Cattle that eat only zero nutrition bedding straw must be forced to change or risk emaciation or hypothermia
Non-eating cattle are difficult to pick out of a group in the first month, but producers need to know how to treat them before it becomes too late, warns a veterinarian.
“I think the key there is most cases will have an industry term of “straw-eater” put on them,” said Kent Fenton of Feedlot Management Services in Okotoks, Alta.
“They will stay on bedding packs with straw and eat just that straw.… They don’t adjust to eating out of a feed bunk and they don’t adjust to the new feedstuffs in front of them.… They even step up to the bunk at times and put their head in there to hide because they don’t want to get pulled because they get so sick of being treated for not being sick.”
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Studies are inconclusive about why some cattle prefer to eat bedding straw with zero nutritional value instead of the high quality, high energy feed put out for them.
“I don’t know why that would be more palatable than a nutritious ration that every other animal in the pen likes,” Fenton said during the Feedlot Management School held earlier this year in Saskatoon.
“That’s why I call it behavioural because I don’t know. Is it something in their background that they only prefer roughage, even if there is very little feeding value in it? My gut feel is that it’s not genetic. It’s behavioural, it’s learned.”
However, he said the solution is simple and straightforward.
“I have broken that habit with different cattle like that by removing the straw — cold turkey — different pen, perhaps put them in a warm barn but no straw,” he said.
“They are not inappetent. They will be hungry and they will eat other feedstuffs at that time if they have to.”
He said it’s a matter of training the calf by making the choice easier for it. Different feed could include grain or a portion of grain mixed with silage or hay.
“You just need to force them to eat more energy dense things. Typically we’ll feed them on the ground, haul pails of chop out there and round tub feeders for a period of time,” he said.
“It seems difficult to remove straw in the winter months because you want them to be warm, but I have had situations where the only resort has been to remove the straw and force them to eat a different feedstuff.”
Wood shavings are a possible bedding alternative to straw.
Fenton said non-eating is not a well-documented condition because it is difficult to recognize.
“You absolutely can’t see it (at the auction mart),” he said.
The problem usually surfaces in feed yards during fall when cattle might arrive thin.
“It (non-eaters) clusters by purchase group,” he said.
“What I mean is at the auction mart if you buy 10 calves in small groups and there’s three that die, they’re all from that same group of 10. It comes in cattle of all different sizes and breeds and all different times of year.”
Fenton said the disorder is not an issue of feedlot management.
“They’re outliers and they may not adapt,” he said.
“It’s just like some cattle will get sick with BRD (bovine respiratory disease) and can’t explain why some animals and not others. We just describe it on a population basis. That’s as close as we can get.”
Time is critical for tackling the disorder, particularly if the winter cold lingers and cattle fail to adapt for a few weeks. Then the problem will become serious.
“They live off the bedding pack and they don’t die until 30 days on feed when it hits -38 C and the wind starts blowing,” he said.
“In background yards, if I’m going to highlight one health issue, this is it. Once you’re going to get two (dead), you’re going to get 20.” All those cattle died of emaciation or hypothermia. They died because they’re too thin.
“On grass they’ll be fine. They have some kind of behavioural issue that they won’t start on feed. Nothing is going to help unless they get more energy into their rumen, a lot of it quickly. Best answer I’ve got.”
Contact william.dekay@producer.com
