Author: ksubci
Guest Speaker
Animal Welfare and Economics Panel Discussion
Prevention Strategies and Therapeutic Options Panel Discussion and Questions with the Audience
Tox Talk: Flying Scapula
Yearling heifers are found walking odd after being moved to a grass pasture. Dr. Scott Fritz and Dr. Brad White get to the bottom of this case in this edition of Tox Talk: a Bovine Science with BCI podcast. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the show!
The toxicology website and Bovine Sciences with BCI podcasts have been sponsored in part through a veterinary services grant that Dr. Scott Fritz, Dr. Steve Ensley and Dr. Bob Larson have received to share more toxicology information and examples for people to understand what to submit and how to submit. Another part of that grant has been working with people and producer in the field.
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Sexed Semen, Meat Question, Twinning
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! This week’s episode sponsored by ESTROTECT and brings Dr. Ken Odde to bring some insightful knowledge into some of the research he has done. Dr. Odde starts the episode by talking about selecting semen based on sex and doing so commercially. Dr. Dustin Pendell then brings some questions to the group regarding meat consumption. Finally the experts discuss twinning, and the opportunities involved in purposefully birthing twins.
3:02 Sexed semen: An opportunity to capture more value for cattle | Ag Proud
11:26 Meat Demand in the U.S.; https://agmanager.info/livestock-meat/meat-demand
16:25 Twinning for Commercial Use
For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Facebook or X 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!
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Epidemiology and Disease Modeling of BRD Panel Discussion
Panel Discussion and Questions with the Audience
Keynotes: Current State of BRD in the beef and dairy industries
Herd Health: Keeping Records
In this episode of Herd Health a Bovine Science Podcast our hosts discuss keeping records. They discuss how much data you may want to share and collect. Dr. Larson talks about a recent research project he conducted to determine how cow-calf producers store and utilize their data. They also give tips on storing data digitally.
The article mentioned in the episode:Â Information management in beef cow-calf operations: Data priorities, recording, and sharing
Link to CalfDex website:Â https://calfdexapi.azurewebsites.net/
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Compounding, Net Wrap, Protein Tubs
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! This episode begins with Dr. Brian Lubbers explaining compounding medication for meat animals. The show progresses with the experts answering a listener question asking about whether you should remove net wrap from hay bales or if they can go through the tub grinder. The episode concludes by discussing protein tubs and picking the right one for you. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode!
3:24 Compounding Medication
9:50 Listener Question: Leaving the Net Wrap On
18:18 Listener Question: Using Protein Tubs
For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on X at @ksubci, Facebook, 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!
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After the Abstract: Measuring Pain
How do we determine the amount of pain in cattle? Today’s episode of After the Abstract a Bovine Science podcast looks at a research paper that answers that question. Dr. Brad White and Dr. Brian Lubbers review the paper titled, “Ranking bovine pain-related behaviors using a logistic regression algorithm” (Trindade et. al.). Thanks for listening and enjoy the episode!
Link to article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106163
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Creep Feeding, Starting Cattle on Finishing Ration, Amount of Vaccines
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! This episode begins with Dr. Phillip Lancaster and Dr. Bob Larson discussing whether creep feeding calves is worth it. The show progresses with the experts answering a listener question asking about creating a finishing ration for cattle. Dr. Brad White wraps up the episode by discussing how many vaccines it is acceptable to give your cattle. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode!
3:30 Should I use a creep feeder?
10:45 Listener Question: Starting Cattle on a Finishing Ration
15:40 How many vaccines is too many?
For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on X at @The_BCI, Facebook, 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!
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Diving into Diets: Feeding Rye Grain
Can we use rye grain to finish cattle? In this episode of Bovine Science Dr. Lancaster and Dr. White look into a research paper covering this topic. With this research paper titled, “Production and use of dry-rolled hybrid rye grain as a replacement for barley grain on growth performance and carcass quality of feedlot steers ” (Zhang et al.) they discuss the possibility of feeding rye versus feeding barley and it’s effects on the cattle. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show!
Link to Article: Fuquan Zhang, Rachel E Carey, Rebecca S Brattain, Herman Wehrle, Gregory B Penner, Production and use of dry-rolled hybrid rye grain as a replacement for barley grain on growth performance and carcass quality of feedlot steers, Translational Animal Science, Volume 8, 2024, txae059, https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txae059
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Replacement Heifers, Pain Management, Bull Management
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! Dr. Brad White, Dr. Phillip Lancaster, Dr. Dustin Pendell and Dr. Brian Lubbers cover selecting replacement heifers. They then discuss pain management in cattle and how we determine pain and medicate it. Finally the experts talk about managing your bulls after breeding season is over.
3:00 Replacement Heifers
9:33 Pain Management
14:33 Managing Bulls
For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on X at @The_BCI, Facebook, 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!
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Meeting the Nutrient Requirements of Cows Through Patch-Burning
| Phillip Lancaster, MS, PhD Ruminant nutritionist Beef Cattle Institute Kansas State University palancaster@vet.k-state.edu |
Pasture management is a key component to cow-calf production systems by affecting the carrying capacity of grasslands but also the ability of forage to meet the nutritional requirements of cattle. A lot of focus has been on management intensive grazing (e.g., rotational grazing, adaptive multi-paddock grazing, etc.) and its ability to maintain or increase the ecosystem function and productivity of rangelands. However, another important component of rangelands is fire.
A recent study evaluated the effects of patch-burning on forage nutritive value, animal grazing distribution, and animal performance. Patch-burning is a practice where only a section of the pasture is burned every 3-5 years rather than burning the entire pasture at once. This creates an array in grazing pressure across the pasture, adds heterogeneity to the landscape for different wildlife species, helps control undesirable plants, and leaves plant residue to increase organic carbon back into the soil. In the study, continuous grazing management was used with patch burning treatment and was compared with continuous and rotational grazing management systems without fire in mixed grass rangeland. Each of the 3 treatments had 4 pastures and Angus cow-calf pairs were used to graze the pastures over a 4-year period. The rotational grazing system was a seasonal rest-rotation within a twice-over rotational system.
In the year of burning, patch-burned sites had improved crude protein, acid detergent fiber, and neutral detergent fiber digestibility of forage than continuous and rotational grazing systems without fire. Patch-burned sites that were burned 1 to 3 years prior also had improved forage nutritive values compared with continuous and rotational grazing systems without fire. Only the unburned site in the patch-burned treatment had lower forage nutritive value than the continuous and rotational grazing systems without fire. The rotational grazing system had improved forage nutritive value than the continuous grazing system.
In the patch-burned treatment, cattle spent more time in the most recently burned section of the pasture most likely due to the increase forage nutritive value. Additionally, the most recently burned section had the greatest proportion of forage samples that met or exceeded the nutrient requirements of cows (Figure 1). This resulted in cows in the patch-burn treatment gaining > 0.4 lb/d compared with < 0.2 lb/d for cows in the continuous and rotational grazing treatments without fire. Thus, the need for protein supplementation of cow-calf pairs may be decreased when patch-burn grazing is used.
In conclusion, patch-burning can be used to improve forage nutritive value for grazing cattle in continuous grazing systems compared with rotational grazing systems. Patch-burning can also be used to concentrate grazing on different sections of the rangeland over time because cattle will preferentially increase time spent in the most recently burned section of the rangeland. Additionally, patch-burning is a good management practice to blend cattle production with wildlife conservation goals.
Figure 1. The proportion of forage samples meeting or exceeding nutrient requirements for protein and energy of 1250-lb cow producing 18 lb/d at peak milk. Adapted from Wanchuk et al., (2024; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2024.109004)
Herd Health: Using the Omics
With new genomic technology being used for Holstein cattle in the dairy industry, will this technology assist with fertility in the beef cattle industry? Dr. Bob Larson and Dr. Brad White discuss this topic along with a review paper that looks at using these technologies on beef cattle. They also discuss how to use omics to help select cattle and improve herd fertility.
Article Discussed: N.C. Kertz, P. Banerjee, P.W. Dyce, W.J.S. Diniz. Harnessing genomics and transcriptomics approaches to improve female fertility in beef cattle – A review. Animals 13:3284, 2023 https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/20/3284
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Homestead, Protein Supplements, Facilities
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! This episode begins with our experts answering a listener question about laminitis and ways to treat it. The show progresses with a conversation concerning coccidiosis and how to tell if it’s affecting your herd. To wrap up this edition of Cattle Chat, Dr. Brad White asks the experts some commonly asked questions in their expertise
3:33 Listener Question: Starting a Homestead
10:06 Listener Question: Protein Supplements
15:17 Facility Designs
For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on X at @The_BCI, Facebook, 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!
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Castration
Castration is one of the oldest and most common surgical procedures done on beef cattle. The reasons that bulls are castrated include: controlling which males are allowed to breed females, to produce animals that are easier to manage due to decreased aggressive and sexual behavior, and to produce a carcass that is higher quality.
A variety of simple surgical techniques can be used to castrate a bull. Young bull calves less than 250 lbs. are usually castrated lying down or in a calf cradle. Older and larger bull calves are generally castrated in the standing position in a squeeze chute. Regardless of the position, proper castration technique and good sanitation are important to minimize problems following castration.
For commercial producers, bull calves should be castrated as young as is practical for the farm or ranch. Purebred producers castrate a smaller percentage of bull calves than commercial producers and prefer to delay castration until the calves have an opportunity to express growth and other traits. Weight gain of bulls castrated at a young age and treated with a growth-promoting implant will equal that of calves left as bulls until weaning – thus removing an economic incentive to delay castration. One reason it is recommended that castration be done at a young age is that bulls castrated at weaning age (i.e. 6-8 months) will gain very poorly or will lose weight following the surgery and are at higher risk for post-castration infection or excessive bleeding than younger calves. In addition, castration is starting to receive more attention from an animal welfare standpoint.
The reason that producers need to consider the welfare aspects of castration is that all physical methods of castration cause pain. The extent and duration of pain probably differs between castration methods, and more work needs to be done to identify the least painful procedures. Age at castration also appears to affect the pain response in castrated bulls, with some research trials demonstrating fewer indications of pain in calves castrated at less than a week of age compared to older calves; and other trials show apparently less pain response in calves castrated less than 21 days of age compared to 42 day old calves.
As we look at other countries and how they view castration of bulls – in England, regulations require that any bull greater than two months of age be given local anesthesia to deaden the ability to feel pain at the castration site and the surgery must be done by a veterinarian. Anesthesia and pain medication are required for castration in several northern European countries. Anesthesia is also required for castration of bulls in Switzerland and the use of rubber rings is prohibited. Regulations in Ireland require use of anesthesia for castration of cattle older than six months of age. In the United States, few drugs are approved for use to control pain in cattle and while research has not clarified the best combination of products, utilizing one or more methods of pain control at the time of castration is becoming common in the U.S as well.
Tox Talk: Pasture Rotation
After a normal pasture rotation the next morning most of the herd is found dead. Dr. Scott Fritz and Dr. Brad White analyze this abnormal case and discuss the necropsy process leading to diagnosis in this edition of Tox Talk: a Bovine Science with BCI podcast. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the show!
The toxicology website and Bovine Sciences with BCI podcasts have been sponsored in part through a veterinary services grant that Dr. Scott Fritz, Dr. Steve Ensley and Dr. Bob Larson have received to share more toxicology information and examples for people to understand what to submit and how to submit. Another part of that grant has been working with people and producer in the field.
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Laminitis, Coccidiosis, Variety Questions
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! This episode begins with our experts answering a listener question about laminitis and ways to treat it. The show progresses with a conversation concerning coccidiosis and how to tell if it’s affecting your herd. To wrap up this edition of Cattle Chat, Dr. Brad White asks the experts some commonly asked questions in their expertise
2:13 Listener Question: Laminitis
8:17 Coccidiosis
13:04 Variety Questions
For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCI, Facebook, 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!
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After the Abstract: Bovine Anaplasmosis
Dr. Brian Lubbers and Dr. Brad White deep dive into a recently published paper titled:Â Case-control study to identify management practices associated with morbidity or mortality due to bovine anaplasmosis in Mississippi cow-calf herds
After the Abstract is recorded with the goal of assisting veterinarians in the interpretation of scientific literature. This podcast is not an endorsement of specific practices and medical decisions should only be made in consultation with your veterinarian.
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Weighing Cows, Should I Implant, Fall Calvers
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! This episode begins with Dr. Phillip Lancaster and Dr. Brian Lubbers discussing different strategies for determining cow body condition health. The show progresses with the experts answering a listener question asking if he should implant is calves. Dr. Brad White wraps up the episode by discussing fall calvers and how to best care for them. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode!
3:30 Should I weigh my cows?
10:20 Listener Question: Should I give my Jersey cross calves implants?
15:30 Fall Calving
For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on X at @The_BCI, Facebook, 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!
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Diving into Diets: Feeding Weaned Calves
Dr. Philip Lancaster and Dr. Brad White sit down and discuss feed intake in weaned calves and ways that producers can affect the intake. Tune in to this episode of Bovine Science with BCI to learn more.
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Fall Calf Sales, Antimicrobial Usage, Euthanasia
Welcome to BCI Cattle Chat! Dr. Brad White, Dr. Phillip Lancaster, Dr. Dustin Pendell and Dr. Brian Lubbers cover selling your calves in the fall. They then discuss how to manage antimicrobial use and close out with a discussion on euthanasia
3:34 Preparing for sale day
9:50 Antimicrobial use.
15:12 Discussion about euthanasia.
or more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on X at @The_BCI, Facebook, 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!
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