Herd Health

Stress caused by this summer’s drought across much of the country means that calves born this fall may have higher susceptibility to scours.

On a recent visit to the heart of the swine industry, a producer and I were talking about the importance of biosecurity on his finishing operations. He was frustrated and was focused on doing more to keep diseases out of his barns.

Johne's disease (pronounced yo-KNEES) is a condition of cattle and all other ruminants (both domestic and wild) that causes chronic diarrhea, weight loss, infertility, and eventual death in animals that are infected years earlier.

The U.S. Drought Monitor continues to show the spread of severe and extreme drought into larger areas of cow-calf country. Producers are seeing the effects of more heat, reduced forage quality and dwindling water supplies in the cows and calves.

Heat stress – and subsequent loss of production from lower weight gain (and death loss) – costs cattle producers millions of dollars each summer.

Oklahoma State University beef nutritionists studied the effects of deworming and protein supplementation during late-summer on performance of fall-born heifers grazing native warm-season pastures.