigation water use by 45% and variable rate irrigation adjusts the amount of water applied to each square foot of the field based on soil characteristics and plant water needs. Also, in 2016, 40% of corn acreage in Nebraska and Kansas was planted to drought tolerant varieties.

When looking at the water types agriculture can control (blue and gray water), animal proteins are very similar in their water footprints. And technological advances in feed crop production will continue to reduce the blue water footprint of animal proteins.

KFMA Cattle Data Report, Planning Hay Feeding, Listener Question, Weaning Final Exam

Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat!  Please click on any links below to be taken to sources mentioned in the podcast. Keep an eye out for news regarding the podcast on Facebook and Twitter.

1:07 Kansas Farm Management Association cattle data report

9:45 Planning hay feeding

7:48 Listener question: vaccination programs

22:20 Weaning final exam

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter @The_BCI, and check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Ask the expert, mental health, animal handling facilities, winter water management

Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat!  Please click on any links below to be taken to sources mentioned in the podcast. Keep an eye out for news regarding the podcast on Facebook and Twitter.

3:00 Ask the expert: pumpkin facts

7:48 Mental health: communication in times of stress

17:48 Animal handling and animal handling facilities with Joseph Link from ArrowEquip

27:30 Water management in winter

Feeding Beef Cattle
Feeding 4-H Calves
Feeding the Show Steer
Raising Calves for Slaughter

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter @The_BCI, and check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Use of a BVD Management Tool: BVD CONSULT

Bob L. Larson, DVM, PhD
Beef Cattle Institute
Kansas State University

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVD) infection is responsible for a variety of economically important disease syndromes in beef herds. The economic losses from BVD infection in cowherds will vary based on herd immunity and stage of gestation at the time pregnant cows are exposed to the virus, the virulence of the BVD strain, and other factors. The virus is known to suppress the immune system, contribute to the risk of pneumonia, and to cause pregnancy losses. Infection of the fetus with BVD virus during pregnancy can lead to abortion, birth defects, or the birth of persistently infected (PI) calves. Persistently infected cattle can result when susceptible pregnant cows are exposed to BVD virus during the first half of pregnancy. Many times infected fetuses are aborted, but if a PI fetus survives to term, it will always have a tremendous amount of the virus in its body and cannot mount an immune response to clear the virus. A PI animal will secrete BVD virus throughout its life; in contrast to animals that become infected after birth that secrete the virus and are contagious for only a few days to two weeks. These PI calves constitute the main source of BVD virus for spread within the herd and to other herds of cattle. Cattle persistently infected with BVD virus can be identified by a number of laboratory tests. Based on a recent USDA study, while only 8.8 percent of U.S. cow-calf ranches had one or more PI animals identified; this means that one in every 11 to 12 herds have PI calves and most ranchers with infected herds are not aware of the presence of PI calves.

Vaccination programs can provide fairly good protection against BVD-induced disease when the exposure is from non-PI animals that shed the virus for a short period of time. Vaccination programs offer some protection against BVD-induced disease when the exposure is from PI animals but this protection may be incomplete because of the tremendous amount of virus excreted by PI animals. Vaccination programs are an important component in BVD control, but will only offer a high level of protection if herd contact with PI animals is eliminated.

The cattle industry has made significant efforts in recent years to control BVD. Our current knowledge of the virus, the availability of effective vaccines, and the improvement in diagnostic tools have made the control of BVD feasible.

BVD CONSULT (Collaborative, Online, Novel, Science-based, User-friendly, Learning, Tool) is an internet-based tool, designed to aid in the development of BVD control programs for cow-calf herds. It is the result of efforts by scientists from several universities from around the country (Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska, Mississippi State University, and Auburn University) and was funded by an educational grant from Zoetis Animal Health and the USDA. BVD CONSULT effectively draws available BVD research into a user-friendly and organized format to develop BVD prevention and control programs for individual herds that emphasizes key management decisions that impact the success of these programs. 

BVD CONSULT provides veterinarians and cow-calf producers an opportunity to develop BVD prevention and control programs for any cow-calf herd. For herds that currently have PI cattle present, the tool will help to create a plan to identify and remove the PI cattle and to establish a strategy to reduce the likelihood of the herd becoming infected again. For herds that are currently BVD-free, BVD CONSULT can be used by a producer and the herd veterinarian to decide how to minimize the likelihood of BVD virus entering the herd and to reduce the impact if the herd is exposed.

BVD CONSULT is set up as a series of questions with responses and was designed to mimic a conversation between a veterinarian and a producer who is concerned about BVD.  The tool works through a decision tree in order to provide recommendations that are specific to individual operations. BVD CONSULT asks if the producer is willing and able to perform specific management practices that will aid in prevention or control and eradication of BVD.  More information is available in the tool to help with the decision making process.  After clicking on “yes” or “no” to each question, an appropriate response is given based on the choices that have been made, followed by another question. The questions that are asked, and the responses given, vary depending on the previous answers. There are 6 to 10 questions in total depending on the choices made. A printable report is available at the end of the tool which records the choices that were made and the responses that were given. The final result is a set of recommendations that the rancher and herd veterinarian have designed to meet the specific needs of a particular cow-calf herd. BVD CONSULT, as well as many other BVD management resources, can be found at www.BVDinfo.org.