The second post-BSE fall season is upon us. With prices having eroded even more, the agricultural community must find additional ways to trim expenses while protecting productivity. The good news is that when the situation rebounds, and it will rebound, we can continue with this super efficient mindset and improve profit margins.
Preimmunization and good nutrition at weaning significantly reduces illness. If calves do get sick, consult a veterinarian because the most expensive antibiotic doesn’t always needs to be used. The price of the original oxytetraclines and sulfonamides have fallen and they are still often effective for pneumonias and other conditions that arise in everyday cattle production. These antibiotics, including penicillin, should still be in your pharmaceutical repertoire.
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For other conditions, rely on your veterinarian’s advice. Antibiotics may not be necessary in some situations. For example, localized abscesses, sole abscesses or prolapses seldom need antibiotics. The body’s natural defensive mechanisms may clear the infection so long as nutrition is up to snuff.
Viral infections do not respond to antibiotics, but veterinarians may use them in this instance to cover secondary bacterial invaders.
Veterinarians can also help determine whether certain conditions are worth treating. If treatment is futile, it is best to destroy the animal humanely rather than waste money and labour on expensive treatments. Veterinarians are trained at giving a prognosis as to whether cattle will be productive after recovery.
Get together with your neighbours when doing veterinarian herd work so mileage can be shared. This is a win-win situation.
Over the last few decades, producers’ treatment of warbles, lice and internal parasites has been extremely good, especially with the advent of the pour-on endectocides.
However, in some instances treatment can be replaced or eliminated. In Western Canada, the major problem has always been lice.
Warbles have all but been eliminated and internal worms are only sporadically a major problem.
With mature cows, I suggest that if lice control has been good, perform several fecals to determine the internal parasite load. If the load is insignificant, the endectocide treatment could be missed for the year, replacing it with the older methods of Neguvon or Spotton treatments. These are considerably cheaper, but you may need to repeat the treatment in January if lice do become a problem.
This method works best in herds where cattle oilers are used in the summer, which keeps lice counts extremely low.
However, remember that endectocides are expected to come down in price this fall as new competition arrives on the market. They are still the largest individual pharmaceutical cost to your cow herd in the fall and you are more than justified to use them on your calves.
Feed is still the leading cost in raising cattle. Use all the tricks you gained from surviving the drought and apply them here. Rotational grazing, swath grazing in winter, pasturing usable swamp land and pasturing following harvest go a long way to reducing feed costs.
One producer did the math for constructing a new fence around a quarter where potatoes were grown in rotation with grain. By allowing cattle to graze and clean up the field edges as well as eat cull potatoes and grain straw and chaff, the fence extended his grazing season enough to pay for itself in seven years.
This did not take into account the manure being naturally spread over the land. The less time cattle are in confinement the lower the manure handling costs. The yards can also be kept cleaner for the upcoming calving season.
Using these lower-cost feed systems allows forage to be stockpiled in good years. Sealed silage pits can be kept for an additional year. If you get ahead in subsequent years you can put land into cash crops or sell the extra hay. There are many options for using low-quality or waste feed such as brewer’s mash, cull potatoes and sugar beets. Straw can now be injected with molasses to increase its energy. Use the feed resources your area offers.
Rotating open cows into a fall calving program will see 75 percent of them bred. This increases their lifetime production and lowers your need for replacements.
Cancer eyes can be surgically removed, lump jaws and wooden tongues treated and septic arthritis in cow claws can be amputated.
All these treatments can cure the problems, extending the cow’s life in your herd. This is especially true now that slaughter prices are so low.
Cows that become too old and in failing health should have their teeth checked. If several are missing, the cow will have trouble chewing and may need to be culled.
This also means it is about 10 years old. If these cows are chronic prolapsers, have bad bags or temperaments, we may need to bite the bullet and cull.
This is where some producers have become opportunistic and used local provincial plants to butcher for local restaurants, friends and family. One producer joked he was giving his used-up herd bull away as a wedding gift. The ground beef from these older herd sires is lean and good.
