Floridian Cares for High-Risk Calves

Becky Mills
Contributing Editor

By the time calves get to Steve, a.k.a. Beaver, Yoder's place, they aren't feeling too sporty. They've been taken away from their mamas, hauled to a stockyard, hauled to the order buyers, processed, then hauled to his Altha, Florida, operation. Thankfully for the calves, and their next owners, they're looking at months of TLC.

Here are Yoder's steps for getting them healthy and keeping them that way.

THE PROCESS OF PROCESSING

Yoder leaves this step to the order buyer. "My skill set is reading cattle that are sick and need some help. That's where I spend my time on these high-risk cattle and why I get my order buyer to process them."

Processing starts with castration. Yoder said 90%-plus of the calves he buys are still bulls. The calves are also vaccinated with a modified live virus (MLV) vaccine for respiratory diseases and a killed black leg vaccine product.

In addition, they're implanted with a growth promotant and dewormed, both with an injectable ivermectin-type product (macrocyclic lactone) and a drench white dewormer (benzimidazole). He uses the two different classes of dewormers to get as broad a spectrum of internal parasites as possible, as well as to help prevent resistance to dewormers.

Yoder said the vaccines, dewormers and implants for the 400 lb. to 500 lb. calves run around $17 to $22 head. He does not revaccinate or give booster vaccines. "The stress of weaning is enough. If you let 'em rest awhile and come back and stress them again three or four weeks later, it can start the cycle of sickness all over again."

While Yoder's system obviously works for him, University of Georgia veterinarian Brad Heins said a case can also be made for both revaccinating at around 10 days after the original vaccinations are given or giving booster vaccinations three to four weeks later, especially with high-risk calves.

"When cattle are under stress, including weaning, nutritional changes and transportation, research shows that the vaccines may not be effective on as many as 30 to 40% of the animals with a single administration." He said revaccinating or delaying vaccination to around 10 days post-arrival can help get more of the cattle to respond while booster vaccinations can help increase immunity when it starts to drop.

60 DAYS OF GRASS THERAPY

When the calves that have been bought and processed over a week's time go to Yoder's, they are turned out in big grass traps, typically bermudagrass and or bahiagrass, with plenty of purchased high-quality bermudagrass hay and water. He supplements them with a commodity blend pellet at the rate of around 5 lbs. per head per day and uses a feed truck to put the pellets straight on the ground, rather than in bunks. They also get a free-choice mineral with an ionophore.

"That's to get them to get up and come to the feed truck every day so we can monitor health. During the 60 days of preconditioning, my goal is not necessarily weight gain, it is to harden them up and get them in good health. I don't want them to get fat." They generally average gains of around a half a pound to a pound per head per day.

There is also shade available, either a tree line, an artificial shade structure, or both. "That's critically important," said Yoder.

Either he, employee Kelsey Jenkins, or one of his four daughters ride through the cattle at least once a day. The droopy ones are very carefully walked to the chute and treated with antibiotics and possibly an anti-inflammatory. They'll also get a vitamin B12 complex injection and, if they're off feed, an oral paste probiotic. However, he said, "I'm a firm believer in how you handle high-risk animals is more important than the products you use."

Heins said research on the use of probiotics, which add beneficial bacteria or yeast to the gut, and prebiotics, which feed the bacteria that are already in the gut, is a bit cloudy. However, he also said, "It won't hurt the calf and depending on the product, can help." He said this is especially true when the calves have been treated several times with antibiotics, which can kill the good rumen bacteria as well as the bad respiratory bacteria and potentially negatively affect feed digestion.

Treating these high-risk calves is a common occurrence. For the 1,500 to 3,000 head he buys a year, Yoder treats around 60% once and 25% twice. Averaged over the calves that aren't treated, he said it adds $50 to $60 a head to each set of cattle. Depending on the calves, the time of year and the weather, death loss varies from around 2% to 6%.

One thing he won't do during the preconditioning period is co-mingle. "Once you get past those six weeks, you can co-mingle them with others, but it is extremely critical that the cattle we buy in a week never get mixed up with any other cattle for six to eight weeks. There is a point and time where you can flip the switch and the cattle are healthy, you can put them together and your health management is still reduced by 90%."

GRASS AND MORE GRASS

The next step for these fall-bought calves is to graze high quality cool season forages like ryegrass or oats. Yoder works with area row-crop farmers who plant the forages as cover crops. He weighs the calves in and out and pays the farmer per pound of gain. "If I'm grazing cattle and managing grass, it takes away from my focus of preconditioning cattle. If I'm baling hay instead of looking after the health of cattle, it takes away my focus. I want to do the things I can't hire and hire the things that others can do. Then I can start more cattle."

This is when the calves start packing on pounds. Yoder deworms the calves again in February. Combined with the ionophore and original long-acting implant, as well as high quality forages, that gives them the push they need to reach sale weights of around 800 lbs. by April. Yoder sorts them then, if needed, and ships them straight off the farmers' operations, then the farmers put the land back in row crops.

One thing the contract-grazers generally don't have to do is treat a lot of sick calves. Yoder estimates treatment drops to around 10% or less. Death loss is usually nil, other than an occasional freak accident.

It is also open season on co-mingling calves, if needed. "I had one farmer who added 60 head a week until I brought him 420 head. Every set of cattle had been preconditioned for at least 60 days. He grazed them through the winter without any problems."

SORT, SELL AND SHIP

While cattle are cattle and are creative when it comes to getting into predicaments, Yoder said, "We try to market an animal that nobody will ever have trouble with."

However, he does use discretion on when and where he sends them. His fall-bought and spring-sold calves are typically heavier English bred types and can go anywhere from Iowa and Illinois farmer-feeders to large feedyards farther west.

While he doesn't buy many calves in the spring, the ones he does buy typically have more Brahman blood to cope with the heat, humidity and lower quality warm season grasses in the Florida panhandle. When they sell in the fall, they'll usually go to feedyards in Texas or Oklahoma.

Although Yoder does precondition and graze the cattle to add value, he also said, "It is an animal welfare issue. If you took those same calves straight from the stockyard and shipped them 1,200 miles, they wouldn't do well. We keep them close by, so it isn't as much of a shock for them." By the time they go through his preconditioning and grazing program, he said, "Our cattle are solid and bullet-proof."

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