British White Breeders Looking to Cut Down on Tradional Meds & Wormers - Read Dr. Buddy's Blog - TAMU

September 08, 2006 Dr. Buddy's Blog

When is the right time to deworm cattle in 2006? (Click on the outlined boxes for the photos....sorry, don't know why they aren't showing in thumbnail!) (Update 12-09-06, Photo of day after arrival home at the ranch is posted below in the body of this blog, note the bull, JWest's McCluskey, opposite the fence that is right at one month older than all 5 ET calves, and obviously raised very well by his dam DFTX Snowflake. Always ensure that Recipient Dams are Healthy and will be fed well by your ET program provider.)

"Short grass is commonly thought of causing wormy cattle by the cattle grazing down where the worms are, but that thought is a misunderstanding. The reason that producers think that way is because the cows look wormy, when actually the cows' poor body and hair coat conditions are related to malnutrition from low intake of roughages on short grass pastures. When short grass is caused from dry conditions due to lack of rain and from overgrazing the slow growth of grass, the worms are not down there in the soil; the larvae have died from the dryness, and also from the heat in the summer.

When stomach worm eggs are passed in cattle manure, the eggs hatch in the manure. The larvae must be washed from the manure by rains. The larvae can only crawl (swim) up the grass blades while the grass is wet from rain or dew. As the grass dries, the larvae go back down to find moisture. As cattle graze dry grass, they don't ingest larvae. After weeks of dry weather, larvae die, and without grass mats for cover, all the larvae die, and the pastures become free of contamination. . ."

The images you see above (may have to click on a little box, they're not wanting to load properly, but if you click on the outlined box they will load!) are of extremely dirty, barren, over grazed conditions at an ET Facility in Athens, Texas in early fall last year, one can only imagine the level of filth that continued to accumulate around them, it's a pretty good guess that no one there understands, or wishes to work at, the concept of dragging a pasture after rotation. These calves came home underweight, sickly, and have yet to thrive and grow like their peers, and one heifer is permanently blinded by pinkeye in one eye. This would be an example of conditions that Require worming and medication, quite regularly. A well run cattle operation, whether Grass or Grain based, should never reach this level of living conditions for any Seedstock cattle, much less Embryo Transfer calves. Actually, I wish to never see these conditions in any cattle operation.

" . .While pastures are contaminated with larvae, it may be cost effective to worm if the cattle have become exposed to enough larvae during 3 6 weeks of continuous rains with soil temperatures of 55 85 degrees when the larvae are active. If these conditions occur in the spring on some pastures; the timing to worm the cattle is following 3 6 weeks of continuous rain. If the rains come on contaminated pastures, that would make deworming cattle in May but not all pastures are contaminated because of the drought and good management practices. With rains in a cold April,..........." Follow the link above to read the rest of this blog!

British White Breeders - Better Growth Trait Recording is Needed

The following article mentions the significant growth the Angus breed has seen this past year in the reporting of birth weight, weaning weight, and yearling weight by their members -- also of great significance is the 18.5% increase in members reporting yearling ultrasound results to their Association. This increase in ultrasound measurements highlights the growing recognition of it's value to individual breeding programs. If you would like to see the BWCAA establish Ultrasound Guidelines for your benefit and direction, be sure and contact the association and voice your opinion.

Many British White breeders have weaning and yearling weights that we never get around to sending to the Association, including myself! But those weights are very important information that can help you in your breeding decsions as well as in the marketing of your animals. Ultrasound Measurements will do likewise. If you decide to do it on your own, be sure and use a Certified Ultrasound Technician and have the images sent to CUP Labs in Iowa, the Lab that is considered the premier lab for accurate image analysis. If you'd like to know how to find a technician or other details about yearling ultrasound measures, send me an email.


Nov 1, 2006 12:00 PM

Beef Magazine

The American Angus Association (AAA) recorded 347,572 registrations in FY 2006 (ended Sept. 30), growing by more than 7% from the previous year. Transfers — the sales of cattle to new owners — also increased 7% to 206,121. Of registrations processed, more than 10% were embryo transfer calves and nearly 49% of all animals registered were A.I. sired. In addition, AAA repor

• 14% more Angus bulls sold via auction sales attended by AAA regional managers, and averaged more than $135/head over a year ago. Female sales also increased, averaging $243 more per lot than FY 2005.

• A 6% growth in breeder participation in its Beef Improvement Records (BIR) program. Nearly 9,700 herds submitted more than 882,000 birth, weaning and yearling weights. Additionally more than 150,000 ultrasound measurements were submitted — an 18.5% increase.

• AngusSource^®, which earned USDA Process Verified Program status the past year, posted a 4% enrollment increase.

• A record 13.1 million cattle were ID'd for the Certified Angus Beef Program, which sold more than 543 million lbs. of branded product this year, the highest since 2003.