p.1

Herd and Flock Health Programs: Part 3

Christine B. Navarre, DVM, MS, DACVIM
Extension Veterinarian
Louisiana State University Agricultural Center
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
cnavarre@agcenter.lsu.edu

p.3

Herd Health Programs: Genetics
- Selecting animals that are more resistant to disease
- Respiratory disease
- Parasites
- FAMACHA
- Holy grail of preventive health

p.4

Genetic Selection for Disease Resistance
- Economic simulation of the relative economic value of selection (Allison Van Eenennaam)
- Selection to avoid BRD
- Should be weighed
- 7x more heavily than weaning weight, post-weaning ADG and feed intake
- 2-3x more heavily than marbling and yield grade

p.5

Immune Function Testing (Bonnie Mallard)
- High Immune Responders
- 25% Heritability
- Categorize animals as high, average or low immune responders
- SEMEX (Canada)
- Tested sires and labeled high responders with the Immunity+ status
- Tradeoffs of other traits?
- Immunity+ bulls on average have higher genetic merit for all other
major traits than the rest of the bulls

p.6

Immune Function Testing
- High immune responders
- Decrease in diseases (mastitis, metritis, ketosis, etc.)
- Better hoof health
- Faster growth rate
- Improved colostrum quality
- Improved vaccine response
- Correlates positively with reproductive traits and longevity

p.8

Herd Health Programs: Decreasing Stress Cowboy Down
- Stress depresses immunity
- Stress impacts production
- Stress impacts product quality

p.9

Stress
- Stress impacts health
- Health impacts need for treatment
- Need for treatment impacts risk of a residue or defect
- Impacts safety
- Stress impacts profitability
- Stress impacts growth
- Stress impacts quality grade

p.10

Stressors
- (Nutrition, Parasites, Disease)
- Weaning
- Commingling
- Transport
- Heat
- Castration
- Dehorning
- Poor handling
- ETC.

p.11

Low Stress Handling: Why?
- Immune system management
- Animals that are stressed from handling will not respond well to vaccines, will not breed as well
- Prevent injury
- Top 10 most dangerous jobs
- Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers
- Environmental Benefits
- Control of animal distribution over large grazing lands
- Disaster prep
- IT PAYS!
- Better reproductive performance (AI especially)
- Better health
- Less shrink when loading

p.12

Low Stress Handling Why Not?
- Takes time and planning
- Time to learn
- Time to practice and teach cows
- Time and planning to improve facilities
- Culture change
- Letting down forefathers
- When you are finished learning, you are finished - Ben Franklin

p.13

Beef Cattle Facilities
- Solid vs. open sides
- Cattle do not like being moved toward a solid sided or closed in area, as they do not perceive a way out
- If it is necessary or desirable to use closed sided processing areas then the design must be
large enough for cattle to go past where they need to come back to without putting too much pressure on the cattle
- Solid side alleyways require catwalk-key word is walk
- Don’t stand in place above cattle-makes them look up which makes them stop
- Hard on knees getting up and dow
- Curved vs. straight (Tub vs. Bud Box)
- Bud box is simple, easy to build and cost effective
- Requires knowledge of cattle behavior and how to use it
- Cattle want to return to where they have been

p.14

How it works:
- Set ahead of a loading chute or squeeze chute, the Bud Box runs perpendicular to the race (alley) leading to the chute or load out.
- Cattle are driven past the open ing of the race, and the solid gate is shut behind them, preventing cattle from seeing from whence they came.
- By waiting a few seconds for the cattle to settle down, and apply ing pressure from the side of the Bud Box toward where you want them to go, the cattle will circle back toward the solid gate (the way they came). Once they get to the solid gate, the cattle seek an escape route, which is the opening into the chute.

The Bud Box concept for cattle pens
Bud box
Load out Squeeze chute, scale, palpation cage
Holding/staging pen

p.15

Temperament/Disposition
- Some cattle are genetically predisposed to having bad dispositions
- 0.45 heritability
- But influenced more by handling
- AI breeding
- Nervous less likely to get pregnant
- Feedlot
- Reduced total gain and ADG
- Higher feed to gain ratio
- Reduced slaughter and carcass weights
- Reduced carcass quality
- Increased treatment costs and number of sickness days
- Net returns decreased
- Immunity
- Poor vaccine response
- CULL

p.16

Low Stress Weaning
- Fenceline Weaning
- Spend more time eating
- Better gains throughout precon period
- Leave on grass if possible
- Move pairs to pasture where calves will be few days before separation
- Cows will show calves where water is
- Use creep gate to good grass
- Two stage with nose flaps
- Low stress sorting

p.17

Preconditioning
- Weaning, training calves to eat feed from a bunk and drink from a water trough, following appropriate vaccination program, controlling parasites, castration, and dehorning.
- 45+ post weaning period is the magic part

p.18

Early Weaning (45 - 105 days)
- Benefits
- Maintain BCS on less forage
- 60% decrease in water needs
- Higher re-breed percentage
- Maintain forage base
- Improved calve performance
- Calves don’t have to compete with cows for limited forage
- Concentrate fed calves have increased quality grades

p.19

Early Weaning
- Considerations
- Good management and facilities needed
- May need nutritional consult
- Increase cash costs
- Need to adjust management procedures
- Vaccination, deworming
- Castration, dehorning?
- Should already be done earlier

p.20

Environmental stress
- Heat stress in beef cattle (North Dakota State)
- The heat index is 75o F or greater for a 72 hour period
- The heat index during a 48 hour period is no lower than 79o F
- 79o F during the day and no lower than 75o F during the night
- The daytime heat index reaches 84o F or higher for two consecutive days
- Cold stress - if wet, have cold stress begins at 50o F for adults & - 70o F for neonates
- Adequate shade
- Water sources - fresh and clean
- Mud - increases energy of maintenance
- 4 - 8 inches of mud = lowers feed intake 4 to 8% / ADG 14% lower
- belly deep mud (12+ inches) = 30% lower feed intake

p.21

Heat Stress
- Late gestation heat stress (Holsteins)
- Cooled
- Cows
- Increased dry matter intake (important for fetal programming)
- Higher IgG in colostrum
- Calves
- Fewer stillborns
- 12 lb heavier birth weight
- Calves absorbed more colostrum
- 10 lbs per day more milk in first lactation
- HIgher longevity in herd
- Rule of thumb:
- 30 to 40 square feet of shade per head

p.22

Welfare Issues
- NUTRITION!
- Heat and cold stress
- Housing
- Air quality
- Flooring
- Bedding
- Resting areas
- Noise pollution
- Genetic selection
- Castration/Dehorning
- Weaning
- Handling
- Transportation
- Downers
- Euthanasia

p.23

Take Home Message
- Take care of your business
- Also do what is right for the industry, or the previous won’t matter
- Animal welfare
- Food safety
- Antimicrobial stewardship
- Disposition
- Every animal, every day, everything you do

p.24

LSU
Ag Center
Research. Extension. Teaching