Herd Health

It’s 2 a.m.; we’re sound asleep in hammocks, nestled between two shade-bearing trees, and then it begins.

In today’s cattle industry, feedlot pen checkers often work alone and require the ability to safely and efficiently pull sick cattle from a pen.

As the weather begins to cool and the hair coats on cattle get longer, the lice that have been dormant on carrier animals through the summer begin to reproduce.

Occasionally cattle react to a vaccine. An allergic reaction can be mild and local (swelling at the injection site) or serious and fatal.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is difficult to detect in its early stages and can be highly contagious. A case of bTB in the U.S. will result in the culling of the infected animal and possibly more of the herd if the disease has spread.

Cattle experience pain. Even though they can be very good at disguising it, they do. Pain can come from injury, age (arthritis), natural activity (calving), disease or common management practices.