Duane A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator, Webster County October 16, 2010 Edition
With the pending conclusion of a fast and efficient harvest, the arrival of a dry fall, and a lot of corn stalks ready to be grazed, many calves will soon be on the move from their home farms to new homes, if they haven’t already.
Calf prices are relatively good so this should be a time that beef producers should feel pretty good about their investment in their cattle herds. The trouble is that this is also a time when young calves don’t feel so good and the potential for a good return from the cow may be taken away from the producer in the form of sick or even dead calves.
Unfortunately, many of the calves that leave their home farms may not have been vaccinated. But even if they all were vaccinated, some of those may even be in jeopardy. Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of having well vaccinated calves get sick anyway after being exposed to conditions conducive to disease and more likely from being stressed with a new routine. Hopefully calves have been vaccinated against at least the worse types of disease. Well vaccinated calves usually don’t die of IBR, BVD or Blackleg; but the story is not that simple.
One of the reasons calves still get sick after vaccination is that there a number of viruses for which no vaccination is available, and quite honestly there are probably some viruses that change too rapidly to ever have enough vaccines to prevent all such infections. In this scenario calves do not fare very well. Many calves infected with viruses will develop pneumonias that will make their condition very serious.
Calves lack the ability to efficiently prevent bacteria from invading their lungs. Some of these bacteria are normal bugs that live in the noses and throats of calves but don’t invade unless there is a viral infection or stress. Others of the bacteria probably are more serious causes of disease and build up among sick cattle to which calves are exposed.
This and many other problems come from a very simple dilemma for the calves – stress. One of the best ways of avoiding sickness and disease is to eliminate, or at least minimize, that stress. We can usually prevent stress to our calves by making sure that these calves don’t experience days without feed and water; not being away from their mothers all at once; and are given a chance to stay home to rest and recuperate.
Of course what I have described is the weaning process and we know that those things happen when we wean the calves from their mommas. That is something that is part of raising cattle and something that we have to do each year. In the end, the bottom line is that a lot of calves have the ripe opportunity to get really sick. Without antibiotics and tender loving care they will either have prolonged, serious disease that will result in major losses in production if not death and a total loss.
How can we cut down on this risk? Well, first of all I firmly believe that a good vaccination regimen/protocol for calves is paramount. I also like to see parasite control or prevention as part of the protocol. You should work with your local vet to address this. I also think that producers should parallel health care protocols with a plan to reduce stress. One of the first things I suggest to help alleviate this problem is to separate the stress of weaning from the stress of marketing. The markets, and many buyers, oftentimes are willing to pay you to do this as long as you find the right way to sell calves. The bonus is that you can get some economical gains.
The next suggestion is to wean gently. This can be accomplished by using on-farm weaning, fence line weaning, or even a “nose-weaner” system. Don’t overlook the value of good watering systems for both weaning and marketing procedures. Good, clean water is in my opinion very vital to the well being and health of calves and cows that are stress. Water is not the only nutritional decision; make sure that you use high quality hay and grain as well as a palatable, medium energy supplement at weaning. You might also consider introducing your calves to tanks and bunks. I guess you could call that tank and bunk training. Something that I have always believed in is low stress handling. Be gentle and kind to your animals and get them to know you and your routines. Part of low stress handling is to separate the stress of processing (vaccination, implanting, etc.) from the stress of weaning and marketing. You should also separate the stress of castration and dehorning from those stress factors. And if at all possible, shorten the time-in-transit when getting your calves to market. If you feel that you need to supplement their feed with antibiotics or utilize injectable antibiotics, please use these antibiotics judiciously. Metaphylactic antibiotic treatment (usually given when calves are purchased) is one of the most effective procedures that have been studied in recent years in preventing illness and death in “high risk” calves. High risk calves are those where the prior owner didn’t do the suggestions that I have given above. Sick calves seem to be a fact of life. However, good management can reduce the rate of sickness and minimize the bad outcomes.
While you are watching the calves as proceed through the weaning and marketing process of this year’s calf crop don’t forget about the cows. Check the condition scores of your cows as they start a new grazing season on corrn, milo stalks, or soybean stubble. Remember that they are also under stress when you take them away from their calves and move them from the familiar slopes of the pasture to the rough ground and different forage that they will find in the stalks and stubble that will be there new home. I think we need to talk more on cow care next week. Happy weaning!
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: http://www.webster.unl.edu/home
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