The Beef Herd Health Plan… Do You Have One? BY JULIE ZIMMERMAN MORRIS | TEXAS RANCH SALES ASSOCIATE
In my time before Texas Ranch Sales, LLC, I was an County Extension Agent. Those may be foreign words to some, but part of the job is educating farmers, ranchers, and the public on agriculture endeavors. This gave me the opportunity to visit with many livestock producers, or future producers about the need for a herd health program/plan. The question that inevitably follows…“do I really need all that”? I would respond with “do you vaccinate your children”? If the answer is no, go ahead and continue thumbing through this beautiful magazine of ranches we sell here at TRS, because this article probably isn’t your cup of tea. STEP ONE - you need a set of working pens. No, you don’t have to spend a million dollars to make this happen, but you need to build it strong. My advice is to consult with your favorite online search engine and type in the following: “cattle working pens+edu”. The “edu” will insure that you will get .edu or .org information that is researched and field tested. That way you won’t be reading how “Bob with a cow blog” (that has zero education about livestock handling) built his for $400. No offense, Bob. STEP TWO - familiarize your cattle with the process. Take a few weekends to move your herd through the pens without them having any bad experiences. This will ultimately help you to see any issues with your pens, make changes, and familiarize your livestock with how things work and that it’s not the death chamber they thought it was. Now, you’ve got a facility that is capable of containing even “the crazy cow” (you should consider culling her), what’s next? May I call your attention to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s “Beef Herd Health Management Calendar” (produced in 2007 - yes, it’s still good), which can be found online by searching “AgriLife SP-289” (the publication number). I’m not going to tell you line by line EVERY detail, but simply hit the most important parts…i.e. the bare minimum of cattle herd health. This explanation is based off a one to three month calving cycle. If you say to me “but Julie, my cows calve all year”…you were taught at a young age what causes babies…pull that bull out of your cow herd! He needs to have a separate space, where he will inevitably tear up lots of things, nevertheless, he only needs to be with your cows, during breeding time. I understand this may not be feasible for every cattle producer, but it allows your cows to have plenty of time to recover post birth, before breeding again, and allows you to have a calving “season” versus a guessing game of “is she pregnant or not”. Speaking of pregnancy tests… that’s an optional item you might want to consider adding to your herd health plan. No sense in feeding one that needs to head to the sale barn.
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Note: any vaccination recommendations from here should be compared against the medicine label. READ AND FOLLOW THE LABEL! Also take into consideration all withdrawal periods. Yes, this means you need to read a 17 page print out in font two, but they make reading glasses or grandkids for just this reason.
COWS PRE-CALVING
(2-3 MONTHS BEFORE THE COWS CALVE) 1. CULL If any of your cows do not have the body condition necessary to have that baby and take care of it - GET RID OF HER! I don’t care that she’s your favorite and her name is Sadie and you love to give her scratches. You’re going to experience a REAL loss when Sadie is teats up and can’t care for that calf. Consider supplementation to improve her condition, if that works for your herd. Other items to review on each cow: lame/cripple (even if it’s just a little bit), bad eyes, large teats at calving or doesn’t produce milk. Some issues are temporary and can be fixed with the assistance of a veterinarian, but most cannot. Finally, bringing it back to “the crazy cow”…you know who I’m talking about…high headed, snot slinging…”but Julie, she has amazing calves”. Fact - each year in the United States of America, 20 people are killed by cows. 2. IDENTIFY She needs a brand, ear tag, or tattoo as some form of identification. 3. VACCINATE Give the Leptospirosis vaccination (commonly called Lepto), a 7, 8, or 9 way Clostridia (vet can recommend best for your area of the state) and Tetanus (contained in some, but not all Clostridial vaccines). In the US Lepto is “killed”, or inactivated, so vaccination of a pregnant and nursing animal is considered safe. IF you have your cows in the chute prior to breeding, give them Lepto shots, as it is used to prevent abortion. In the southeastern portion of the US (east half of Texas) it’s encouraged to give Lepto twice per year. 4. EVALUATE FOR PARASITES (stay on top of stomach worms and horn flies, specifically) Calving Season - Don’t book a trip to the Bahamas during this time! You need to be around or have a person familiar with your operation checking on your cows, especially if you have any heifers. In a perfect world, it’s ideal to take a birth weight in the field. Some cattlemen even take this moment to ear tag the calf with a matching number to it’s mother. If not then, make sure it’s done within the first two months of age.
