Herd Health

Often called pneumonia or shipping fever, bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is costly for the livestock industry, especially in feedlot cattle, but also a concern in cow-calf herds.

What would you say if I told you that, for approximately $1.30 per animal, you could improve calf performance by 0.11 pound per day when you use implants? That means for just over $1 per animal, you could be adding anywhere from $20 to $30 of value per calf.

Beef cattle producers have a wide variety of vaccines to choose from, including modified-live and inactivated products, to improve animals’ immunity against infectious reproductive diseases. With this variety comes questions regarding the choice of these products and the timing of their use.

If you own cattle, at some point you will drive out in the pasture and find one with all four feet in the air – or close to it. For stocker or backgrounding cattle producers accustomed to working with newly purchased, highly stressed animals either from the sale barn or from an order buyer, this is not uncommon.

There’s a good chance you’ve spent a good bit of time and resources getting your ducks in a row nutritionally to improve the odds of your cattle staying healthy and thriving. Maybe you know the nutrient values of your feeds and have worked with a nutritionist to make sure rations are balanced for energy, protein, minerals and vitamins for every situation.