Cow-Calf Production Flashcards
Production medicine places an emphasis on disease and production problems that impair _____, rather than clinical disease.
Productivity
As a food animal production vet, one of the most important things to do to achieve optimum health and production is to ____
have regularly scheduled visits and provide records with production levels, costs and costs and returns of managmenet recommendations
Four steps in appraoch to production medicine
- Identify problems/set goals
- Develop approach/identify measurable parameters
- Implement, observe, and measure
- Analyze and amend approach
- Back to #1
*the more times you go around this circle, the mroe difficult it is to make smaller gains, but will provide great long-term benefits.
A vet should visit a feedlot or backgrounder how often?
Weekly to monthly
A vet should visit cow/calf productions how often?
Qaurterly, or at least semi-annually
What to monitor and keep records of:
- Reproductive performance - days open, preg. rate by 21 day periods
- Production performance
- Weaning weight (day 205)
- Average daily gain (ADG)
- Nutritional status - BCS, weight gain, ration analysis
- Disease occurence - morbidity, mortality, tx response
- Discuss - production levels (actual and target), intervention strategies
You cannot manage what you do not ____. And you cannot measure what your client does not _____ about.
Measure; care
Philosphy - what is the most important thing at the bottom of the pyramid that a farmer needs to focus on before he can move on to other goals
Animal health, followed by production, then genetics
This type of cow/calf production cycle provides seedstock to others (bulls and heifers) and usually develop cows until breeding age.
Purebred
This type of cow/calf production cycle raises calves for beef production and usually sells calves after weaning.
Commercial
Two important vet visits during the year are:
Pre-breeding visit and pregnancy exam visit
What is done and recorded during hte pre-breeding vet visit:
Vaccines, breeding soudness, heifer pre-breeding exam
Record weights, BCS, RTS, pelvic measurements
Overall, prebreeding visit addresses the general herd health.
Things that are done during the pregnancy exam visit:
- Records -
- # of cows pregnant, and open
- State of pregnancy
- Reason for cull (i.e. open, lame, old)
- Sometimes wean calves during this time
- Record - total # weaned, weaning weights - individual and average
Besides pre-breeding and pregnancy exam visits, what are two other times a vet can visit during the year that will be benficial for the producer?
- December-January
- Winter feeding - monitor weight and BCS
- BCS is important during this time becuase we can easilry do something about the problem at this time of the year
- February-March - for spring calving herd
- Calving
- Records: calving dates, required assitance (i.e. normal, pull, c-section)
- Calf mortality
If you can convince your client of nothing else, try to do a _____ exam during the prebreeding vet visit (30-60 days before turnout).
Breeding soundness exam
During the prebreeding exam visit, what is the best vaccine type that we can give to cows?
MLV - b/c cows are not pregnant - gives the best immunity
What to examine on a heifer prebreeding exam
Reproductive tract score
Pelvimetry (eliminate cows with pelvises below a certain level, do not necessarily select for cows with the biggets pelvises)
Vaccinate and deworm
The best time to castrate and dehorn calves is during _____.
At birth; or at least pre-weaning
If you do not castrate and dehorn calves at birth, when is the next best time?
Pre-breeding vet visit - calves have not been weaned yet (1-3 months old)
What to do during prebreeding exam of calves:
Castrate and dehorn if not done at birth
Vaccinate -as early as 1 week of age
Apply fly tages if season and condition exist
Fly tags in calves helps to decreases the transmission of _____.
Pink eye
Heifers are bred at ____ months of age.
13-15
T/F: post-calving anestrus of a heifer is much longer than a mature cow.
True
