BeefTalk: Prevention and Early Intervention Are Keys to Unlocking the Sick Pen

BeefTalk: Prevention and Early Intervention Are Keys to Unlocking the Sick Pen

By Kris Ringwall, Beef Specialist, NDSU Extension Service

What’s Normal? Vital Signs for Cows What’s Normal? Vital Signs for Cows

If a calf is dragging, a colt missing a jump or the feed bunk is not cleaned up, there is a reason.

Understanding the sick pen is difficult until one gets placed there. Caring for sick cattle, horses or any other animals is best understood by being sick and noting the process. The onset of a sickness usually is known.

Day one is business as usual, but things don’t seem right. The old body just seems a little sluggish. One doesn’t get up as fast, eats less and moves slower.

Day two is still business, but active camouflage is deployed. “Don’t let the world know” is the motto. Early morning scouts are saying that things have not improved and an invasion is eminent.

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Baxter Black: Squeeze Chute Injuries

Baxter Black: Squeeze Chute Injuries

Early in my veterinary career I developed a respect for the machinery used to restrain large beasts. No, I’m not thinking of ropes, twitches or even classic music in the dairy barn, although at one time or another I have used them all.

In particular I am thinking of the devil’s playtoy..the squeeze chute. All of us who own them, know down deep that we are teasing a tiger.

I would estimate in my lifetime of working cows, not including the uncountable number of feedlot opportunities, I have been hands-on, within striking distance of the “Jaws of the Devil” over one hundred thousand times. The fact that I am not personally disabled is due primarily to reliable equipment, fast hands, hard hats and good help.

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Plan Ahead For Heat Synchronization Method For Replacement Heifers

Plan Ahead For Heat Synchronization Method For Replacement Heifers

Cattlenetwork.com

Producers that plan to use artificial insemination as part or all of this upcoming spring breeding season should start their preparations soon. One synchronization protocol for replacement beef heifers involves the feeding of an additive, and the feed must be ordered and delivered at the proper time. Melengestrol acetate (MGATM) is a feed additive commonly used in heifer feedlot rations to block the cycling activity of heifers. Melengestrol acetate is a synthetic progestin that has “progesterone-like” activity. When fed for a short period of time and then removed from the diet, the sudden absence of progestin tends to allow a large percentage of heifers to exhibit heat together. Compared to normal heats, fertility at this first heat after MGATM removal has been reduced. Subsequent heats will return to normal fertility.

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Video Feature: Clones really no different than twins

Video Feature:  Clones really no different than twins

The Food & Drug Administration recently found that meat, milk and eggs from cloned animals are safe. Feedstuffs FoodLink talked with a scientific expert about the finding.

Cloning arguments

Cloning arguments

The FDA’s draft risk assessment found no difference between products from cloned and uncloned animals. But the 2006 report sparked a lively, 13-month debate over the safety of food from clones.

PROPONENTS SAY

•Cloning can result in consistently superior beef and dairy products.

•Cloning allows dairy farmers and cattle producers to develop superior herds.

•Cloning is a natural evolution of advanced breeding and genetic practices that have been in use for years.

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Better Beef

Better Beef

KXMCTV Minot

Sure, you probably wouldn’t want to go out in your shorts right now, but you have to admit, it’s been a pretty mild winter so far.

Temperatures hovering around the 30-and 40-degree mark make going outside a lot more tolerable. And animals can appreciate that too.

Livestock specialists say when cattle don’t have to hunkere down in the bitter cold, they’re more likely to eat less and perform better..

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Glad You Asked: What is bologna made of, and how did it get its name?

Glad You Asked: What is bologna made of, and how did it get its name?

Journal Times

Bologna is a cooked, smoked sausage made of cured beef, cured pork or a mixture of the two.

The bologna might include choice cuts, depending on who’s making it, but usually contains afterthoughts of the meat industry — organs, trimmings, end pieces and so on.

A typical recipe uses seasonings such as salt, sugar, pepper and spices, plus a curing agent that includes sodium nitrite to prevent food poisoning.

The meat is chopped, mixed with the cocktail of seasonings and put it in a casing. Like all sausages, bologna is covered in a natural casing made from the gastrointestinal tracts of cattle, sheep and hogs.

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