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Drug Free Calves

Tap

Well-known member
I am wondering if anyone knows FOR SURE, if it is ok to feed a mineral with CTC to bred heifers pre-calving, and the calves still be considered drug free? And if so, how about feeding it to the heifers, for another month or so, while their calves are on the ground? I don't care for scour shots, but we have had good luck with mineral with small amounts of CTC in it. This is only for bred heifers.

I do want to make sure our calves are drug free though.
 

BRG

Well-known member
If you feed it pre-calving, then the calves will be natural. If you feed it to the cows after they calve and have calves on them, then the calves will not be natural because some of the calves may eat some of it.

To be sure, check with a natural buyer/feeder, and they will let you know the rules. The thing about natural, is that the rules can and do change so you need to stay on top of it.
 

sic 'em reds

Well-known member
Most of the rules are pretty loose. We sell our calves to a "natural" grass fed operation and all they care about is if the animal itself has had anything. "Inutero" would be pretty hard to prove either way.

I would still check to make sure though.
 

lazy ace

Well-known member
Tap we have cattle that just can't "pass on grass." We acutually encourage it. :lol: :lol: This past summer they even inhaled smoking grass. :wink: Sorry but I couldn't resist, you know if I didn't do it JB would have.

have a cold one

lazy ace
 

John SD

Well-known member
Are "drug free" and "all natural" necessarily one and the same thing? I know "drug free" means no antibiotics or ionophores such as Bovatec or Rumensin. What about urea in feed?
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Tap, you can feed the CTC to the heifers pre-calving, but not when the
calves are with the cows and have them considered as all-natural.
I know the baby calves eat a lot of our CTC mineral as babies.
Most of our customers have decided not to stop the CTC as it
does the cattle so much good, and makes everything much, much
easier. BTW, it takes at least 2 weeks to get the CTC in the system.

A cattle buyer and I had a visit about the 'all natural' deal this fall.
His take on it was that cow/calf producers could comply with the all-natural deal, but when the calves got to am all-natural feedlot and got sick, they were going to be treated with antibiotics regardless.
 

Cal

Well-known member
Tap, do you have a plan to market these? We sold some Drug-Free that went to Creekstone to be fed out at Ainsworth. Did the affidavit and all that, but didn't really get a premium...wasn't worth it for us so probably won't do it again unless something changes, and will go back to putting Rumensin in the ration.
 

cowsense

Well-known member
I talked to the manager of one of our larger feedlots and he said they would need at least $50 to just break even on not using implants alone particularily on heifers that tend to start laying fat on too soon!
 

Tap

Well-known member
Cal said:
Tap, do you have a plan to market these? We sold some Drug-Free that went to Creekstone to be fed out at Ainsworth. Did the affidavit and all that, but didn't really get a premium...wasn't worth it for us so probably won't do it again unless something changes, and will go back to putting Rumensin in the ration.

Cal, we probably will sell the calves over Western Video, and drug free calves have been bringing more on Western, than non drug free calves.

lazy ace, :p :)
 

JF Ranch

Well-known member
I'm with Cal. It's not worth it to me unless there is a sizable premium on them. Therein lies the problem. A couple bucks per hundred-weight isn't nearly good enough. How much extra would I need? I'm not sure, but I haven't heard of a good enough premium to interest me.

A number of years ago I sold to an all natural buyer through a sale barn. There really wasn't a premium at all. Yes, they sold well on that particular day, but basically they brought market price. I had to sign the affidavit too.

I'm quite sure that the producer who signs the forms will be the one holding the bag if anything is found wrong somewhere down the line. I decided against doing it again unless they want to pay through the nose for them.
 
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