the
BEEFMASTER Pay Weight
a publication dedicated to serving commercial cattlemen and produced by Beefmaster Breeders United SPRING 2017
Vol. 3, No. 1
Section 1
www.beefmasters.org
Vaccine Programs and Herd Health Considerations By Chase A. Runyan, Ph.D., P.A.S. - Angelo State University The biology of beef cattle health systems and immunology can be daunting and seem ultra-complex. The highly competitive nature of commercialized vaccines and other herd health products can even further infuriate, intimidate and confuse producers, leading some to question the actual importance of a herd health program. If these issues aren’t worrisome enough, recent research suggests that a strong genetic aspect is involved in immune function and vaccine responses as well. And so what should we make of this? How does someone “un-muddy the water”? Perhaps the easiest way to navigate the cattle health landscape is to focus on production goals and work backwards, identifying potential exposure to a health risk and responding accord-
ingly. For a cow/calf operator, commercial or seedstock, fertility is always of paramount importance and so a strong pre-breeding vaccine program that addresses reproductive pathogens is undeniably important. The value of a good breed up at pregnancy check is well worth the time, effort, energy, and cost of running every cow through the chute one more time. Remember the bull battery at pre-breeding time as well. Although they can be a hassle, annual vaccine boosters and breeding soundness exams for herd sires and clean-up bulls are a wise investment to stay ahead in reproductive efficiency. Young calves are especially susceptible to spore forming clostridia bacteria because of the naïve status of their immune cell repertoire. As such, being aggressive with a “blackleg” or “8-way”
vaccine on nursing calves minimizes this risk and helps to reduce calf mortality rates. As for pen fed cattle scenarios (feedyard operators, backgrounders, bull development programs) a respiratory vaccine regimen is critical to solicit anamnestic immune responses at times of stress and increased antigen exposure due to volatile weather patterns, dusty pen conditions, comingling, handling, and general pen-mate interaction. The effect of respira-
tory morbidity has been well documented to reduce appetite, depress daily feed intake, and thereby reduce gain and feed efficiency in all classes of cattle. To further illustrate the impact of bovine respiratory disease complex (BRD), many times illness is present at the subclinical level and persists undetected from our standard “pull & treat” methods of antibiotic therapy. Without the aid of feed intake continued on page 4
Beefmaster Introduces Calving Ease EPDs By Lance Bauer, Beefmaster Breeders United Requested in-home March 1- 10, 2017
In February 2017, Beefmaster Breeders United introduced Calving Ease Direct (CED) and Calving Ease Maternal (CEM) Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs) in their spring 2017 genetic evaluation. These new Beefmaster EPDs were approved by the BBU Board of Directors so that Beefmaster breeders and commercial cattlemen would have yet another great genetic selection tool when making breeding decisions.
So what are CED and CEM EPDs? And what do they mean? Let me explain. A problem that many producers are concerned with is a cow’s ability to have a calf with no difficulty and no needed assistance. This can be especially important to producers who do not get to see their cattle on a daily basis and may have heifers calving without anyone watching. There are different factors that can cause dystocia, or a difficult birth, including the birth
weight of the calf, the pelvic area of the cow or heifer, and whether or not the calf is presented normally at birth. Many times only one of these factors is used to try to prevent dystocia, and that is birth weight, either by looking at the animals individual birth weight or at birth weight EPDs. Single trait selecting for birth weight can lead to other issues such as slower growing and smaller animals, as well as decreasing the pelvic size continued on page 18