Faster horses
Well-known member
The Texas A&M Ranch to Rail program was established to show cattlemen insight as to how their cattle are affected by sickness and subsequently perform in the feedlot. Since 1991, almost 20,000 head of cattle from 1600 ranches in Texas and 13 other states have praticipated in this program. When looking at sickness costs over the last 8 years, the average medicine costs have been $5.52 per head above those associated with normal incoming processing. Throughout the Ranch to Rail program, it has been shown that approximately $90 per head is lost when cattle become sick. From this data, one can see that medicine costs can be a small part of the total money lost to sickness. Other performance parameters such as decreased feed efficiency, slower weight gains, and reductions in carcass value have proved to play a larger role in decreased profits than previously throught.
The challenge is to develop better nutritional, health care, and management programs for today's highly productive herds. A well-coordinated nutritional, health care and management program is required to maximize efficiency and productivity. A proper nutrition program can be fully effective only if the animals have effective health care. Likewise, a quality health care program will only reach its full potential of fighting off disease if the animal is on a complete plane of nutrition. Animals fed properly are more resistant to many viral, bacterial and parasitic infections. This is due to better body tissue defenses, increased immunity to diseases, and more antibody production.
In the Texas Ranch to Rail program, research showed a correlation between calves fed a mineral program on the cow and the health of those calves in the feedlot. As show on Graph 5, the calves from cows on a mineral program showed SIGNIFICANTLY fewer 'pulls' for treatment and average medical costs as compared with calves from cows that were not on a mineral program. The demonstrates that feeding a quality mineral preweaning can positively impact the health of calves postweaning right through the feedlot.
According to Texas A&M Ranch-to-Rail information, the difference between healthy cattle and sick cattle averages $90 per head.
I have several copies of this information, complete with graphs that I would be happy to mail to anyone wishing to see the whole report. Just PM me with your mailing address.
The challenge is to develop better nutritional, health care, and management programs for today's highly productive herds. A well-coordinated nutritional, health care and management program is required to maximize efficiency and productivity. A proper nutrition program can be fully effective only if the animals have effective health care. Likewise, a quality health care program will only reach its full potential of fighting off disease if the animal is on a complete plane of nutrition. Animals fed properly are more resistant to many viral, bacterial and parasitic infections. This is due to better body tissue defenses, increased immunity to diseases, and more antibody production.
In the Texas Ranch to Rail program, research showed a correlation between calves fed a mineral program on the cow and the health of those calves in the feedlot. As show on Graph 5, the calves from cows on a mineral program showed SIGNIFICANTLY fewer 'pulls' for treatment and average medical costs as compared with calves from cows that were not on a mineral program. The demonstrates that feeding a quality mineral preweaning can positively impact the health of calves postweaning right through the feedlot.
According to Texas A&M Ranch-to-Rail information, the difference between healthy cattle and sick cattle averages $90 per head.
I have several copies of this information, complete with graphs that I would be happy to mail to anyone wishing to see the whole report. Just PM me with your mailing address.
