Feed Efficiency, Feet and Leg Scores, Heat Stress

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, Twitter, and Instagram.

Guest: Dr. Jennifer Bormann

3:56 Feed efficiency: cows vs. feeder cattle

12:57 Feet and leg scores

21:30 Heat stress

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCIFacebook, and Instagram at @ksubci. Check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. You can also email us to sign up for our weekly news blast! Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

High Commodity Prices, Drought Management, Implants in Young Calves, Vaccinating in Warm Weather

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, Twitter, and Instagram.

3:07 High commodity prices

7:20 Listener question: drought management

14:53 Implants in young calves

24:51 Vaccinating cattle in warm weather

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCIFacebook, and Instagram at @ksubci. Check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. You can also email us to sign up for our weekly news blast! Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Large Herbivores, Whether Bison or Cattle, are Integral Parts of Grassland Ecosystems

Grasslands and rangelands are an important ecosystem providing food, income for rural families and communities, recreation, wildlife habitat, soil carbon sequestration, plant and animal biodiversity, and water filtration. Thus, grasslands and rangelands contribute to all three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic. Grazing is often assumed to negatively impact the natural ecosystem and that removal of grazing would result in more pristine rangelands. To the contrary, grazing has had minimal effects on plant species richness over long periods of time, e.g., 13 to 65 years. Additionally, lack of grazing created grasslands with greater shrub cover dominated by fewer species. In contrast to plant species, continuous grazing in general has a negative impact on wildlife populations, because different wildlife species require different types of habitat varying widely from tall and dense to short and sparse.

Grassland and rangeland management practices influence the benefits received from these ecosystems. Heavy grazing decreases animal productivity and income for ranchers, increases soil erosion, decreases plant biodiversity which decreases wildlife habitat, and less forage production decreases soil carbon sequestration and water filtration. But, proper grazing management allows forages to store reserves during times of abundant precipitation, increase water-holding capacity, provide wildlife habitat at critical times of rearing young, and create a shifting mosaic with both old and new growth vegetation all the while maintaining animal productivity and income for ranchers. And patch burning regimes can be used to direct cattle grazing to specific sites within rangelands further producing numerous habitat structures for diverse wildlife species.

Prior to European settlement, rangelands were ‘managed’ by periodic fire and grazing by wild ungulates (bison, deer, and elk), which function as ecosystem engineers creating a diversity of plants and vegetation structures promoting wildlife habitat. Today, we have smaller areas of privately-owned rangelands interspersed with towns, cities, and cropland rather than wide open expanses for ungulates and fire to roam. And we generally use cattle rather than bison as the primary grazer. Some differences exist between cattle and bison in grazing behavior and how they utilize the landscape, but many of these differences are more a part of human management (fences, lack of predators, etc.) than inherent differences between bison and cattle. The many ecosystem services of grasslands and rangelands can be achieved by managing smaller privately-owned ranches using proper grazing management and fire regimes that promote all three pillars of sustainability.

Bottle Calves, Bringing In Orphans, In-season Breeding Soundness Exam, Grass Feeding

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, Twitter, and Instagram.

5:39 Bottle calves

14:45 Bringing in orphans

20:33 In-season breeding soundness exam

24:05 Listener question: grass feeding

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCIFacebook, and Instagram at @ksubci. Check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. You can also email us to sign up for our weekly news blast! Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Animal Agriculture Research, Replacement Heifers, Generic Antimicrobials, Deworming Strategies

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, Twitter, and Instagram.

4:19 Animal agriculture research funding opportunities

9:12  Raising replacement heifers vs. purchasing them

16:16 Generic antimicrobials

24:33 Deworming strategies for internal parasites

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCIFacebook, and Instagram at @ksubci. Check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. You can also email us to sign up for our weekly news blast! Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Coccidiosis

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

Coccidiosis is an important disease of cattle caused by a small parasite that invades the cells of the intestinal tract and if enough intestinal cells are damaged, diarrhea or bloody-diarrhea can result. You may have heard of other species that also can suffer from coccidiosis, including poultry and swine. However, although most animal species can be infected with coccidia organisms, the specific types that cause disease in other species will not cause problems for cattle – cattle disease is caused by cattle coccidia. Almost all cattle are infected with at least a few coccida organisms, but problems only occur if the parasite can multiply rapidly – usually when cattle are stressed. The stress of weaning, trucking, weather insults such as winter storms or mud, over-crowding, or poor nutrition can all allow individuals or groups of cattle to suffer from coccidiosis.

Recently weaned cattle, particularly if they are exposed to inclement weather or mud and are shipped to a new location are considered to be at high risk for coccidiosis. Young suckling calves can be affected, particularly in situations with poor sanitation, nutritional stress, and other causes of diarrhea. Adult cattle that remain in the herd are usually immune to the local coccidia, but thin cows can be at risk. In addition, bringing in new cattle can cause an outbreak of coccidiosis in the new animals when they are exposed to the local coccidia – or the new animals may bring in a new species of coccidia and cause an outbreak in the original herd.

The most common signs of coccidiosis are watery diarrhea, diarrhea with blood, straining to defecate, a rough hair coat, and poor weight gain. In addition, some affected cattle in a group can show signs of nervous system problems such as tremors, eye twitching, and convulsions. Many cattle with coccidiosis appear healthy but they have decreased weight gain and feed efficiency. Mild cases that involve a few days of watery feces without noticeable blood where the cattle do not become obviously depressed or off-feed are also common. Severe cases with a week or more of bloody diarrhea can lead to a fever, becoming off-feed, and being depressed and dehydrated. If the infection is mild, death is very rare, but in more severe cases, death is fairly common due to coccidiosis itself or the coccidiosis can increase the risk for other severe diseases such as pneumonia. Cattle with nervous system symptoms have a very high risk of death.

Your veterinarian is most likely to diagnose coccidiosis after examining cattle with bloody diarrhea and ruling out other problems. The organism can often be detected in high numbers in fecal samples, but this test is not always accurate because intestinal damage can occur before large numbers of coccidia are found in the feces. In addition, some cattle may have high numbers of coccidia in their feces, but be nearly recovered from the disease and are in much better shape than cattle with few or no organisms earlier in the disease process.

A number of treatments are available for cattle suffering from coccidiosis, and affected cattle should be separated from the group so they can be kept comfortable while being individually treated with fluids to correct dehydration and with drugs that will kill the organism. Whenever one or more cattle in a group have obvious signs of coccidiosis, you can assume that the rest of the group has been exposed and is likely to be suffering less obvious losses.

To prevent coccidiosis, good animal husbandry practices to improve sanitation and reduce stress are important. The organisms survive very well in the environment and it is probably impossible to completely remove them from areas where cattle live. Young animals should be kept in as mud-free an environment as the weather will allow; and feed and water should be kept off the ground as much as possible to minimize fecal contamination. To reduce stress, castration and dehorning should be done at a young age several weeks ahead of weaning, and low-stress weaning strategies should be implemented wherever possible. In addition to management strategies, a number of treatments such as ionophores, decoquinate, or amprolium can be delivered by feed or water to groups of cattle to minimize the risk of severe disease. A month or more of daily intake of these preventative treatments is necessary to break the life-cycle of the organism.

As with many diseases, good sanitation and animal husbandry are important to prevent and control coccidiosis. In addition, your veterinarian can recommend products to treat affected cattle and preventatives that can be used during periods of highest risk for the disease.