We are getting close to the end of a long, hard winter that has tested all of us in some way.  With that being said, I thought it would be beneficial to discuss some basic care recommendations that help maintain healthy calves.

Bed calves for comfort – Calves need help staying warm with good bedding such as small grain straw.  Because of the hollow stem and other characteristics of straw, it has better insulation potential for calves than sawdust or corn stalks.  A calf that is wet or covered in mud and manure gets cold quicker because the matted hair provides less insulation.  Also, when the calf’s bedding is clean and dry, the calf is clean.  When dirty, the calf licks itself and ingests the mud and manure on its hair coat; we all know about the resulting health problems that could occur.

Provide clean, fresh water.  Water is very critical for growth and the health of calves and steers.  As a rule of thumb for calves, it takes four pounds of water for every one pound of feed.  Calves consuming 1.25 pounds of Milk Replacer in four quarts of water and one pound of starter is short of water.  This will reduce gain and open the possibility of health issues.  Water weighs eight pounds per gallon or four quarts; 2.25 pounds with only eight pounds of water instead of nine pounds.  Providing clean, fresh water at all times during the cold winter months is difficult, but don’t under or over mix Milk Replacer with water to get more or less water in the calves as this can cause digestive problems.  Always mix and feed the Milk Replacer as recommended.

Provide adequate shelter and feeding areas.  Calves require adequate shelter from the elements to maintain their performance during inclement weather.  Shelters should have good air quality – air high in humidity increases the potential of pneumonia.  Wet bedding decreases air quality so it is imperative that calf pens be cleaned and rebedded on a regular schedule.  Facility design should allow livestock to be comfortable and easily allow calves to access feed and water.  The water and feed should be clean and free of foreign material.  Also, it should be readily accessible, which means calves can eat comfortably without having to reach up or down.  Locate feeders and waterers so they are not too high or low for animals to find or eat from it.  Keep waterers clean of any manure or bedding.  Remove any leftover feed daily from the feeding bucket or trough.

Provide the proper nutrition.  It is fun because it is easily solved with the Kent Calf Feeding program.  A calf has a very low feed intake of 1-2 pounds per day so it is very critical to have all the proper nutrition in a very dense balanced package – Kent calf starters do that.  Cost per ton or pound is not as big a concern as to what is in it and the resulting performance.

The list could go on with more, but these are basic, but very critical recommendations for getting the best performance from Kent Feeds’ Calf feeds.  Most times, when you focus on basic animal husbandry skills and proper nutrition, you will minimize the health concerns in dairy-beef calves.  So, walk your customers’ calf facilities and help them fine-tune their calf management for maximum profits.

Sulfur Toxicity in Feedlot Cattle

By John J. Wagner, Ph.D.
Professor & General Manager, Southeast Colorado Research Center
Colorado State University, Lamar, Colorado

The Need for Sulfur:

Sulfur is an important component of many functions in the body and is an essential nutrient for beef cattle.  It is an important part of the amino acids methionine, cysteine, and cystine.  The B-vitamins thiamine and biotin also contain sulfur.  Rumen microbes require sulfur for their normal growth and metabolism.  A large portion of the sulfur found in typical feedlot diets is a component of the natural protein and most practical diets are adequate in sulfur.  However, feeding diets high in non-protein nitrogen or high in rumen undegradable intake protein may reduce the amount of sulfur available for rumen microorganisms, thus increasing the need of supplemental sulfur.  The requirement for sulfur (National Research Council) is 0.15% of diet dry matter and maximum tolerable level is listed as 0.40% of diet dry matter (NRC, 1996).

Sources of Sulfur:

Total sulfur intake from all feed and water sources must be considered when evaluating nutritional programs for sulfur adequacy or excess.  Typical diet components for feedlot cattle (including corn, alfalfa hay, and corn silage) contain relatively low to moderate concentrations of sulfur.  Under most circumstances, typical combinations of these feeds generally used for cattle pose little or no danger for sulfur toxicity.  Several feeds, especially co-products from grain milling (wet or dry) industries may be high in sulfur.  As these products are included in the diet, sulfur concentration generally increases, resulting in a rise in the risk of sulfur toxicity.

Sulfur concentrations in water can vary tremendously.  In 1999, the National Animal Health Monitoring System conducted a study of feedlots with greater than 1,000 head capacity (NAHMS 2000).  Two–hundred and sixty-three feedlots from 10 states supplied water samples for analysis.  Approximately 77% of the samples contained less than 300 ppm sulfate, 15% of the samples contained 300 to 999 ppm sulfate, and 8% of the samples registered greater than 1,000 ppm sulfate.  If a feedlot steer consumes approximately 10 gallons of water daily, sulfate intake from water is 4, 40 and 120 g per day if the water contained 100, 1,000, or 3,000 ppm sulfate.  Sulfate is approximately one-third sulfur.  Therefore, sulfur intake from water by the steer would be 1.3, 13.0, 40 g per head daily, respectively.  If the steer was consuming 19.8 lb. of dry matter daily that contained 0.12% sulfur, total sulfur intake expressed as a percent of dietary dry matter intake would be 0.13, 0.26 or 0.56%, respectively.  It is highly likely that the steer consuming 3,000 ppm sulfate would experience some degree of sulfur toxicity.  At 100 or 1,000 ppm the likelihood of sulfur toxicity is reduced considering the base diet was assumed to contain 0.12% sulfur.  However, if the base diet contained 30% wet distillers grains on a dry matter basis, and if the distillers grains contained 0.60% sulfur, an additional 0.14% [(0.60 – 0.13) x 0.30] sulfur would be added to the diet.  In this instance, the steer consuming 1,000 ppm sulfate water is now at risk of developing sulfur toxicity.  Early in the growth of the ethanol industry, several feedlots that had successfully used marginal quality water (or about 1,000 ppm sulfate) for many years started to experience sulfur problems only after the addition of distillers grains in the diet.

Manifestation of Sulfur Toxicity:

Elemental sulfur is considered one of the least toxic minerals; however, hydrogen sulfide, a product of sulfate metabolism in the rumen, is as toxic as cyanide (NRC, 2000).  The manifestation of sulfur toxicity in feedlot cattle is often a condition called polioencephalomalacia (PEM), which is characterized by necrosis of the cerebral cortex.  Symptoms of the condition include blindness, poor coordination, lethargy, and seizures.  Very often affected cattle are observed standing in the corner of the pen like a saw horse with all four feet spread to the extreme corners of their body.  Pen riders, doctors, and other feedlot personnel often refer to cattle exhibiting these signs as “brainers.”  This colorful name is appropriate when one considers that PEM literally means softening (malacia) of the gray matter (polio) of the brain (encephalo).

A number of research findings have linked PEM outbreaks to thiamin status, including a reduction in the activity of a thiamin diphosphate dependent enzyme (transketolase) in blood and an increase in the levels of thiaminases in the gastrointestinal tract.  PEM has been induced by feeding thiamin antagonists.  Researchers have demonstrated that calves recover from early symptoms of PEM if high doses of thiamin are administered.  The large body of evidence that associates PEM with thiamin status has led to the often erroneous assumption that outbreaks of PEM are the result of altered thiamin status and intravenous thiamin administration is often automatically used to treat cattle with PEM.  The addition of 100 to 200 mg of thiamin per head daily is often added to diets of cattle perceived to be at risk of developing PEM.

The results from efforts to treat or prevent PEM with thiamin are mixed.  Much of the confusion surrounding thiamin therapy may be attributed to the fact that high sulfate intake may induce PEM through either one of, or a combination of, two distinct mechanisms.  High sulfate intake has been shown to reduce duodenal thiamin flow and sulfite, a product of sulfate reduction, can destroy thiamin in the rumen resulting in thiamin deficiency.  This form of sulfate induced PEM may respond to thiamin therapy or may be prevented by thiamin supplementation.  However, an alternative mechanism through which sulfate causes PEM may be involved particularly if sulfate intake is extremely high.

Sulfides inhibit cytochrome C, an enzyme of the electron transport chain.  It has been proposed that rumen generated sulfides escaped detoxification in the liver and were responsible for sulfate induced PEM.  High sulfate intake results in extreme concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in the rumen gas cap.  These sulfides are inhaled during eructation, absorbed into the blood stream in the lung, and transported to the brain, thus bypassing the liver.  In addition, it has also been suggested that the high amounts of sulfides absorbed through the rumen wall and transported to the liver may overwhelm the capacity of the liver to detoxify sulfide.  Thus, a portion of these sulfides may also reach the brain.  Cattle experiencing PEM caused by the inhibition of cytochrome C will not respond to thiamin therapy.

Cattle consuming high sulfate water do not necessarily need to show symptoms of PEM to experience reduced feed yard performance.  Feedlot steers were provided with water of various sulfate concentrations ranging from 136 to 2, 360 ppm.  No clinically apparent symptoms of PEM were reported and performance by all steers in the study was outstanding.  However, increasing water sulfate concentration resulted in linear decreases in daily gain, gain to feed ratio, final weight, hot carcass weight, and dressing percentage.  Sulfate concentration by period interactions were evident for dry matter intake, average daily gain, and feed efficiency.  Water sulfate concentration also influenced water intake.  The effect of water sulfate on performance was greatest during the early periods of the trial and less evident toward trial completion.  Water intake differences were greatest during the periods of the greatest performance reduction and not evident during the last period.  The trial was started during the early summer (July 16) and ambient temperatures were greatest during this time.  It appears that extreme water sulfate concentrations inhibit water intake by nearly 18%.  It is possible that performance reductions observed for cattle consuming high sulfate water in summer may actually be a function of reduced ability of the cattle to effectively combat heat stress.

Nutritional Interventions:

In addition to supplemental thiamin, several other nutritional manipulations have been proposed to help control sulfur-induced PEM.  Colorado State University scientists demonstrated up to a 37% reduction in the rate of hydrogen sulfide production from an in vitro fermentation system with the addition of nitrate.  Other researchers demonstrated a 77% reduction in hydrogen sulfide production when an in vitro system was treated with molybdenum and a 71% reduction in hydrogen sulfide production when the system was treated with 9, 10-anthraquinone.  Hydrogen sulfide production rate was reduced by over 75% when an in vitro system was exposed to clinoptilolite, a form of zeolite.  Feeding high levels of ammonium nitrate, molybdenum, or zeolite often reduced the hydrogen sulfide concentration in the rumen gas cap, but did not improve feedlot performance by steers consuming high sulfate water (> 2,000 ppm) in experiments conducted at the Southeast Colorado Research Center in the late 1990s.

Management Recommendations:

1. Sample all sources of water and evaluate for sulfate concentration.  Blending water for various sources to reduce the sulfate concentration to less than 1,000 ppm may reduce the risk of sulfur induced PEM and lost performance.
2. Sample all co-product feed ingredients and analyze for sulfur.
3. Make certain total (water plus feed) dietary sulfur intake expressed as a percentage of dry matter intake is less than 0.40%.
4. Avoid stacking sulfur risk factors.  Feed yards forced to use marginal or poor quality water may simply not be able to successfully utilize grain milling co-products.  Likewise, simultaneous use of several high-sulfur grain milling co-products should be avoided.
5. Logic may suggest the elimination of high sulfur trace mineral sources such as copper or zinc sulfate from the diet.  However, the amount of sulfur contributed to the diet by trace mineral source is minimal compared with the sulfur contribution from grain milling co-products or marginal to poor quality water.
6. Thiamin supplementation or intravenous thiamin administration may provide some measure of success in managing PEM if thiamine metabolism is compromised in the rumen.  However, thiamin therapy or supplementation will likely be of limited value if exposure to hydrogen sulfide is excessive.
7. To date, despite modest successes in laboratory in vitro systems and non-research based testimonials to the contrary, no dietary modifications have been shown to effectively control PEM or improve performance in feedlot cattle exposed to high sulfur intake.  References available upon request from Dr. Wagner.

In today’s economic picture for commercial cow/calf producers, the measure of profitability can be tied to small changes. This segment of the market has enjoyed profitability for many recent years due to cheap feed costs and being paid a premium for their product, a live calf. With the advent of high feed costs and a softening of the feeder market, cow/calf producers must rethink their production strategies. There are numerous ways to cut costs and for the sake of this article most will pertain to feed inputs.

Use Co-Products:

With the proliferation of ethanol plants in the central U.S., gluten and distillers grains are available to producers. Both wet and dry versions are acceptable to cows and which one you use is dependent on what’s available from the closest plant, the cost delivered and the storage/usage rate. Wet products do not have the storage life of dry gluten or distillers but often are less expensive per unit of dry matter purchased. Wet products can mold and moldy co-products must not be used in pregnant heifers or cows as abortions may occur. If these co-products are less expensive per ton of dry matter than corn and their use does not cause management issues, enhanced profitability for the operation should occur.

Reduce Forage Waste:

Have you ever watched cattle eat hay from a round bale feeder?  How much waste is observed?  Many experts say 20-30% of the forage is trampled into the ground/manure thus losing feeding value. To properly store bales it requires a site that has been developed with drainage in mind. Do not have the bales touch, preferably leaving 1.5 feet of space for air circulation. Having space between the bales also allows rain and snow to go to the ground rather than being held up touching the hay. Know what your bale weighs so feeding becomes more accurate and limits wastage.

Utilize Crop Residues:

Think of the tons of corn and bean residues left on the ground after harvest!  We continue to throw this material away year after year. Corn stover contains about 5%-6% protein and almost hay-like NEg values. Not great, but if properly supplemented with co-products, corn and a co-product balancer can make a feed that’s quite adequate. It is paramount that the cow’s body condition be maintained and not allowed to slide. Crop residues should be put through a grinding process to enhance digestibility. The use of low moisture tubs like EnergiLass should be encouraged as these improve fiber digestibility by as much as 20% (Kansas State University).

Know Your Cow Herd:

You cannot afford to keep a cow for a year without having a viable calf. These cows should be culled (fed out for market) and replacements brought into the herd. Females in a herd are not all the same weight and body condition. To save feed and money, cows should be fed according to their body condition (gain or lose weight). On both ends of the body condition score index, females will not breed and maintain a calf efficiently. Dry cows require less “groceries” than a lactating cow. Develop diets for each stage of production and age and feed accordingly. Get a scale!

Mineral Supplementation:

Most feed programs for cows can be formulated to provide all protein, energy, and fiber with local inputs only requiring the purchase of a free-choice mineral. These minerals should be chosen for the geographic location and stage of production. Some locations are low in selenium and copper and other areas have surpluses of these trace minerals. Prior to and during breeding, research data have shown benefits from feeding complexed trace minerals to cows. Diets with co-products require a mineral with high calcium, no phosphorus, and fortified with thiamine to aid in preventing incidences of polio. This is an area where skimping must be avoided.

Forage Analysis:

All forages are obviously not the same. Forages taken from the same field two years apart may not be the same as fertilization with commercial products or manure can change the nutrient content. Forages should be analyzed annually for protein, moisture, calcium, and phosphorus as a bare minimum. Build your nutritional supplementation around these assays. If using various energy sources, have these assayed as well and utilize the appropriate free-choice mineral.

Management Tools:

Anything to enhance the efficiency of production should be used by the cow/calf producer if they are cost-effective and legal. Implants and the use of Rumensin or Bovatec should be employed religiously. Either option can save 5-10% on the cost of production. Together, they are at least additive. The use of implants should be the result of strategic planning based on the goals for each calf (i.e.; herd replacement, age of the calf, etc.). Calves headed toward a natural beef program cannot generally use implants or ionophores during their lifetime to qualify.

Summary:

To tighten one’s belt in the cow/calf industry in order to maximize savings means to take into account feedstuffs, proper nutrition, growth and/or production phase, and management tools. They are all interrelated and impact one another and can make the difference between profit and loss.

SS:sg

11-12-08

A good receiving plan for Holstein steers can pay big dividends of $5 to $30 or more profit per steer. This approach involves a number of practices that can greatly reduce problems while improving the bottom-line with overall better feedlot performance and health. Our transportation network for moving cattle today doesn’t think twice about moving cattle 20 plus hours on trucks to feed yards. With that length of time on the truck, cattle are exposed to a lot of stress. One of the biggest stresses can be the one we can’t control – the weather. As a result, we need to have the feed yard ready. One factor in preparation is getting some of the history of the cattle, such as how the ration was fed, what was in the ration, and what vaccinations were administered. After this information is gathered, prepare for the unexpected and start a fresh feeding and vaccination program:

1. Accessible water is the first thing to consider after unloading the truck. Cattle will have better feed intakes with good fresh water. Finding the water in a feedlot can be a challenge for newly arrived Holsteins, so make sure the waterer height is proper for the size and weight of the cattle. As an example, steers less than 300 pounds can’t reach waterers that are over 24” tall. Also, to help the cattle find water, set the float to allow the water to run over, thus creating a “running water” sound. The cattle will be attracted to the sound, smell, and wet ground. Adding extra water tanks can be beneficial to ensure proper water intake.
2. Proper nutrition is critical to the health and performance of new cattle. The use of a Kent ARRIVALmax^™ product is very important as it aids in providing the necessary nutrition. Most cattle go through a major ration change following transportation. ARRIVALmax Complete is an excellent product that transitions steers onto self feeders; one of the most common ways to feed Holsteins. Utilizing an ARRIVALmax product provides the correct protein type, BoVantage^™ technology, crude fiber, and other ingredients to ensure optimal nutrition and health. Receiving diets should be fed in bunks for 7-14 days to reach maximum intakes. The use of feed grade antibiotics may help the calves initially; consult your veterinarian. Another product or practice may include the use of EnergiLass^® Rumen Booster, a high-quality, nutrient-dense, low-moisture molasses tub, especially on 200#-400# steers as they have lower intakes initially and the tubs can stimulate dietary intakes.
3. Steer comfort is very critical in these small Holsteins. When they get wet and chilled, illness usually occurs, so adequate shelter and an abundance of dry bedding are important. Small grain bedding provides more heat-holding power than sawdust. Shelter should be large enough for all of the cattle to use comfortably or they will crowd. Crowding is worse than providing no shelter. The shelter should provide 15-25 square feet per head for 200#-500# steers, with equal amounts of square footage outside. Providing shelter is equally important in hot months as winter since overheating is also a detriment.Incoming calves need to rest comfortably for 24-48 hours after arrival to limit morbidity. However, get the steers up every 2-4 hours and move them around in order to look for any sick cattle. This will also encourage movement to the feed bunks and waterers. Research data have shown that keeping the lights on during the evening for the first 5-7 days post-arrival will also stimulate intake.
4. The vaccination schedule should be ready prior to arrival. Holstein calves should be vaccinated 24-48 hours after arrival and this should include a viral 5-way and 7-way Clostridal. A preventative broad spectrum antibiotic can also be administered at this time. Most vaccines must be boostered within the next 3-4 weeks and implants can be done at this time rather than earlier as calves have been through the disease incubation period and intakes are on the rise.

This is just a start of the things that need to be done to ensure a good transition of new, lightweight Holstein feeder steers. Ask a lot of questions and think through all the scenarios that can happen. Prepare a plan to prevent or treat sickness. Also, consult with vets and Kent Feeds representatives. Remember, a good start means a good finish on Holstein steers. Start them right and feed them the best – Kent Beef Feed!

JG:sg

4-1-09