Working Ranch Magazine - Index

Working Ranch Magazine - magazine - Index

Audubon-Manning Veterinary Services
One evening I was called out to treat a 1200 lb. steer that was
“staggery and breathing funny” according to the client. This
producer had 30 head of big cattle left in the lot after selling
the rest of the pen. These 30 head were sold, but not yet delivered.
The steer was sunken in the eyes with a big belly, salivating
heavily and staggering on his back legs. Rumen motility
was zero. The presumptive diagnosis I made was grain overload
and proceeded to treat him as such.
I looked at the other cattle and the feedbunks in the pen
to see what may have precipitated the episode. The producer
explained to me that three weeks ago the cattle were on
an old crop of shell corn and long stem hay ration. He fills
the bunks every third day and had recently switched to new
crop corn. The hay rings were empty and he was now using
ground hay.
He began adding corn silage (two skid loader bucketfuls)
to the feed wagon to improve palatability. Within the past
week he had moved a heifer that had calved into the pen as
well. A quick observation of the bunks showed that nearly
all the shell corn was at one end and nearly all the roughage
was at the other. The bunks in the middle had a graduation
from high grain to high roughage. Heaven knows what level
the Rumensin was or what bunk I would have found it in.
I explained to him that if he had $40,000 in large denomination
bills in the feedlot, he would be watching it like a
hawk. Unfortunately, he had that many dollars worth of cattle
in the lot and they warranted only a passing glance. The
80 |WORKING RANCH | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2008
BY BOB BLOMME,DVM
overriding problem this producer had was consistency. He
had no set daily feeding time and feedstuffs changed on a
whim. Cattle moved in and out with no consideration for
bunk space or ration adjustments.
Fermented feeds are a viable feedstuff, but I don’t recommend
altering the ration so drastically that close to payday.
The bunks went empty during the previous day and then
they were filled to overflowing for another three day fill. The
feed wagon had no scale and was a feeder wagon rather than
a mixer wagon. No feed was being mixed. One month
previous, the use of shell corn and big round bales at least
provided consistency to this man’s operation. In the last
three weeks he had changed almost every possible factor in
this pen of cattle.
Our vet practice had sponsored meetings and offered
handouts on bunk management in previous months and
the producer had attended, so it wasn’t like he had never
been exposed to the information. This episode reinforced to
me the necessity of a veterinarian actually being on the farm
for a good look. It’s true a picture is worth a thousand words.
It would have been easy to treat the steer and then hop into
the pickup to go home. By walking through the pen, I was
able teach the lessons he had been told previously. This producer
is a better feeder now than he was yesterday.
Consistency is critical to all of us in the cattle business,
regardless of our size or the segment we are in. Actually,
consistency is a valuable attribute in almost everything
we do. It is tough to stay on an even keel with all of
the decisions and distractions we see in our daily lives; yet
this feedlot example reinforced
some of the factors in
my own life that I need
to pay attention to.
Maybe this example
will do the same for
you as well.