Feedlot receiver animals go through a period of significant stress when being shipped and then divided into new pens with new pen mates, and, to top it all, are exposed to a host of new environmental challenges. This is comparable to kindergarten classes for children where the sudden exposure to a new environment and new…
The management and handling of new calves arriving at a feedlot has a huge influence on profitability. New calves need to be managed with care in order to overcome the challenges they face without any unnecessary stress or other difficulties. A feedlot starter programme specifically focuses on making the transition to intensive production as easy…
It has become increasingly apparent that conventional measures of live animal feedlot performance are inadequate to express the relative profitability of an animal or a pen of cattle. This is because most cattle today are valued on either a carcass weight basis or a net carcass value basis, and the proportion of carcass weight added,…
When it comes to bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in the feedlot, the old aphorism, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” could not be more apropos. In fact, it would be even more true to say that preventing disease in the feedlot is not just “worth a pound of cure”, but is…
The key to success in today’s ruminant industry is managing the effects of stress on animals. The goal is to minimise the cost of stress and help animals achieve optimal production. To achieve this, trace mineral nutrition is paramount. Keeping animals correctly fortified in terms of trace minerals will prevent the costliest deficiency – the…