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TRACKING DRUG RESISTANCE 路 DNA TESTING FOR DISEASE

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Contents canadian cattlemen · september 2015 · Volume 78, No. 8

 susta inab i l ity

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animal care lives here  g ra z ing

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Preg testing cows is easier than it used to be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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A new decision tree for veterinarians. . . . 14 Check the quality of the water. . . . . . . . . . . 16 Proving probiotics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Cattlemen is is published published monthly monthly by by Farm Farm Business Business Communications. Communications. Cattlemen Head office: office: Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Manitoba. Printed Printed by by Transcontinental Transcontinental Head LGMC. LGMC. Cattlemen Cattlemen is is printed printed with with linseed linseed oil-based oil-based inks. inks. Subscription rates in Canada — $41 for one year, Subscription rates in Canada — $41 for one year, $61 $61 for for 22 years, years, $87 for for 33 years years (prices (prices include include GST). GST). Manitoba Manitoba residents residents add add $87 8% PST. PST. U.S. U.S. subscription subscription rate rate — — $35 $35 (U.S. (U.S. funds). funds). Subscription Subscription 8% rate outside outside Canada Canada and and U.S. U.S. — — $55 $55 per per year. year. Single Single copies copies $3. $3. rate We acknowledge the financial support of the Govern We acknowledge the financial support of the Governm m ent of ent of Canada through through the Canada the Canada Periodical Periodical Fund Fund Canada of the Department of Canadian Heritage. of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Publications Mail Mail Agreement Agreement Number Number 40069240. 40069240. Publications Canadian Postmaster: Return undeliverable Canadian Canadian Postmaster: Return undeliverable Canadian addresses (covers (covers only) only) to: to: Circulation Circulation Dept., Dept., addresses PO Box Box 9800, 9800, Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB MB R3C R3C 3K7. 3K7. PO U.S. Postmaster: Postmaster: Send Send address address changes changes and and undeliverable undeliverable U.S. addresses addresses (covers (covers only) only) to: to: Circulation Circulation Dept., Dept., PO PO Box Box 9800, 9800, Winnipeg, MB MB R3C R3C 3K7. 3K7. Winnipeg,

Animal care lives here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 DNA testing for disease is on the way. . . 28

In praise of water, and beavers

 drug res istance

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Adverse reactions to vaccines and drugs in cattle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Tracking resistance to drugs in cattle bugs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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In praise of water, and beavers. . . . . . . . . . 32

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The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Canadian Cattlemen and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists, Canadian Cattlemen and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as Canadian Cattlemen and Farm Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

Tracking resistance 40 to drugs in cattle bugs It’s on the increase.

Congratulations! To our September survey winner, David Leuschen of Bruno, Sask. This month’s survey is on page 60. Cover Photo: By Debbie Furber.

Comment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Newsmakers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Our History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Vet Advice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Research on the Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Holistic Ranching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Prime Cuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Straight from the Hip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 CCA Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 News Roundup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Purely Purebred. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 The Markets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Market Talk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Sales and Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 C at t l e m e n · s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

 COMMENT

By Gren Winslow

Prepping for the politicians A few notes from the CCA’s semi-annual meeting

ate last month the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association published a political wish list on behalf of the beef industry for candidates running in the federal election. You can find it on the CCA website www.cattle.ca. The week before that document came out I had a chance to hear some of the background discussions that went into setting it at the CCA’s semi-annual meeting in Winnipeg. This business meeting provides an opportunity for producer directors from across the country, and the public, to get a fresh update on the latest issues vexing the industry. It’s a large list but a few things stood out for me. One is the lack of progress on the national traceability program that continues to stumble toward a government-imposed deadline of July 2016. It’s hard to see how they will meet that date. As of last month the national industry, with the exception of Quebec, was still at loggerheads with the feds, specifically the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The industry keeps insisting it will comply with the Cattle Implementation Plan agreed to in 2011, but it seems the feds keep looking for more. As one delegate involved in the discussions explained it, “CFIA still wants to scan everything, everywhere… and the technology is not there to do that.” The bug in that argument, of course, is that it is possible in Quebec where Agri-Tracabilité Québec (ATQ) tracks animals from birth to slaughter and every step in between. Of course ATQ is dealing with much smaller numbers within a tightly controlled environment. To implement such a system in the rest of the country is seen as both impractical and prohibitively expensive. As a result, CFIA’s plan to merge the databases of the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) and ATQ under a new Ottawa-based agency TraceCanada has run into “legal” snags, as well. If TraceCanada cannot provided database services in an economical manner, meaning for less than CCIA can do it for, the CCIA board is confident it can generate the revenues necessary to maintain this service for the rest of the country. The feeling around the committee table was that the CFIA will come around to the industry’s view if all sectors remain unified in their opposition to Ottawa’s plan. Another hot topic was the Western Price Insurance Program. Everyone from the West around the table agrees it is a valuable risk management tool. Any concerns they have rest with the declining number of contracts taken out this year because of the high prices, and whether federal budget slashers will take this as a sign that the pilot program is losing support. It was an easy decision for the CCA to put the need for a permanent insurance program on its wish list, but

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

there was a general feeling that more needs to be done to convince people of the stability of locking in profits on calves at the start of the year, even in times of high prices. It also provides young producers with something to take to their banker to get a loan for more cows. The discussion got a little more heated when the Ontario delegation asked for the CCA to lobby the feds for support of its own provincial Beef Cattle Protection plan. Price insurance was sold to the feds as a national plan with the western version being a pilot to test it out, so offering up support for an Ontario plan might raise concerns about how Ottawa bureaucrats might view a permanent western plan. Nonetheless, the Ontario group won out and CCA’s platform put to the candidates calls on Ottawa to contribute to each jurisdiction’s existing livestock insurance plan, “in the absence of a single sufficiently funded national program.” The CCA is also encouraging the new government to enhance loan guarantees of existing feeder and breeder programs across the country to keep up with the rising price of cattle. Low numbers on the national BSE surveillance plan raised another red flag. Canada agreed to test 30,000 high-risk cattle per year to maintain its current disease status at the World Organization for Animal Health. Last year we tested 27,600 and since May this year’s monthly totals have been dropping below the level needed to reach that 30,000 target. After our 19th case showed up in February, the clock that determines when Canada can apply for a lower BSE status was set back another five years. Expect to see more headlines harping on the need for more testing this fall. Stable funding for the Verified Beef Production (VBP) program was another issue. Government money was available to produce three new VBP modules on biosecurity, animal care and environmental stewardship but none was offered to fund the ongoing operations of the program which operate under the wing of the Beef Cattle Research Council. The provincial wings that deliver the program basically exist on small fees and bits of provincial money. In some cases it’s a volunteer job. The first two modules could be ready by year-end, but the environmental will have to wait until the industry comes up with a national definition of sustainable beef practices. VBP has done some work on this theme and McDonald’s sustainable beef project will wrap up early next year. At that point the results will be passed to the Canadian Roundtable on Sustainable Beef to come up with a standard. VBP is widely expected to deliver the program, including verifications from brand-related programs like McDonald’s. That’s assuming the CCA can come up with an affordable plan and “sustainable” funding for the program. c

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 THE INDUST RY

NewsMakers Rob Davies is the new general manager of the Alberta Barley Commission. Davies comes to Alberta Barley with a long history of experience in the ag business secRob Davies tor, including 15 years as the CEO of Weyburn Inland Terminal. Darrell, Doris, Katie and Travis Squair

Squaw Valley Ranch of British Columbia is the 2015 recipient of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA). The ranch is operated by Darrell and Doris Squair along with their son Travis and daughter-in-law Katie. Located near Lumby, B.C. in a secluded valley, Squaw Valley Ranch includes 2,800 acres of private land, 700 acres of leased land and thousands of acres of subalpine Crown range. The 500-head ranch is surrounded by a 1,300-acre woodlot, which preserves the integrity of the environment. The Squairs were selected for their exceptional commitment to their environment, having led their local community by completing one of the first environmental farm plans in the area and their commitment to coexisting with local grizzly bears. The ranch has grown from a 320-acre, 60-head outfit but predator issues remain non-existent with the cattle sharing the land with the grizzlies. The Squairs have committed to a no-hunting philosophy on their private land and their goal is to preserve the natural surroundings of the ranch for future generations. A custom designed hydroelectric dam built in 1989 to provide a more efficient environmentally friendly power source still provides electricity to the ranch to this day. Rob Gordon, the dean of the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) is leaving to take up the post of vicepresident, research, at WilRob Gordon frid Laurier University in Waterloo starting November 1. He is a 1985 graduate of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College where he later served as dean, department head and Canada Research Chair. He was named dean of OAC in 2008 and reappointed for a five-year term in June 2013.

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

Sharon Faye is the new environmental farm plan program manager of the Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta (ARECA). She has a B.Sc. in Sharon Faye Agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan, an MBA from Cape Breton University and was working as a market analyst with Alberta Agriculture prior to her new appointment. Her chief role with ARECA will be to co-ordinate the delivery of Environmental Farm Plans (EFP) within Alberta. ARECA is a provincial association of non-profit producer groups dedicated to enhancing the sustainability and profitability of agriculture in Alberta. The Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) has expanded its beef researcher mentorship program by accepting four applications from new beef-related scientists who have little practical experience of the Canadian beef industry. This year’s recipients are: Dr. Angela Canovas is assistant professor of beef cattle and small ruminant genomics at the University of Guelph. Her research focuses on animal systems Dr. Angela biology and the use of Canovas statistical genomics and bioinformatics with further functional validation of regulatory target genes. Her mentors are Mike McMorris, the general manager of BIO, and Daniel Doerksen, a cow-calf producer near Gem, Alta. Dr. Argenis Rodas González, is assistant professor in meat science and food safety at the University of Manitoba. His research is focused on the evaluation of meat composiDr. Argenis tion and quality, with special Rodas González interest in meat shelf life and palatability. His mentors are Betty Green with the Verified Beef Production program

and Trevor Atchison, a producer near Pipestone, Man., who is vice-chair of the Canada Beef board of directors. Dr. Claudia Narvaez Bravo is an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba’s faculty of agricultural and food sciences. Her research focuses on reducing pathoDr. Claudia genic organisms in meat Narvaez Bravo production. Her mentors are Mauricio Arcila, the food safety quality and regulatory superintendent for Cargill Meat Solutions in High River, Alta., and Tom Teichroeb, a producer from Langruth, Man. Dr. Shaun Dergousoff, is a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge research station who is focused on gaining a better understanding of the Dr. Shaun risks associated with differDergousoff ent arthropods (ticks and biting flies) that transmit livestock diseases. His mentors are the Coaldale Veterinary Clinic and the Allied Marketing Group (five feedlot operators near Lethbridge). Charolais breeder Harry Airey from Rivers was recently inducted into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame. He and his wife Joan bought their first Charolais in Harry Airey 1972 and became hooked on the breed. He was active in the Canadian and Manitoba Charolais Associations and served on the boards of the Record of Performance program and the Douglas Bull Test Station. Airey was named to the Charolais association honour roll in 2002 and was nominated twice for the Beef Improvement Federation Seedstock Producer Honour Roll of Excellence. A month or so later Manitoba Charolais breeders were mourning the loss of another Manitoba Hall of Fame member, Clare Geddes of Pilot Mound who Clare Geddes passed away August 18. Clare and Dorothy Geddes imported the first Charolais cattle into Manitoba in 1958. He was active in the Manitoba, Canadian and International Charolais associations and the Manitoba Beef Cattle Performance Association. c

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 our histo ry

WOLVES

By H.A. Riviere, Pincher Creek, Alta. Reprinted from the October 1949 Canadian Cattlemen

will relate some facts about range conditions way back in 1884. Although the calves and colts in the Cypress Hills Country were never weaned and the buffalo on which the wolf packs fed were no more, I have no recollection of any damage done to stock by wolves on my range at that time. But in the foothills they ran in packs and inflicted serious losses on stockmen. Every big ranch kept a pack of coyote dogs. The Walrond, Cochrane, Oxley, Bar U, Quorn and many others kept packs. These dogs would make short work of a coyote, but the wolf was another story. They could stop a wolf so a rider could run up and shoot him but I have never known a dog pack to kill a full-grown wolf without man’s help. The explanation is that the hounds were shorthaired and every time a wolf got a slash at them he would tear a chunk out. One such experience was enough to convince a hound that getting within reach of a wolf ’s teeth was bad medicine. If the dogs closed in on the wolf all they got was a mouthful of fur, which did no damage to the wolf but gave him the chance he wanted to get at the dogs. One good slash would put any ordinary hound out of commission. I have run the Bar U, Walrond and other good packs and believe me no dog would tangle twice with a wolf. They would heel him, and stop him long enough for a rider to get up and pull the wolf from his hind-quarters, but kept carefully away from his front end. While I worked range riding for Dr. Warnock who was then running the Walrond horse ranch, Doc McEachern, who was general manager and lived in Montreal, sent out a big slate-coloured stud dog, an Irish wolfhound, as wolves were at least twice as heavy as the greyhounds and the deerhounds they used for coyote dogs. “Hector,” as the dog was named, was supposed to give his pups weight. He weighed well over 100 pounds. Well, Hector had plenty of sand but no experience with wolves. One day Lou Murray and I ran into a bunch of half-grown wolf pups. The old bitch wolf ran over the brow of the hill. Hector spotted her and after her he went. We were busy getting the pups which had scattered in every direction. When we got through with them we went after the old one. Lou felt sure Hector would kill the old bitch, if he could catch her, but I had my doubts. Sure enough, not 100 yards from the brow of the hill there lay Hector, his belly ripped open and badly mauled. It looked as though his back was broken as he had a big gash over the loins. The High River Horse Ranch imported a big German boarhound. He weighed about 145 pounds, but

C a t t l e m e n · S E P TEM B E R 2 0 1 5

he was slow and could not keep up with the pack; also being smoothhaired, I do not believe he would have stood a chance with a big wolf. A. J. McLean of the CV at Taber told me he had weighed a female wolf killed near Taber. Her weight was 176 pounds. The heaviest wolf I have any record of was killed by Frank Bedingfield on his place west of High River above the Duke of Windsor Ranch. He was coming home with a load of logs on a sleigh. His collie dog came on the high run to the sleigh and a wolf popped out of the timber right after him. Frank picked the dog up and put him on the load, but the wolf kept circling the team and Frank feared he was going to jump the horses. When he got home the wolf, who was still following, stopped on the brow of the second bench watching the dog. Frank got his rifle, put the dog back on the load and drove back up the hill. He put the collie off the sleigh and as soon as the wolf saw the dog he made for him and was not over 20 feet away when Frank shot him dead. He was such a big heavy brute that Frank had quite a time getting him on the load. However, he decided to get his weight, but having no scales he drove down the next day to the Bar U, just a couple of miles down Pekisko Creek, where the dead wolf tipped the scales at 217 pounds. I was working at the Bar U at the time but was out on the range so I did not see him weighed, but the boys who helped Frank all agreed on 217 pounds as the weight. I have killed quite a number of big wolves but I believe Frank’s wolf holds the record for this part of Canada. While on the subject of wolves I have never known of an authentic case of wolves, singly or in packs, molesting humans. I have been in a place on Moose River, north of Athabaska, where two big packs of wolves were operating, one of over 40, the other over 30. They would pull down and clean up a big bull moose but trappers in the district never even bothered to carry a gun. They said as soon as wolves got the human scent they beat it out of sight, and only by accident could you get a shot at them. These trappers collected the bounty of $25 on only three pelts. Their story was that one night they heard an awful racket on the little frozen-over lake not over 200 yards from the cabin. Their sleigh dogs, which they kept chained up, seemed very excited, but they waited until daylight before they investigated and there on the bloody, tramped-down snow were three dead wolves, and the horns and big bones of a large bull moose. c For more of the past from the pages of our magazine see the History section at www.canadiancattlemen.ca.

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Healt h · r e p ro duct i o n

By Heather Smith Thomas

Preg testing cows is easier than it used to be

ost beef producers routinely pregnancy test cows after breeding season, to determine which ones to keep and which ones to sell. It’s a major cost to feed open cows through winter. Another major reason is that finding more than a typical number of open cows can alert you to a disease problem. Trichomoniasis, vibriosis, IBR, BVD, and lepto can cause cows to lose their pregnancies. Nutritional deficiencies can also show up as open cows. There are several methods available for preg testing, including palpation, ultrasound and blood tests. Dr. Steve Hendrick of Coaldale, Alta., prefers ultrasound, primarily because he’s most experienced with it. “With experience, manual palpation can be very accurate as well. One of the added benefits of ultrasound is that you can sex the fetus. This may be desired by some producers, especially in a purebred herd,” he says. “You can also assess viability of the fetus. Being really good at pregnancy testing (and determining stage of pregnancy, etc.) is an art; it’s not all science. There is a lot of variability in size of the buttons (cotyledons), size of the fetus, etc. You have to weigh many factors, the same with ultrasound. You can take measurements such as trunk measurements and crown to rump length, to estimate stage of pregnancy,” he says. “Most producers are just content to know whether the cow is pregnant or not, but some want to know if she will calve early or late in the calving season, for management purposes, such as sorting the herd for pre-calving scours vaccinations.” Some producers also want to know whether to put a certain cow with an early group (to

watch more closely during colder weather) or a later-calving group. “Blood testing has a place, particularly for herds that are remote and far from a veterinary service,” says Hendrick. If the veterinarian has to drive for two hours to get there, it will cost more for the farm call. And for a small herd, it may be more cost effective to just draw the blood samples yourself and send them to the lab. The disadvantage to the blood test is that you must wait two or three days for the results. This is a problem if you need to make the decision immediately on which cows to keep or cull. It’s not a problem if you’ll be handling the cattle again. Blood samples can be drawn, for instance, when a person brings cattle in for pre-weaning vaccination of calves. The results would be available when the cattle are brought back in for weaning, and the open cows could be sorted off at that time. The method chosen for checking will depend on your management and goals, feed costs and markets. In a drought, you might want to wean calves early and sell cull cows early, to reduce feed costs. “We had a situation here this spring where some producers exposed their cows to a bull before going out to pasture, and did some early preg checking. Grass was slow coming, and they were fairly confident that the cows were far enough along that they didn’t need to put a bull with them when they went to pasture. With the high expense of bulls this year, they wanted to save money. They were having to break groups up into different pastures to utilize other grass and couldn’t run them in one large group. They needed to stretch their bull power, and asked us to preg-check their cows early,” says Hendrick.

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

Producers need to realize that there’s always a certain amount of early pregnancy loss in every herd.“If you preg check cows early, a few that were determined pregnant are no longer pregnant by calving time. This is true with the blood test, as well. The pregnancy protein lingers in the bloodstream a couple of months after calving, or after an abortion.” If you took the blood sample just after a pregnancy loss it may show as positive or suspect, even though the cow was no longer pregnant. EXTENSION-ARM ULTRASOUND

Trans-rectal ultrasound allows visualization of the embryo/fetus as early as 26 days. There are two ways a veterinarian or technician can do the ultrasonography — with the traditional arm-in rectal probe, or the newer extension-arm probe that eliminates the need for inserting his/her arm into every cow. The extension-arm probe has been in use about 15 years. The first commercial extension arm units had an oscillating probe so you didn’t have to rotate the rod to view the uterus and its contents. Dr. Andrew Bronson and his partner Bruce Hill from Alberta then developed an improved version of this technology called Repro-Scan that uses a convex rectal probe that produces a larger image, with more durable equipment. “When we started our company, there were no beef ultrasound units available with the convex rectal probe. We created one and put it into a portable case,” says Bronson. The big advantage to the extension-arm unit is that it is much easier on the person doing the pregnancy testing. Palpation and Continued on page 12

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r e p ro duct i o n

Bloods tests, manual palpation or ultrasound are all proven techniques for finding out if she is, or she isn’t. Continued from page 10

arm-in ultrasound put a lot of wear and tear on veterinarians who do a lot of this. “My partner and I preg checked more than 150,000 heifers by ultrasound in 2-1/2 years — when the Canadian border was reopened and nothing pregnant was allowed to be exported. We would not have been able to do this many without extension-arm ultrasound,” notes Bronson. Regarding cost, Bronson doesn’t charge any more for this service than for palpation. “It does the same job I was able to do with my hand. But if the client wants accurate fetal aging, which takes more time with ultrasound, then I charge more.” BLOOD TESTS

One of the first blood tests was developed by Dr. Garth Sasser at the University of Idaho. He discovered a protein he called Pregnancy Specific Protein B, produced by the placenta and detectable in blood. He started a company called BioTracking and created a blood test called BioPRYN (Pregnant Ruminant Yes/No). The test became commercially available for cattle in 2002. The advantages of the blood test over palpation include being able to detect pregnancy a little sooner with better accuracy. It can be done quickly and easily, taking a blood sample from a vein under the tail,

The method chosen for checking will depend on your management and goals, feed costs and markets with less trauma to the animal. The BioPRYN test is very accurate on heifers, and on cows that are 90 or more days past calving. If checked too soon after calving, there will still be some PSPB present in the bloodstream, which could result in a false positive. Today there are nearly 50 labs in North America that process blood samples, including two in Canada. Dr. Bruce Hill at Sunny South Veterinary Services, an animal health supply outlet, located in Lethbridge has been running the BioPRYN tests for more than five year at their BioCheck lab. “The rancher can bleed the cows, using red-top tubes, then label and mail those tubes to us, by Purolator or Canada Post. The samples don’t need to be kept cool — just wrapped in bubble wrap to protect them from breakage, says Hill. “We are getting enough samples to run

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the tests every day, so the turnaround is quick. If we receive the samples by noon, the producer will have the results the same day, by fax or email, whichever the producer prefers. There is a form on our website that can be downloaded, to send it in.” The website is www.biochecklabs.com. “We can send instructions on how to tail bleed cows if they’ve never done it before, and there are videos on the BioTracking website on how to bleed cows. We also provide the tubes and have pre-made kits we can send out. They contain prepaid Canada Post envelopes, to make it as easy as possible,” says Hill. “The blood test works well for anyone who has individual ID on their cows. It’s just a matter of bleeding the cows, sending the samples to the lab, and then getting the results back to know which cows are open,” says Hill. It’s easy to collect the samples. “The test is accurate as early as 28 days after conception. If you have a short breeding season on heifers — such as a 30-day breeding season — you could do this test 30 days after pulling the bull. With a synchronized AI program you can check them 30 days after they are inseminated,” says Hill. Then you’d know which ones are open, early enough to sell them as open heifers to a feedlot market when the price is best. “If you only have 30 to 50 heifers to check, and your vet is one or two hours away, the farm call is costly. We have many Hutter-

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reproduction

ite colonies that have used the blood test a lot for their dairies because they are out in the middle of nowhere, two or more hours away from a veterinarian. They preg check and look for open cows every two weeks, so the blood test is less expensive,” he says. In Western Canada there are two labs that do the BioPRYN test, the Prairie Diagnostic lab in Saskatoon and the BioCheck lab in Lethbridge. A Quebec company is running a DG29 blood test, developed by Conception Animal Reproduction Technologies of Quebec. Susan Cook runs the WCVM Endocrine Lab of Prairie Diagnostic Services in Saskatoon, and has been doing the BioPRYN test for three years. We don’t get enough samples to do them daily like some of the labs. We

set up on Thursdays. There is an overnight incubation and the results are ready by early afternoon on Friday,” she says. “The rancher could get supplies and collection tubes from their vet; we don’t provide those. The blood tubes and needles are readily available from farm/feed supply stores. There are at least four stores here in Saskatoon where a person could buy needles and tubes,” she says. “This blood test is more accurate than earlier tests in which we had to measure progesterone (which is a positive non-pregnancy test). I was very happy when BioTracking made its kits available for the BioPRYN test,” Cook says. Samples come to their lab from all over Canada, as far away as Quebec.

“We charge $5 each for the tests. In the last six months, BioTracking has altered the assay just a little so that this same test will work for sheep, as well. We can now do pregnancy tests on sheep and goats if people have dairy goats or purebred sheep they need to check,” Cook says. The blood samples can be sent by Canada Post or courier. PDS has an agreement with Purolator which makes shipping less expensive. This information can be found on the PDS website, www.pdsinc.ca under Resources, Sample Protocols, Packaging, and Courier Rates. The website lists the PDS services and submission forms, sample protocols and phone number. c

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 Healt h · d rugs

By Roy Lewis, DVM

A new decision tree for veterinarians The latest tool for fighting antibiotic resistance

ery recently the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association along with several partners came up with a Therapeutic Decision Cascade for Animal and Public Safety. This is a great tool for reminding all of us how to properly select drugs for any species we are treating. By considering that all we want is to look after the health of our patients and that what we do ultimately affects human health, this guide is invaluable to both veterinarians and their clients as a reminder of which medications are approved for each species. We are fortunate in the cattle industry in that we have many products approved for cattle. To be approved means a product has a known withdrawal time for meat and milk (if used in dairy cattle). They also come with a DIN or drug identification number. It would be very rare indeed for a large-animal veterinarian to use products not approved for use on bovines, and if they did it would be done under a written prescription. We need to use these products prudently. That means we only use Category 1 drugs such as Baytril, Excede or Excenel for treatment, and for specific conditions at that. As veterinarians we also need to do more cultures and sensitivity tests on behalf of our clients to determine which antimicrobial is in fact the best for a particular condition such as respiratory disease. Many more prescriptions are written for minor species such as sheep and goats as these products have not been fully researched in these species. Primarily this is necessary because the amount of sales with these species would not justify the regulatory or research cost to put them on the label. We call this extra-label usage which covers approved products for other species or products given in a different route or with a higher dosage than indicated. Your veterinarian will use the best resources at hand such as Canadian CgFARAD (Global Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank) which is a national food safety database that can give us recommendations on extra-label usage for withdrawals, safety etc. Technical services veterinarians are also approached from the

various pharma companies for their expertise on the products they handle. We need to consider safety first because as veterinarians we first want to do no harm. The third category in this cascade is using an approved human drug. Although this is very rare in cattle practice it is more common in equine or small-animal practice. Again this is done by prescription and only after veterinary-approved drugs are first considered. This usually occurs when certain infections have proved resistant to our veterinary drugs after a culture has been done.

The last three categories are what we call compounded drugs. One group is made from other veterinary-approved drugs for say a different method of administration. The others are drugs compounded from human drugs. The most critical, and probably overused and overabused, are drugs made from the raw products. These are called active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and are imported as raw product from other countries and because there is not near the control on their manufacture the CgFARAD cannot comment on their safety. In production animal beef practice we have the ability most times to stick with an approved product because most new products are approved for cattle when licensed. We mostly pick from the top and with producers knowing about this decision tree if the need comes to use a compounded product one can stress to your veterinarian to use the API category as a last resort. This is one loophole in our import regulations

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that the government may try and close as these products have no DIN in this country and the potential for abuse and exceeding drug withdrawals is huge. The provincial associations will start possibly creating a document for best-use practices for extra-label usage on minor species that can serve as a very good guide to your herd’s veterinarian. The approved veterinary drugs fall into four categories themselves ranging from Category 1 being those of high importance in human medicine to Category 4 which covers the ionophores which have low importance in human medicine. Most of the antimicrobials used in production animal medicine are Categories 4, 3 and 2. Alberta Beef Producers (www.albertabeef. org) is putting out an excellent brochure on this topic that illustrates the various categories beautifully with several examples. It also discusses some of the other things the cattle industry is doing to tackle this antimicrobial-resistance issue. Watch for it. It will be useful if you want to ever explain antibiotic resistance as it relates to animals to your urban family, friends or neighbours. Remember, when a product is called for the decision tree that your veterinarian will work through to decide which drug to prescribe is Approved Vet Product > Extra Label Drug Usage > Approved Human Drug > Compounded Products. In other words, it’s veterinary first, then human and finally API. We in the cattle industry are in a position to be leaders for the other species because we have so many products approved for use, and by staying away from the Category 1 products as much as possible. For more guidance on this topic talk to your herd veterinarian when antimicrobial decisions are made. This Health Canada website detailing the drugs in each category can be found at http:// www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/vet/antimicrob/ amr_ram_hum-med-rev-eng.php. c Roy Lewis is an Alberta-based veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice. He is also a part-time technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

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 Healt h · Pastu r es

By Roy Lewis, DVM

Check the quality of the water

lose attention to water quality can result in far better gains and health for livestock. It is often left out of the equation when discussing ways to increase production, and the last thing checked in disease investigations. Since the bovine is generally very tolerant of poor-quality water obvious health concerns may not arise yet subtle losses will be occurring daily. In drought conditions certain minerals can become concentrated and interfere with other minerals resulting in deficiencies that affect the health of the whole herd. In comparative studies tank-watered calves outgained dugout-watered calves by up to 20 per cent over the summer. Lots of reasons can be cited for this result but the most obvious is accessibility. In hot weather consumption goes up to approximately 10 per cent of body weight per day or roughly one gallon per 100 pounds. Calves need easy access to water. With drier conditions dugouts can become inaccessible. A simple calculation shows that 100 1,500-pound cows with 500-pound calves at foot need 2,000 gallons a day. On

real hot days consumption may be even higher so checking daily or having lowwater alarm systems set up may avoid having the water run out. We must also think of environmental concerns as evidenced by the Walkerton E. coli contamination some years ago. Manure can contain E. coli as well as coccidian oocysts and giardia that are especially harmful to young calves. Large algal blooms in dugouts, particularly blue-green algae, also release toxins that are fatal to cattle. Luckily it takes a combination of algal kill and wind concentrating the algae at the edges for it to reach lethal levels or more deaths would occur. It is a very rare, yet still fatal disease. Just as feedlots regularly clean out their watering bowls it may be a good idea to wash out water tanks with a disinfectant such as Virkon at the start of the season to eliminate organisms that have built up since last year. Dugouts get a spring flush from run-off but water quality worsens by the end of the grazing season. You might reduce or even eliminate foot rot and leg injuries as well as deaths due to

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drowning or cattle being stuck in the mud by improving their access to water. Young calves often can’t reach water except for the dirty water left in stagnant pockets, hardly a desirable source. When a steer calf’s water intake is restricted it raises the possibility of urinary calculi blocking his urinary passage. The cost of one calf these days can often pay for a permanent summer watering system. Only occasionally do producers check water quality for their livestock, yet you can almost guarantee they will check the quality of the water from a new well drilled for their own consumption. We should show the same concern for our livestock. Even testing every few years gives us a higher level of confidence. Water analysis looks at several values. Total dissolves solids (TDS) or salinity is a very important parameter to measure. Ideally this value should be under 3500 for cattle. Water approaching 1.25 per cent salt is toxic to livestock. I’ve seen mature cows die from induced cerebral edema caused from dugout water high in salt. Another deficiency issue we see more

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pastures

and more, especially across the Prairies, is copper deficiency often brought on by water too high in sulphates or molybdenum. These two minerals singly bind up the copper so even if there is adequate copper in the mineral it is not enough. Higher copper must be fed and/or the water source changed. This is called secondary copper deficiency and by the time it is recognized serious losses can occur. Sulphate levels in the water of around 600 ppm or 600 mg per litre are considered high. We often see these deficiencies in cattle consuming well water that hasn’t been checked for years. Direct access to dugouts leads to loss of water storage capacity from the bank breaking down and the sediment building up in the bottom. Additional maintenance to remove sediment will eventually be necessary. When you get the water away from the water source the cattle are fitter and the manure is spread away from the dugout or stream, so there is less contamination. This is usually done with tanks or reservoirs filled by solar- or wind-powered pumps. Due to the unreliability of sunshine or wind at least three days’ storage is necessary. Windmills also improve dugout quality by aeration but the capacity of these systems is limited to about 50 cow-calf pairs except in very windy areas of southern Alberta where the capacity may double. The capacity of solar systems depends on the number of solar panels installed. More can be added as the need arises. Farmer ingenuity has produced some very versatile systems. One that I’ve seen consisted of four large tanks set on a trailer with removable wheels. The solar panels were placed in the middle. When moving pastures the water was easily drained and the entire system could be set up and working again within minutes. The large tanks provided easy access and doubled the storage capacity of the unit. You can even set one tank lower for calves. More elaborate systems can be set up for a few thousand dollars but even elaborate systems can fail so it is always a good idea to have a backup plan in place. Several water deprivation cases have been traced to failed circuit boards or plugged intake lines when cattle were turned into a new area and no one checked the water supply. The hotter the summer the more critical this backup becomes. Three days without water results in death or severe metabolic imbalances. In the case of fenced dugouts, gates can be

opened in emergencies. Once cattle get used to drinking cleaner water from the tank it may not even be necessary to fence off the dugout, yet water is there if the pump fails. It’s a good idea to observe your livestock to determine if your system has enough capacity to meet their demands in hot weather when they start drinking 10 per cent of their body weight daily. In winter mature cattle do quite well eating snow. This allows you to feed away from

calving areas and summer water supplies. I would recommend giving water to pregnant cows that are in the last trimester or poor condition. Remember, water is the nutrient of life. Animals only survive a few days without it so it is well worth preserving. c Roy Lewis is an Alberta-based veterinarian specializing in large-animal practice. He is also a part-time technical services vet for Merck Animal Health.

“Cattle coming into my feedlot are usually heavier, so I treat ’em with long lasting ZACTRAN on arrival.”

Heavier weight cattle are often at lower risk to BRD so it makes sense to treat them with the fast acting,1 long lasting2 product that won’t break the bank. (And it’s plastic, so you won’t break the bottle either.)

Treat them with ZACTRAN ®. Ask your veterinarian why ZACTRAN is ideal for cattle in your feedlot. 1. Giguère S, Huang R, Malinski TJ, Dorr PM, Tessman RK & Somerville BA. Disposition of gamithromycin in plasma, pulmonary epithelial lining fluid, bronchoalveolar cells, and lung tissue in cattle. Am. J. Vet. Res. 72(3): 326-330 (2011). 2. Based on label claims. ZACTRAN ® is a registered trademark of Merial Limited. © 2014 Merial Canada Inc. All rights reserved. ZACT-13-7560-JAD-E

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REV NEW FORMAT VERTICAL

BOV_15108_Zactran_Metaph_En_hfpVert_Ccattl.indd 1 dossier : BOV-15108

client : Merial

description : Annonce Zactran anglais

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 vet aDvi c e

MANAGING DROUGHT

e moved through some of the wettest years in history to a drought situation for many cattle producers. For those caught in the drought cycle, care of the cow herd, costs, feed inventory and preservation of forage supplies were front and centre. For some, relief came with recent rains — too late for hay, but options for alternate feed sources appeared that didn’t exist even a month ago. The right answers around “where to from here” are rarely pure and never simple. The key to navigating through drought is having a plan in place. It’s important to push emotion aside and make objective decisions on factors like: • Duration of drought • Current feed and water reserves • Body condition of cows • Existing health status of calves • Financial resources available Skilled help is available through veterinarians, beef extension specialists and agriculture consultants. Planning starts with understanding how drought affects pastures, forage and grazing livestock. Knowing what impact drought has on the health and reproductive capacity of the cow herd — both short and long term becomes very important. Drought management strategies basically fall into three categories: livestock inventory; use of existing forage resources; and alternative feeding programs. Adjusting livestock inventory to balance total forage required with that available is the most economical alternative. Individual production records are handy. Consider culling females in the bottom 15 to 20 per cent of herd production for two to three years in succession and cull early. Remove yearlings from pasture early and sell or dry lot. Because lactation pressure is not removed from the dam when calves are creep fed, early weaning may be a better alternative. Consider keeping fewer replacement heifers. It may be more economical to retain young, healthy, open cows instead of heifers. Consult your veterinarian to ensure there are no health issues. The fertility of cows drops significantly when body condition scores dip below 2.5. Going into winter thin makes it difficult

for cows to sustain reproductive momentum. Gaining weight through late stages of pregnancy is difficult. Thin cows produce lightweight calves, are often open or fail to cycle, which extends calving season affecting two years of production. Early weaning helps brood cows rebuild body reserves in a drought year and rebreed the following season. Open, unproductive cows, especially those that are not sound, are simply not worth keeping and should be culled. South Dakota beef specialists Warren Rusche and Elaine Grings remind producers that weaning calves early has advantages to the ranch beyond differences in cow performance and body condition. Rusche explains, “Early weaning’s big advantage is reducing lactation demands. Early weaning helps first-calf heifers, because two-yearolds are still growing. The biggest advantage of early weaning is feed savings. Early weaning results in a 28 per cent reduction in daily forage demand. Early-weaned calves on high-quality diets gain weight efficiently. Marketing early-weaned calves at weaning can be challenging. Feedlot operators need to know they are managing early-weaned calves so nutritional adjustments can be made. Early-weaned calves will spend more total days on harvested feed, but usually reach slaughter weight at a younger age. Another concern is calf health. Reducing separation and handling stress, providing proper nutrition, and preconditioning against disease improves calf performance into the growing and finishing period. Because calves do not have to deal with colder, wetter weather, transition through the weaning process can be relatively smooth provided they consume enough feed. Vaccination protocols, parasite control (internal parasites, external parasites, and coccidia), and treatment regimes for sick calves are important elements of a health program. Veterinarians can help with these plans. Use of metaphylaxis (treating the entire pen upon arrival) may be warranted for some early-weaned calves. Summer rains alleviated moisture shortages for a number of cattle producers. To varying degrees, pastures and hayfields responded with a burst of growth, often too late for harvesting hay, but providing opportunity for grazing. Late-summer and fall alfalfa may be

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some of this year’s best pasture. Points to consider for grazing alfalfa stands between now and freeze-up and beyond: • Alfalfa in late summer and autumn is highquality pasture for preconditioning calves and putting body condition on bred cows. • The risk of bloat is highest in fall — newgrowth alfalfa is highly digestible and animals consume it exclusively when other grasses are dry. With the potential for pasture bloat, ranchers should implement a bloat prevention program when grazing alfalfa-dominated hayfields. • Alfasure provides an effective and economical option for controlling bloat on pasture. • Ideally, alfalfa needs about 40 days of uninterrupted growth before a killing frost. Hardening reduces the water content of plant tissues and prevents frost damage. • Consider grazing rather than cutting second-growth fields after a killing frost. Grazing is more apt to leave taller stubble than cutting, and this will catch more snow. Grazing after a killing frost does not eliminate bloat. • If using alfalfa for late-season pasture, don’t overgraze, (try strip grazing and leave some stubble). In general, it would be better to graze older rather than younger stands during the fall rest period. Older stands have already recovered the cost of establishment and by definition have few productive years remaining. Another reason for early weaning is better use of limited water supplies. Early weaning significantly lowers water requirements for mature cows. Lactating beef cows drink about 18 per cent of their body weight per day compared to 12 per cent for a dry cow (a difference of seven gallons or 33 litres per day). Dry cows also tend to travel farther for water and feed than nursing cows. The ripple effect of drought management planning not only keeps herds healthy through difficult times, but profitable as well. c Dr. Ron Clarke prepares this column on behalf of the Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners. Suggestions for future articles can be sent to Canadian Cattlemen (gren@fbcpublishing.com) or WCABP (info@wcabp.com).

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 researc h o n t h e r eco r d

By Reynold Bergen

Improving Calf Transportation

n 2007, Alberta Beef Producers funded a transportation benchmarking study led by Dr. Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Station. The research team surveyed over 9,000 loads and close to half a million cattle commercially transported to, from and within Alberta over an 18-month period. That study was completed in 2009 and published in 2012 (e.g. J. Anim. Sci. 90:10:3606-3617). They reported that 99.98 per cent of short haul (four hours or less) and over 99.95 per cent of long haul (four hours or more) cattle arrived at their destination with no serious problems (e.g. lame, downer or dead). So on the whole, Canada’s cattle transportation sector is doing a very good job. However, the study also found that some cattle were more likely to have problems than others. Yearlings and fat cattle coped with transport well. On average, problems were only found in one for every 4,407 yearlings and one for every 2,908 fat cattle. In contrast, one of every 1,773 weaned calves became lame, down or dead. In other words, calves were 1.5 times more likely to have problems than fat cattle, and 2.5 times more likely to have problems than yearlings. That indicates that Canada’s beef industry could improve animal welfare and save money by finding better ways to transport weaned calves. So in 2010, the BCRC funded a followup study with this team to identify factors influencing transportation outcomes and health in weaned beef calves. The results of one of these projects was published last summer (J. Anim. Sci. 92:5142-5154). What they did: 24 loads of 2,238 commercial beef calves were trucked from auction markets (18 loads) or ranches (six loads) to four feedlots during the fall run (two loads in September, 13 in October, five in November and four in December). Two loading densities were compared. Half of the loads used a loading density quite close to average industry practice identified in the ABP benchmarking study (0.67m2/ calf or less). The other half allowed more space (more than 0.67m2/calf). Most trips were nearly eight hours long, though some lasted nearly 24 hours. Among many other things, animal health/condition was visually evaluated and animal weight and blood samples were collected before and after loading. Air temperature was recorded on the days before transportation, and air temperatures in the trailer were monitored throughout the trip. Auction mart calves were given an antibiotic on arrival, ranch-direct calves were not, and animal health treatments were tracked during the first 30 days on feed.

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What they learned: All calves were reported to be in good condition at loading and when checked partway through the trip, although one calf was down and had to be euthanized when it arrived at the feedlot. Blood samples indicated that calves hauled at the higher loading density were slightly more dehydrated on arrival than calves that had more space during transport. Dehydration was also related to temperature changes. Calves became more dehydrated if temperatures during transport were much higher or lower than they were accustomed to. Shrink was higher for calves hauled in trailer temperatures below 5 C (3.93 per cent) than for calves hauled in trailers warmer than 5 C (2.77 per cent). A total of 156 calves was pulled during the first month on feed. As expected, the majority of these (134/156) was pulled and treated for bovine respiratory disease. Treatment rates can’t be compared between the ranchdirect and auction mart-sourced calves, because they went to different feedlots and because the auction mart calves were treated with an antibiotic on arrival while the ranch-direct calves weren’t. However, temperature during transport affected treatment rates. Treatment rates were 2.5 to 8.5 times higher for calves hauled when the trailers were colder than 5 C than for calves hauled in trailers warmer than 5 C. When the farm records were checked, it turned out that the downer calf that was euthanized on arrival at the feedlot had been sick and treated with antibiotics shortly before being loaded. Although it appeared to be fine when it was loaded, it ended up in a high-density load, travelled in cold weather, went down and ended up dead. While one example does not make a rule, this anecdote is a pretty clear example of why pre-transport decisionmaking is important. Sick and injured (compromised) animals cannot cope with the stresses of transport as well as healthy animals. Do not load sick or injured animals, if you can avoid it. But when transportation is necessary, compromised livestock should be transported with special provisions. These can include segregating the animal(s), providing them with more space and bedding, loading them last and unloading them first. The Beef Research Cluster is funded by the National Checkoff and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada with additional contributions from provincial beef industry groups and governments to advance research and technology transfer supporting the Canadian beef industry’s vision to be recognized as a preferred supplier of healthy, high-quality beef, cattle and genetics. c Dr. Reynold Bergen is the science director of the Beef Cattle Research Council. C a t t l e m e n · s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5 19

 Healt h · r es ea rc h

By Debbie Furber

Proving Probiotics

“ Another concern is that almost all of the science on prebiotics and probiotics has been done in monogastrics so we are really uncertain if there is a health benefit to ruminants.” Dr. Doug Inglis research scientist at Ag Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre

aution is the word for now from an Alberta intestinal health research group on products claimed to have prebiotic or probiotic activity to promote health benefits for people and livestock. Use of these products won’t harm cattle or people. The worst that could happen from a production standpoint is that they will increase costs with no benefit to the cattle, says Dr. Doug Inglis, a research scientist at Ag Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre and adjunct professor with University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine. He’s not nixing the potential merit of prebiotics and probiotics to provide health benefits. In fact, that’s the very question the research group is studying. It’s just that at this point in time there’s not enough scientific evidence to validate the general claims on most products, let alone make specific claims. That’s largely because our basic understanding of how probiotics and prebiotics impart health benefits is missing. General claims are usually vague and oftentimes misleading statements about supporting gastrointestinal health. Given that intestinal health has a systemic effect on overall health, some companies extend claims to boosting the immune system, relieving stress and depression, having anti-inflammatory properties, improving glucose tolerance and reducing upper-respiratory tract infections. Products for livestock may claim that they enhance the immune system, improve digestive health, maintain or improve intestinal integrity and barrier function, increase feed efficiency and promote growth. What you want to see on a product are specific claims — what to expect and why — for instance, the reduction in the number of specific pathogens (salmonella, typhimurium and/ or E. coli O157:H7) as a result of having to compete against probiotic bacteria, Inglis explains. Other modes of action commonly believed but not fully supported by science include directly fighting off harmful bacteria, improving the barrier function of the intestinal wall to bar harmful bacteria, stimulating immune function, reducing inflammation, and producing a growth substance. “Another concern is that almost all of the science on prebiotics and probiotics has been done in monogastrics so we are really uncer-

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tain if there is a health benefit to ruminants,” he adds. Researchers have only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding the activity of prebiotics and probiotics in the complex, diverse ruminant digestive system. Probiotics, often called veterinary biologics or direct-fed microbials in veterinary medicine, are live micro-organisms that work in the small and large intestines. The most common bacterial probiotics in products for people and livestock today are a few species of lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. They are easy to grow and have been formulated to survive digestion in the stomach so that they reach the intestines, however, they are only active in certain areas of the intestines, represent only a few of at least 1,000 bacterial species within the mammalian intestinal tract, and typically are not present in the intestines in high enough densities to confer a health benefit. The only way to potentially realize a health benefit is to regularly consume large numbers of the probiotic cells. Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients, such as fibre, that feed beneficial microorganisms in the large intestine. Synbiotics combine prebiotics with probiotics for an additive or synergistic effect. Regulatory oversight varies among countries from strict government regulations to buyer beware. In Canada, it’s mainly buyer beware, Inglis says. Health Canada currently considers prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics as food ingredients and designates them as “generally recognized as safe,” meaning that they don’t need to go through an approval or registration process to reach the marketplace, especially those for livestock. Research program

Inglis, along with Dr. Wade Abbott, a fellow research scientist at Lethbridge, and Dr. Richard Uwiera, an associate professor and veterinary pathologist at the University of Alberta, led the team that has been exploring the potential of prebiotics and probiotics as alternatives to traditional antimicrobial products for cattle that enhance health and promote growth, such as chlortetracycline (Aureomycin) and tylosin phosphate (Tylan) (Canadian Cattlemen, News Roundup, June/July 2013). Changes are in the pipeline and companies here and in the U.S. are now in the process of

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research

voluntarily removing growth-promotion and feed-efficiency claims from labels on antimicrobials approved to be delivered in feed. The first phase of their research was to understand how growth-promoting antimicrobials do what they do and then identify specific biomarkers to confirm those functions. They found that antimicrobials have beneficial effects that go beyond simple antimicrobial activity in the intestine. Part of the work was developing sophisticated mouse models that mirror the workings of the bovine intestinal tract. The models are now being used to advance the project by testing the efficacy of new bioproducts in development before eventually testing them in production settings.

“For example, we are looking at mitigation strategies to reduce inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract of cattle and reduce the potential of zoonotic pathogens that may be within cattle to become food safety issues,” Uwiera says. Preliminary work involved recovering and studying bacteria from the bovine gastrointestinal tract to determine whether any could be used to deliver the bio-products. They found several novel bacteria that have promise. Now, they are creating probiotics with the desired health effects by incorporating secretion of various bio-products into select bacteria and using the bacteria to produce the bioproducts within the bovine intestinal tract.

“The probiotic will be the vehicle or organism to release compounds that reduce inflammation in the intestine and prebiotics will be the regulator to allow the probiotics to release their compounds in a regulated fashion,” Uwiera explains. The project still has a few years to go. The new probiotics have to prove themselves in lab testing and then in clinical trials and finally on a feedlot scale to collect the bulk of science needed to make specific claims. The research group won’t be taking the new products through commercialization but Uwiera says there’s definitely potential to patent and sell the intellectual property to a company that will be able to take this new science to the marketplace. c

You Herd. We Help. Livestock production today means considering every input — including advice. Our agriculture banking specialists know the challenges and rewards you face from sunrise to sunset.

Talk to one of our agriculture banking specialists today. Visit rbc.com/farmhelp TM

® / ™ Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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Age_Verification_CCM_Sep-15_edited.pdf 1 24/08/2015 12:22:56 PM

IMPORTANT: ONE WEEK before your cows get on the truck

CHECK YOUR

CANADIAN LIVESTOCK TRACKING SYSTEM (CLTS) database inventory for the tags you wish to age verify by logging into your account at www.clia.livestockid.ca with your CLTS username and password or contacting one of our Client Services Representatives for complimentary support by toll-free telephone at 1-877-909-2333 or email at info@canadaid.ca. Health of Animals Regulations require tag dealers to issue tags to a tag buyer’s CLTS inventory within 24 hours of purchase. This means if the tags you purchase have not been issued to your CLTS account by the time you wish to age verify your animals, you will be unable to age verify those tags at that time. However, if you give our team a week’s notice before you intend to age verify your animals, we can check your tag inventory in the database and resolve any issues before they occur.

CMY

To age verify, producers may enter exact birth dates with corresponding tag numbers, or a calving start date associated with a tag range that allows for all calves born within a 90-day time period to be age verified using the same calving start date. NOTE: A producer should only age verify an animal if the birth date is known for certain. A producer should age verify an animal only after applying an approved CCIA RFID tag. A producer should not age verify a package of tags before applying the tags to animals. Whether a producer age verifies animals to meet breed standards, comply with provincial/territorial regulations or maintain herd management records, CCIA has prepared this reference as a support tool during fall run 2015. CCIA recommends AGE VERIFYING your animals using the FILE UPLOAD method when you: • Have a slow Internet connection that often disconnects; • Do not have enough time to finish age verifying the animals in one session; OR • Have more than 10 approved CCIA RFID tags with non-consecutive/non-sequential numbers. In order to use the FILE UPLOAD method of entering events, you must have Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or NeoOffice installed on your computer. If needed, you can download the latest free versions of OpenOffice at http://www.openoffice.org/ OR NeoOffice at http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php. There are three steps to the FILE UPLOAD method:

STEP ONE: Downloading the Birth Date Template to enter animal birth date data

Go to http://support.canadaid.ca and select the Events heading at the top of the page. Under Operation Type, select the Producers link. Scroll down to Events and select the option to download a template from the Templates column featured in the Birth Date row. A box will appear with three options: 1. Open – To open the spreadsheet template (NOTE: CCIA recommends saving the template file on your computer, since your computer will not save the template automatically);

2. Save – To save the template in your computer’s Downloads folder; and 3. Save as – To save the template in a location of your choice in your computer. Select a location on your computer to save and rename the template (e.g., “2015 Calf Birth Dates”), then click Save.

STEP TWO: Filling out the Birth Date Template Open the template you renamed and saved in Step One. Enter information into the columns with red headings, which are mandatory fields (i.e., event type, source account, date of birth, date of birth method, and tag start). NOTE: Though the columns with black headings are optional to complete, CCIA recommends providing as much information as possible. The data entered into the template must match the specific format displayed within each heading’s comment field, which is shown by hovering the mouse cursor over these comment fields. NOTE: The cells for Event_Type, DOB_Method, Tag_Type, Sex, Species and Colour have drop-down menus to assist completing the spreadsheet. Go to the cell under the heading and click on the arrow to view the options and select the option you want, which will appear in the cell. Continue this process for all rows used. Fill out all of the required cells and enter as much information as possible in the optional cells. Once completed, you are ready to upload the file to the CLTS database. Remember to save the file regularly as you work and when your work is complete.

STEP THREE: Uploading the completed file to the CLTS database

Go to www.clia.livestockid.ca. Enter your CLTS account username and password, then click Login. There are two ways to access the File Upload option within the home page. 1. Go to the heading Events and select Submit Events – File Upload from the drop down menu. 2. Under the Submit Tag/Animal Event Information heading, select Option 2: File Upload. On the Submit a Data File screen, select Browse. When the pop-up window appears, find and select the file that you created (so that it shows in the File name text box) and select Open. The file information will appear in the text box. Select Upload File. NOTE: If you receive an error message, open your original file to correct the information and resubmit the file. On the Confirmation screen, review the sentence that appears to ensure it displays the correct account name and account ID. If the information is incorrect, select Cancel, re-open the file and correct the information before submitting it. If the information is correct, select Submit. At this point, a transaction identification number in alphanumeric format (i.e., letters A to Z and numbers 1 to 9) will be assigned to your submission.

Photo by Lee Gunderson

Please make note of this number in your calving records, and check your transaction status to ensure the information processed successfully. After an animal is age verified in the CLTS database, a BIRTH DATE CERTIFICATE may be printed from the site identifying that the animal has been age verified.

Creating a birth date certificate: Go to www.clia.livestockid.ca. Enter your CLTS account username and password, then click Login. On the home page, select the Birth Date Certificate option featured in the Certificates/Manifest heading at the top of the page. There are six options to add tags to your list. Any of these options may be repeated as many times as necessary. NOTE: Do not use spaces, dashes or slashes between the numbers. If you select: 1. Single Tag: Enter the last nine digits of the animal’s approved CCIA RFID tag number in the field provided and click Add Tags to List. 2. Tag Range: Enter the lowest number of the tag range in the field beside Range Start. Enter the highest number of the tag range in the field beside Range End and select Add Tags to List. 3. Tag Range with Quantity: Enter the lowest number of the tag range in the field beside Range Start. Enter the quantity of tags used in the with Quantity field and select Add Tags to List. 4. Transaction ID: Enter a transaction ID in the field provided and select Add Tags to List. 5. Birth Certificate ID: Enter a birth certificate ID from a previously created birth certificate in the field provided and select Add Tags to List. NOTE: You may only use IDs from birth certificates you have created using your CLTS account. 6. Spreadsheet File: To use this option, you must create a spreadsheet using Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or NeoOffice. Open a new spreadsheet; enter the heading Tag_Start in column A, row 1. Enter your tag list in the cells below the heading. Save the worksheet and change the file name to something familiar using alphanumeric characters only (e.g., Tag List 2015). Return to the Create Birth Date Certificate: Data Entry page and click Browse to find the file you created. When the pop-up window appears, find and select the file that you created so that it shows in the File name text box, then select Open. Once the file appears in the text box, select Add Tags to List. The tag number(s) will now appear at the bottom of the screen under List of Tags to include in the Birth Date Certificate. Continue to add tags until your list is complete, then click Next.

On the Confirmation page, ensure all the tags entered in the previous step appear in the tag list, then click Create Certificate. NOTE: Tags will be listed in sequential order and grouped into ranges. The Birth Date Certificate will now appear in PDF format in a new window. Alternatively, you may view the certificate by selecting one of the View Options from the details page. NOTE: You must have your browser’s pop-up blocker disabled for the certificate to appear automatically. Confirm the birth date appears in the Birth Date column. Sign and date the lower part of the certificate before providing it to a purchaser. Congratulations! You have finished age verifying your animals.

NEED TAGS QUICKLY & EASILY? ACTIVATE your tag web store account

in fewer than 5 minutes, select and order from the full array of approved tags and receive your supplies at an address of your choice in 3-5 business days. Prices start at $2.52 per tag. Go to tags.canadaid.ca and select Place an Order. When the login page is displayed, select Register – Create your Access Codes and follow the prompts.

When ready, place your order OR call us and WE WILL DO IT FOR YOU !

 COVER STO RY · susta i na b i l i ty

By Debbie Furber

Animal Care Lives Here

riving down the road to the family’s old homestead established in 1903 near Pine Lake, Alta., Doug Sawyer stops to look at the corrals he helped design and build when he was a kid. “We thought about the ways animals move and how to make it work for us by rounding out corners and letting them go out where they came in. We didn’t know then that there was a name for it. It just made mechanical sense and animal sense. It always was part of what we did and led us to other things like rotational grazing early on. The philosophy continues here today. “The point is, I got drawn into animal care because I’m naturally interested in it,” says Sawyer, former chair of Alberta Farm Animal Care, who is currently a member-at-large representing Alberta citizens on the province’s Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Somehow along the way the public view of animal welfare seems to have become focused on whatever their interest happens to be, such as animal handling or housing,

because they don’t understand the big picture. Producers, on the other hand think of it in much broader terms they call animal care. Another misconception among consumers is that doing what’s right for animals costs money, so poor animal welfare happens because farmers are trying to save money, when it’s exactly the opposite in producers’ books. Good animal care makes money. Sawyer never shies away from the opportunity to talk with consumers about animal care and ranching. His basic message is simple: “I am in business and have to make money to stay in business. Animal care has a huge role. My animals have to be comfortable and healthy.” Animal care practices differ from farm to farm and evolve over time as research makes new information available, but it always comes down to the animal. “The best improvements need to be driven from the impact on my farm and my cows. What I see happening is change being driven from the outside as our indus-

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try and producers are getting caught up with an uniformed public or uninformed policy-makers. So it’s really important for us as producers to be able to show and communicate what we are doing,” he says. Talking with consumers about animal care starts with recognizing what you do and how you do it, he adds, meaning that animal care is so second nature to producers that most don’t take stock of everything they do day in and day out to provide for their animals. Sawyer’s varied roles in the beef industry have reinforced his motivation to talk with consumers about the family’s ranch and the Canadian beef industry in general. He is past chair of Alberta Beef Producers and represents ABP on the board of Canada Beef and on the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association where he is vice-chair of foreign trade and on the environment committee, as well as one of CCA’s representatives to the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency. The Canadian beef industry depends on

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sustainability

you the producer because it markets Canadian beef worldwide on the merits of Canadian cattlemen being among the best in the world with good animal care practices, leading genetics and a pristine environment. Animal care at Ghostpine

Animal care at the ranch level is a circle of elements that works off each other including people, cattle genetics, a feeding plan, health program, cattle handling plus continuous learning and improvement. “I’m really fortunate to have a good team. Everyone figures out things together, so I am confident that things will be taken care of while I’m away,” Sawyer says. The team includes his wife Carole, son, Braden and daughter, Brittany, along with some great friends and neighbours. The ideal genetics for Ghostpine’s people and program is an Angus-Gelbvieh-cross cow with some Maine Anjou mixed in as they rotate bulls for genetic change. They are slowly rebuilding the herd up to around a comfortable 250 cows from the 100 it dropped to during the depressed markets following BSE. He says it was better to be in margin cattle (yearlings) than to try to control input costs to make a living from cow-calf back then. The first thing that comes to mind when Sawyer thinks of animal care practices is having feed and water plans for winter and summer. Calving has gradually moved to start in mid-April from February in earlier years when they did some grain farming as well. Generally, April is warm enough in the rolling hills east of Red Deer to get through calving on pasture, but they still have the barn for shelter if the area gets hit with a late, wet snowstorm. They manage the grass to have one-quarter stockpiled for calving. The advantage of later calving is that the cows have free access to fresh grass leading into breeding season. On the flip side, he sees that in early spring the cows will walk miles nibbling fresh sprigs and come back to rest on the hay. To ensure the herd is getting enough energy, they feed pellets daily. Their preference is for a 50 per cent barley pellet. Tiny seeds in the screenings pass through the cows so they’re never sure of what they are actually getting out of pellets made from screenings alone. Pellets and straw are the mainstay of the winter ration. Feed is stacked in several locations across the ranch to mitigate the risk of losing all of it in a natural disaswww.canadiancattlemen.ca

Doug Sawyer

ter, such as fire or another tornado with the force that hit a nearby campground in 2000. The combination of tame and native pasture across rolling hills provides a nice balance of open terrain and bush that offers shelter winter and summer. A grain-farmer neighbour takes care of cropping for swath grazing. The barbed-wire fences on their own land have been built through the years to manage rotational grazing to the best advantage of the grass and cattle, while electric fencing works well on rented pasture to manage bush and open areas separately. There is always something growing in the moist, shady surroundings of the bush pastures to help carry the cattle through dry spells. When he says he’s never more than five days away from a drought it’s because much of his pasture is on sandy land that needs timely precipitation to carry it through the summer. When he uses the word drought he adds a qualifier that there is a lot of fertile land and grain farming in the area, so there’s always something for cattle feed — grain, damaged crops, straw, slough hay — unlike producers farther east and in the south of the province who faced making tough marketing decisions earlier this year. Many beef producers have experience and understand their options when it comes to managing cattle through droughts. The concern this year was for backyard animals because the prolonged stretch of dry weather through May and June, coming at the worst possible time for the hay crop, coupled with the sluggish Alberta economy

may make it very difficult for families to purchase high-priced hay. Nutrition has always been backstopped by a vaccination program at Ghostpine. They’ve used various strategies from a minimum protocol when they had a closed herd to a medium protocol for yearlings and now use the Bovishield Gold program to protect cows and calves because they are always bringing in yearlings. It’s a popular program making it easy for the next owner to follow up, he adds. Animal handling does require a setup for safely restraining animals as needed and for loading out. The main corral system in the yard is a ring they built for team roping with a set of pens across an alley to one side, the working chute off one end of the alley, and a calf-handling chute at the opposite end. There are some adjustments he’d like to make in time, such as narrowing the sorting alley, taking out some square corners here and there, and adding another large holding pen separate from the ring, but for now it meets their needs. They use a portable panel system for work that needs to be done in the pastures because it can be set up anywhere, and because a permanent corral in a secluded setting is an invitation to would-be rustlers. More than facilities, cattle handling on their place is about matching cattle genetics and numbers to the people who work with them. “Your own stress is not a bad barometer of cattle stress,” Sawyer says.“We have a pretty small crew who work together well and know the cattle so we get the work done.” c

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

ACROSS CANADA “

I wanted to add length to my calves and increase calving ease, so I went with Limousin bulls.” Brian Pooley QUESNEL, BC

“

I like the way they muscle out, and their hindquarters.” Don Ryan GROVEDALE, AB

“

They’re always thick calves. They’re a good, strong breed.” James Sharp ARCHERWILL, SK

“

Their temperment is good and they grow well and that’s what we’re basically trying for.” Gail Hockridge DAUPHIN, MB

Jeffery Blair FRANKLIN, QC

“

I need something that will get up and run and I need something that will bring the money home.” Eric Millen

GREAT VILLAGE, NS

ATTENTION PRODUCERS Marketing Limousin influence calves this year? List them on our website and contact the CLA for marketing assistance!

“

Limousin adds muscle to my Simmental-based herd.” Gary Cornfield MEAFORD, ON

CANADIAN LIMOUSIN ~ ASSOCIATION ~ #13, 4101-19 STREET NE CALGARY, AB T2E 7C4 PHONE 1. 403.253.7309 TOLL-FREE 1.866.886.1605 FAX 1.403.253.1704 EMAIL limousin@limousin.com WEB www.limousin.com

 Healt h · r es ea rc h

By Debbie Furber

DNA testing for disease is on the way

Dr. Christoph Sensen

t sounds like science fiction but you will soon be able to test a newborn’s DNA as a baseline for future detection of potentially chronic conditions such as Johne’s disease and bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and even BSE to get an early jump on treatment, all from a single blood sample. The technology will be offered in Canada by CNA Diagnotics, a Calgary-based company formed by lead scientist Dr. Christoph Sensen and several well-known Canadians in cattle circles. Sensen is also working with others to employ this technology for early detection of disease in humans. While he is currently a professor at Graz University of Technology in Austria, his expertise in this field was gained during a 20-year research career in Canada, 14 of which were spent is in Calgary where he was a professor of bioinformatics at the University of Calgary’s faculty of medicine. There he participated in large genomic research projects including two for the development of markers for BSE and chronic wasting disease funded by the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency. You read correctly. There is the possibility of a test to screen live animals for BSE. CNA Diagnostics filed a pre-patent application for the potential markers almost two years ago. Sensen says there are 300 known markers that could be used to detect classical BSE in live animals as early as 10 months before clinical signs can be observed. In explaining the company’s new DNA test, Sensen says cells die and disappear every second of every day without causing disease in the body. This normal process called apoptosis, or programmed cell death, clears the body of old, damaged and junk cells. Golgi apparatus within cells of mammals collect, package and ship garbage out of cells through the bloodstream to the liver where the body gets rid of it. DNA from diseased and dying cells is packaged in tiny lipid spheres that circulate in the bloodstream, most likely signalling other body tissues for help. Sometimes cells that should be eliminated persist and grow in number, resulting in tumours. Conversely, if apoptosis speeds up, too many cells self-destruct leading to tissue damage that is often behind neurodegenerative disorders. The CNA Diagnostic test works very much

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like a DNA parentage test except blood samples will be analyzed to detect specific disease markers in the lipid spheres shed by disease cells. “As far as a test goes, DNA is stable (samples won’t deteriorate before getting to the lab), highly informative and readily available from serum,” Sensen says. “To be useful in everyday animal agriculture, a screening test needs to be relevant to the needs of producers and it has to be designed to screen large numbers of animals very quickly, and very cost efficiently, that is, $1 to $2 per condition and per animal,” he adds. BSE isn’t the first target for this new technology. Just because a company purports to have a rapid, live test for BSE doesn’t mean much because BSE is a regulated disease, explains Sensen. The test can’t be used unless a country asks for it and mass screening of bovines for BSE isn’t even a possibility unless it is agreed upon by at least the major cattle-producing countries. Of course, CNA Diagnostics would be ready and willing to answer the call from any country to develop a testing system. But the reality is BSE isn’t a major animal health problem today. Very few animals get the disease so setting up a company for the sole purpose of DNA testing for BSE wouldn’t be viable. “For each species, there are a half- to two dozen conditions that may be of interest to producers,” Sensen says. “We are asking the (animal agriculture) community to find out what the disease problems are and help producers screen out animals causing the problems.” Two prime examples already identified, Johne’s disease and BRD, are the company’s current focus. In 2013 the Beef Cattle Research Council reported BRD as the most prevalent and costly disease affecting Canadian beef cattle. It accounts for 65-80 per cent of all illness in feedlot cattle and 45-75 per cent of feedlot deaths. Considering 1.5 million animals go into feedlots in Alberta alone each year, weeding out susceptible animals could save millions, Sensen says. Likewise, Johne’s disease is of great concern in the dairy industry. It’s estimated that the bacteria that causes this wasting disease is present on 65 per cent of dairy farms in Alberta and 68 per cent of dairies in the U.S. “CNA Diagnostics’ goal is to produce a

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research

marker set for a different disease every six months,” Sensen says. “Once we have all of the (serum) samples collected, it takes six months to identify a marker set.” Marker sets are specific to each disease in each species, however, down the road he envisions markers for multiple diseases could be used simultaneously in a single test, opening up new possibilities for annual checkups. The company aims to have a team in place by fall to collect serum samples from cattle and other species in Canada. Staff with the VetMedUni in Vienna, Austria, will perform the same chore there in collabora tion with CNA Diagnostics. Sequencing will be contracted to service laboratories, such as the core facility at the University of Calgary faculty of medicine. Identifying the marker panels will be handled by Sensen’s research group or CNA Diagnostics staff through a joint project of CNA Diagnostics and the Austrian Cen tre of Industrial Biotechnology that was formed on April 1 this year.

and founding partner of Feedlot Health Management Services at Okotoks, in addi tion to owning cow-calf and feedlot opera tions in Canada and the U.S. He also has a lengthy list of service on boards of pro vincial and national industry groups to his credit. Dr. Robert Church of Lochend Luing Ranch west of Airdrie, is a professor emeri tus with the University of Calgary’s faculty of medicine, for which he was a found

ing member in 1967, the first head of the department of medical biochemistry and molecular biology, and an associate dean of medical research. His extensive involve ment spans advisory councils, boards of research associations, international pro jects and corporations, and consulting on medical technologies, biotechnologies, and livestock genomic programs. For more information, visit www. cnadiagnostics.ca. c

“When my pen riders pull cattle, I want them to have a fast acting treatment that’s cost-effective.”

Team CNA

Joining Sensen as founding members and directors of CNA Diagnostics are CEO and board chairman Greg McCartney of White rock, B.C., and vice-president of business development Tim Uniacke of Calgary. McCartney is president of Taylor But terfield & Worth Asset Management Cor poration, a management consulting firm that assists with early-stage development and scalable strategies for commercializing intellectual property. Uniacke is chairman and CEO of Uni acke & Associates Inc., a Calgary-based investment banking and consulting com pany structuring projects with significant financial requirements. Chief financial officer Cameron Dow completes the management team. He is a chartered accountant with 30 years in pub lic practice specializing in business tax mat ters, public company auditing, and nurtur ing privately held businesses. Rounding out CNA Diagnostics board of directors are three Alberta cattlemen who won’t need much introduction to readers. Dr. David Chalack is the international sales manager with Alta Genetics Inc. of Balzac, and owner/partner and president of Rocky Mountain Holsteins at Cochrane. He chairs the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency and is involved at the board level with numerous industry groups. Dr. Kee Jim is a practising veterinarian

It just makes sense to treat cattle for BRD with the new generation macrolide, that is fast acting,1 long lasting2 and has a price that won’t break the bank. (And it’s plastic, so you won’t break the bottle either.) Treat them with ZACTRAN ®. Ask your veterinarian why ZACTRAN is ideal for cattle in your feedlot.

1. Giguère S, Huang R, Malinski TJ, Dorr PM, Tessman RK & Somerville BA. Disposition of gamithromycin in plasma, pulmonary epithelial lining fluid, bronchoalveolar cells, and lung tissue in cattle. Am. J. Vet. Res. 72(3): 326-330 (2011). 2. Based on label claims. ZACTRAN ® is a registered trademark of Merial Limited. © 2014 Merial Canada Inc. All rights reserved. ZACT-13-7558-JAD-E

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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REV NEW FORMAT VERTICAL

BOV_15108_Zactran_Thera_En_hfpVert_Ccattl.indd 1 dossier : BOV-15108

client : Merial

description : Annonce Zactran anglais

date/modif. rédaction

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D.A.

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 Nutritio n

By John McKinnon

Feeding Non-Conventional Feeds

his is a time of year when many of you turn your thoughts to winter feeding programs. In normal years, you typically have a good handle on the quantity and quality of your forage supply and the challenge is to balance the ration with appropriate energy, protein and mineral supplements for the class of cattle you are feeding. However, for many producers in Alberta and Saskatchewan, this is not a normal year with drought severely affecting pastures and hay crops. The shortage of hay and subsequent astronomical prices have many scrambling to find alternative feed supplies. To this end, I will devote this column as well as next month’s to exploring alternatives to conventional feeding programs. Let’s start with some basic economic and nutrition facts. Typical grass hay averages 11 per cent crude protein (CP) and 1.23 and 0.66 Mcal/kg of net energy for maintenance (NEm) and gain (NEg), respectively (DM basis). At the time of writing, hay prices are $200 per tonne or higher in many areas of Western Canada. In contrast, barley grain depending on location is trading at prices between $180 and $220 per tonne. At 11 per cent CP and 2.03 and 1.37 Mcal/kg of NEm and NEg respectively, barley grain is far and away a better value for your feed dollar! For example, when both feeds are priced at $200/tonne, five pounds of barley grain will provide approximately 160 per cent more NEm and 200 per cent more NEg than an equal amount of grass hay. Now there are limitations with respect to feeding barley grain to beef cows (which will be discussed in the next issue), the point however, is that under drought induced feed shortages one needs to think outside of the box in order to meet the animal’s requirements and keep costs reasonable. Are there other alternative feed sources that can be used to supplement or replace typical hay-based feeding programs? In terms of supplements, the first class that comes to mind is the various byproducts of the grain and oilseed-processing sectors. These industries typically generate a primary product such as ethanol and one or more co-products suitable for livestock feeding such as dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS). Byproduct feeds vary in nutrient content, price and availability. The following is a brief description of the more common alternative feeds typically available across Canada. DDGS are an excellent source of energy and protein that are priced relative to barley or corn grain. Crude protein (CP) levels average 38 and 30 per cent for wheat- and corn-based DDGS, respectively, with energy values that

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equal or exceed that of barley grain. Numerous research reports have shown that DDGS can replace barley grain at levels ranging from 20 to 40 per cent of the diet (DM basis) in growing and finishing rations without any drop in performance. Work conducted by the Western Beef Development Centre has shown that wheat DDGS can be fed as the sole energy and protein supplement to wintering beef cows grazing stockpiled forage. Canola meal, a byproduct of canola processing is relatively high in crude protein (38 to 40 per cent) but only moderate in energy content (1.63 and 1.02 Mcal/ kg of NEm and NEg). It is typically priced relative to other protein supplements (soybean meal), thus it is best utilized as a protein supplement. Byproducts such as wheat midds and grain screening pellets are generated from the grain-processing sector. Wheat midds average 16 to 18 per cent CP and are similar in energy content to barley grain. As with DDGS, wheat midds can be used as a supplemental source of energy and protein for wintering cows, particularly those on poorquality forage. A typical grain screening pellet will average 13 to 15 per cent CP and 1.68 and 1.07 Mcal/kg of NEm and NEg, or 82 per cent of the NEm value of barley grain. While not as high in energy as some of the other byproducts, screening pellets are a good source of both energy and protein for pregnant beef cows. Fortified grain screening pellets include a cereal grain such as barley in the formulation and thus are closer to barley grain in energy and price. All of these byproducts can work well in wintering diets for beef cows — the question is availability and pricing! If you have not booked your supply, it is advisable to do so as soon as possible. Alternative forage sources are more difficult to source. Annual cereals (i.e. barley or oats) cut at middough have been a time-tested substitute for hay during drought years. Their feed value is relatively similar to good grass or grass/legume hay. Cereals baled as a salvage crop are liable to be more variable in nutrient content and will require a feed test to determine actual value. Cereal straw is low in CP (3.5 to 4.5 per cent) and energy (0.77 and 0.23 Mcal/kg NEm and NEg, respectively). In recent years, the availability of cereal straw has varied widely, thus if you hope to convenience your neighbour to drop straw, this is a good time to start arm-twisting! Oat hulls are a byproduct of the oat-processing sector and are similar to or slightly superior to cereal straw in terms of nutrient content. Next month we will look at the challenges involved with developing and feeding rations based on alternative feed sources. c

John McKinnon is a beef cattle nutritionist at the University of Saskatchewan

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The label contains complete use information, including cautions and warnings. Always read, understand and follow the label and use directions. Elanco®, Titanium® and the diagonal bar are trademarks owned or licensed by Eli Lilly and Company, its subsidiaries or affiliates. ©2015 Eli Lilly and Company, or its affiliates. CAN35164 CACTLTIT00017

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 Healt h · g r a z i ng

By Steve Kenyon

In praise of water, and beavers

t frustrates me as I travel around the country witnessing how human nature can be so misguided. Sometimes we can be short sighted and forget that we need to look at the big picture. Even though we mean no harm, some of our agricultural practices can cause more damage than we think. Today, I would like to discuss water; in particular, the water cycle and the health of our riparian areas. The problem that we have in agriculture is that the water cycle is generally broken. Let’s look at our fields or pastures at a microscopic level when it rains. Without a protective layer on the surface of the soil, a raindrop comes hurtling to the ground and impacts the soil. It is like a small explosion that destroys the soil structure by breaking apart the aggregates. This damage causes soil capping that leaves a smooth surface that the next raindrop can’t penetrate. The rain no longer has anywhere to go, so it runs off. As it runs off of the land, it takes with

it the best parts of the damaged aggregates; our valuable humus is washed away. What moisture did get into the soil is now vulnerable to evaporation. The moisture in the soil does not work by gravity. It actually works by diffusion. This is a movement from an area of greater concentration to an area of lesser concentration (wet to dry). If the top layer of soil’s moisture is evaporated by the sun and the wind, the lower moisture will then move up to the drier area. It will then begin to evaporate and more moisture will move up. Suddenly our water cycle has been reversed. As this moisture moves up through the soil and evaporates, it can also bring with it unwanted salts that can be detrimental to growth. With a healthy water system, our water bodies will evaporate and the moisture will rise up and form clouds. These clouds will then get dense enough to form precipitation and fall back to the ground as rain. Here we need the rain to soak into the soil and infiltrate through the soil to again replenish

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

the water bodies from which moisture can again evaporate. So how do we stop this unhealthy cycle? Leave more residue. We need to make sure that the first raindrop cannot hit the exposed soil. It needs to land on live or dead plant material, as that raindrop will then break apart and soak into the soil without damaging the soil structure. If the soil is in good health, the organic matter will hold on to the moisture. Excess moisture will infiltrate down into the soil and away to larger bodies of water, thus filling them from the bottom and not from run-off. I believe that in the future, water is going to be a very valuable resource. Ask anyone from California. Holding on to water and protecting riparian areas will be an important part of maintaining our ecosystems and our industry. If this means that water bodies and ponds appear on our land, so be Continued on page 34

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

CSA Summer 14.indd 1

8/19/2014 3:06:27 PM

g r a z i ng

Continued from page 32

it. This is a good thing. In a lot of agricultural practices, we end up destroying these riparian areas in the name of profit. The most limiting factor we have in many areas is water. To produce a crop, you need upwards of 200 times more water than you need nitrogen. Which do you think is a more important nutrient? It frustrates me when I see grain farmers ditching their fields to drain away wet areas. Yes, we get to farm a few more acres, but at what cost? How much flooding occurs downstream because of it? How much topsoil is washed away with it? How many riparian areas are destroyed? How much biodiversity is lost? Do you know who is responsible for most of the biodiversity in this country? Long before we were ever here, it was our friendly, hard-working beaver, that’s who! This country was built by the beaver long before the fur trade depleted their numbers. To make a home, he backs up water, causing his environment to flourish in biodiversity because all life needs water. Plants, animals, fungi, insects and birds all rely on water

PRESENTS…

and thanks to the beaver, they can all thrive within abundant riparian areas. Each ecosystem relies on the other and it all starts with water. It aggravates me when we decide that the beaver stands in the way of industry. First off, the beaver were here first. Secondly, his job is more important than ours. He created the environment that allows agriculture to prosper. Thirdly, water is a very valuable resource. If he provides more for you, you should be thanking him. The most common issue I see is when a beaver affects a road. Let’s address the problem, not the symptom. Fix or change the road. The beaver is building biodiversity, the road is in his way. We need to work with him, not against him. The other common argument against the beaver is that he cuts down all of the trees. Well, the 10 or 15 acres of trees he removes to build his home, would not be such a big deal if it wasn’t for the fact that the rest of the land was already bulldozed and has lost most of its trees. Maybe it was not you personally who cleared the land, but it was most likely done before your time by someone. I know that some folks will be offended

by this article as we have all grown up fighting against the beaver, hunting him, and cussing him. It is a paradigm, but just for a moment, sit back and think about what this country would be like without him. I am not saying that we never have to manage the beaver. Environments can get out of balance (usually caused by humans), predators are sometimes scared off and we might need to rebalance the system again. But if we do, we need to figure out how to work with the beaver and allow him to do his job as well as letting us do ours. All relationships need to be win-win. I believe fresh water is the most precious resource we have on earth. It should be the No. 1 nutrient you should be trying to manage. Without it, agriculture will cease. Try to build your soil and rebuild a healthy water cycle. The sustainability of agriculture depends on it. c Steve Kenyon runs Greener Pastures Ranching Ltd. in Busby, Alta., www. greenerpasturesranching.com, 780-307-6500, email skenyon@greenerpasturesranching.com or find them on Facebook.

A FREE DEAL FOR CUSTOM FEEDLOT OPERATORS Make sure you take advantage of your free listing in the annual National Custom feedlot Guide in the September issue of Canadian Cattlemen — The Beef Magazine.

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Feedlot name: ____________________________________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________________________________________ Postal code: _________________________ Email: ____________________________________________ Contacts: ________________________________________________________________________________ Phone:________________________ Fax:_______________________ Cell: _________________________ Lot capacity: _____________ Web site: ____________________________________________________ Services:

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C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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British Columbia Andrews A1 Feeders

Gary Andrews 167 Dure Meadow Road Lumby, B.C. V0E 2G7 Ph/Fax: 250-547-2219 Lot capacity: 650

Ben Wurz, Johnny Wurz Box 40, Carmangay, Alta. T0L 0N0 Ph: 403-643-2456 • Fax: 770-8020 Cell: 795-9806/795-9805 Lot capacity: 5,000

FootHill Farms

Henk Vanden Berg Box 793, Fort Macleod, Alta. T0L 0Z0 Ph: 403-553-4290 • Fax: 553-4291 Cell: 315-3969 Lot capacity: 5,000

9 2 8

1 9 2 4 grandview cattle feeders Ltd.

Cattleland feedyards ltd.

9 2 8 Southern Plus Feedlots

Bill Freding 487 Sibco Landfill Road Oliver, B.C. V0H 1T1 Ph: 250-498-3077 • Fax: 498-3977 email: freding@telus.net Lot capacity: 6,000

1 5 9 2 8

Alberta Antelope Butte Livestock ltd.

Jim Lynch-Staunton Box 10, Lundbreck, Alta. T0K 1H0 Ph: 403-628-2020 • Cell: 627-6770 email: jim@jrtwave.com

9 2

Greg Van Vaerenbergh Box 336, Picture Butte, Alta. T0K 1V0 Ph: 403-328-9775 • Fax: 381-0250 Cell: 317-9550 email: grandvu@la.shockware.com Lot capacity: 43,000

Joe Gregory Box 2265, Strathmore, Alta. T1P 1K2 Ph: 403-934-4030 • Fax: 934-4594 email: karen@cattleland.ca Website:cattlelandfeedyards.com Lot capacity: 25,000

1 5 9 2 8 4

5 2 4

Jason Hagel R.R. 1, Swalwell, Alta. T0M 1Y0 Ph: 403-546-3989 • Fax: 546-3949 Cell: 403-312-7154 Lot capacity: 5,000

Mark Hengstmengel Box 122, Iron Springs, Alta. T0K 1G0 Ph: 403-738-4805 Fax: 738-4806 • Cell: 308-6632 Lot capacity: 2,700 2 9

chinook feeders

Box 343, Nanton, Alta. T0L 1R0 Ph: 403-646-2087 • Fax: 646-2978 Lot capacity: 25,000

1 9 2 8 hairy hill colony

Darius R. Hofer Box 35, Hairy Hill, Alta. T0B 1S0 Ph: 780-768-3770 • Fax: 768-2178 Lot capacity: 1,200

1 9 2 8

Jeff Ball Box 127, Brant, Alta. T0L 0L0 Ph: 403-684-3540 • Fax: 684-3345 email: jeff@ballco.ca Lot capacity: 15,000

Barnett Farms

Bill Barnett Box 1, Site 14, R.R. 1 Strathmore, Alta. T1P 1J6 Ph: 403-934-4260 • Fax: 934-4920 Lot capacity: 3,000

1 9 2 4 bear trap feeders

Bob or Don Lowe Box 1499, Nanton, Alta. T0L 1R0 Ph: 403-646-5550 • Fax: 646-5697 Lot capacity: 4,000

1 5 2 9

5 9 2 8 Bern & Mike Kotelko Box 400, Vegreville, Alta. T9C 1R4 Ph: 780-768-2466 • Fax: 768-3888 Cell: 632-1031 email: bkotelko@highlandbeef.com Website: www.highlandbeef.com Lot capacity: 36,000

1 2 4 5 7 8 9 Cleardale Colony

Mike S. Stahl Box 159, Cleardale, Alta. T0H 3Y0 Ph: 780-685-2800 Fax: 685-2704 • Cell: 834-7165 Lot capacity: 600

1 5 2 8 7 High River colony

Martin & Ed Box 5610, High River, Alta. T1V 1M7 Ph/Fax: 403-395-2107 Cell: 652-8758 Lot capacity: 2,500 9

9 2 8 Codesa Colony

Box 300, Eaglesham, Alta. T0H 1H0 Ph: 780-359-3022 • Fax: 359-3004 Cell: 837-4342 Lot capacity: 2,500

1 5 9 2 8 4

Ed Miller/ Lyle Miller Box 60, Acme, Alta. T0M 0A0 Ph: 403-546-2278 • Fax: 546-3709 Cell: 888-2539 (Ed) 888-3973 (Lyle) email: hwy21@wildroseinternet.ca Lot capacity: 20,000

Cor Van Raay Farms Ltd.

Eli Wurz Box 121 Mountain View, Alta. T0K 1N0 Ph: 403-626-2388 • Fax: 626-2394 Cell: 359-3287 Lot capacity: 350 9

CAIRNS FEEDYARDS LTD.

Larry Cairns Box 8, Madden, Alta. T0M 1L0 Ph/Fax: 403-946-5897 Cell: 333-2400 Lot capacity: 5,000

2 4 5 8

1 5 2 8 4

Coulthard Feedlot

Box 907, Castor, Alta. T0C 0X0 Ph: (403) 882-2691

1 5 9 2 8 4

1 5 9 2 8 4 Jonust Farms Ltd.

Diamond 8 Cattle co.

calhoun cattle co. ltd.

Rod, Carol or Jason Calhoun Box 72, Swalwell, Alta. T0M 1Y0 Ph: 403-546-2655 • Fax: 546-3831 Cell: 333-5440/333-5438

Cam VanEe Box 100 Pincher Creek, Alta. T0K 1W0 Ph: 403-627-1525 • Fax: 627-1524 Cell: 894-2178 email: barjw@hotmail.com Lot capacity: 7,500

1 5 9 2 8 4 1custom order buying and selling

5 market analysis

9 backgrounding

Bradley Raugust • Walter Raugust R.R. 1, Ponoka, Alta. T4J 1R1 Ph: 403-783-2726 / 783-2202 Fax: 704-2302 Cell: 350-5265 / 350-8023 email: rbraugust@hotmail.ca or blackelk@telusplanet.net Lot capacity: 1,000

9 2 8 2 health program

Ryan Kasko Box 1266, Coaldale, Alta. T1M 1N1 Ph: 403-345-4301 • Fax: 345-3778 Cell: 795-2246 email: ryan@kaskocattle.com Lot capacity: 25,000

K-Belt farms

Bruce Konynenbelt Box 90, Nobleford, Alta. T0L 1S0 Ph: 403-824-3431 • Fax: 824-3258 Cell: 634-4744 email: kbeltfam@shockware.com Lot capacity: 4,000+ 9 2

Kenwynn Farms Ltd.

Brian McKinnon Box 129, Carseland, Alta. T0J 0M0 Ph: 403-934-4114 • Fax: 934-2122 Lot capacity: 7,500

KeHo lake colony

Martin-Min Wurtz Box 125, Barons, Alta. T0L 0G0 Ph: 403-757-2330 • Fax: 757-2337 Lot capacity: 6,000

1 8 4 Klassen Agriventures Ltd.

Myron Klassen Box 488, Linden, Alta. T0M 1J0 Ph: 403-312-3577 • Fax: 546-2445 email: Myron@klassenagriventures.ca Lot capacity: 5,000

1 2 4 5 8 9

T.J. Larson Box 1227, Fort Macleod, Alta. T0L 0Z0 Ph: 403-553-3110 • Fax: 553-2828 Cell: 394-6496 email: larsonfeeders@gmail.com Lot capacity: 6,000

1 2 4 5 7 8 9 marnies Feeders

Dwight Morhart/ Ryan Kasko Box 1250, Raymond, Alta. T0K 2S0 Ph: 403-752-2333 • Fax: 756-3434 Cell: 795-7394 email: hwy52@shockware.com Website: www.kaskocattle.com Lot capacity: 15,000

Marco or Adrian Box 142, Monarch, Alta. T0L 1M0 Ph/Fax: 403-824-3635 Cell: 403-634-4026/634-3352 email: adriandw@shockware.com Lot capacity: 5,000

1 5 9 2 8 4

hWY 52 beef producers ltd.

de wilde feeders

1 9 2 8 4 Kasko Cattle Co. Ltd.

Larson custom Feeders ltd.

highway 21 feeders ltd.

Rob Denman Box 5510, Westlock, Alta. T7P 2P5 Ph: 780-349-2476 • Fax: 349-5414 Cell: 780-349-1755 email: rob@jubileefarms.ca Lot capacity: 6,500

1 5 9 2 8

highland feeders

Box 64, Iron Springs, Alta. T0K 1G0 Ph: 403-738-4528 • Fax: 738-4435

Blue Ridge colony

1 5 9 2 8 4

T.J. Larson Box 1043, Claresholm, Alta. T0L 0T0 Ph: 403-625-2911 • Fax: 625-2151 email: claresholmbeef@gmail.com Lot capacity: 13,000

jubilee feedlot

1 5 2 8 4

hagel feeders Ltd.

Central h Feeders ltd.

Claresholm Beef producers ltd.

BALLCO FEEDERS inc.

1 9 2 8 4

Carmangay Colony Feeders

Allan Johnson Box 151, Hughenden, Alta. T0B 2E0 Ph: 780-856-2241 • Fax: 856-2399 Cell: 842-0232 email: marniesfeeders@xplornet.ca Lot capacity: 8,500

5 9 2 8 4 J.F. Murray farms

Shawn Murray Box 86, Picture Butte, Alta. T0K 1V0 Ph: 403-732-4339 • Fax: 732-4187 Lot capacity: 9,000

1 5 9 2 8 4

Park road farms ltd.

Allan Slomp P.O. Box 419, Nobleford, Alta. T0L 1S0 Ph: 403-824-3676 • Fax: 824-3677 email: prf@xplornet.com Lot capacity: 4,500 9 2

8 pen sharing

4 trucking

7hedging

penridge feeders

Office Box 4, Swalwell, Alta. T0M 1Y0 Ph: 403- 546-0015 Lot capacity: 4,000

1 5 9 2 8 7 Poplar Lodge Ranch Ltd.

Will Porter Box 12, Czar, Alta. T0B 0Z0 Ph: 780-857-2056 • Fax: 857-2057 email: willporter64@gmail.com Lot capacity: 3,500

1 9 2 8 RJ Feeders

Ralph or Josie Kientz R.R. 1, Olds, Alta. T4H 1P2 Ph/Fax: 403- 631-2373 Cell: 994-0581 Lot capacity: 1,700

1 9 2 8 4 Rocky ridge land & cattle

Darcy Stewart/ Loren Stewart Box 65, Site 19, R.R. 2 Strathmore, Alta. T1P 1K5 Ph: 403-934-4426 • Fax: 934-9998 Cell 888-5083 Lot capacity: 3,000 9

Roulston Farms

Rob Roulston Box 152, Bruce, Alta. T0B 0R0 Ph: 780-688-2284 • Fax: 688-2289 Lot capacity: 1,000

9 2 8 Schooten & Sons Custom Feedyard Ltd.

John Schooten • Shane Schooten Cody Schooten • Justin Schooten Box 148, Diamond City, Alta. T0K 0T0 Ph: 403-381-3883 • Fax: 381-8809 Cell: 634-1459 (John) 634-1535 (Shane) 634-4116 (Cody) 315-5679 (Justin) email: schootenandsons@yahoo.ca Lot capacity: 30,000

1 2 4 5 7 9 8 Schwartzkopf farms Ltd.

Bert or Brian Schwartzkopf Box 743, Coalhurst, Alta. T0L 0V0 Ph: 403-381-4219 • Fax: 394-2143 Cell: 360-2973 Lot capacity: 4,000 9

Shelter Valley land & cattle

Sam McQuaid Box 131, Czar, Alta. T0B 0Z0 Ph: 780-857-2720 • Fax: 857-2827 Cell: 780-209-2373 Manager, Chris McQuaid (780) 806-6107 email: svlc@telus.net Lot capacity: 38,000

1 9 4 2 7 Shelter Valley Custom Feeding

Sam McQuaid Cell: 780-209-2373 Lethbridge, Alta. Manager: Corey Conan Cell: 403-894-1020 Lot capacity: 10,000

1 9 2 4 7 1custom order buying and selling

Signal Ridge Farms

Russell Klassen Box 1287, Stettler, Alta. T0C 2L0 Ph: 403-742-9762 • Fax: 742-1828 email: info@signalridgefarms.com Lot capacity 2,000

Tongue creek feeders ltd./ Roseburn ranches ltd.

Peter Morrison Box 5910, High River, Alta. T1V 1P6 Ph: 403-652-7410 • Fax: 652-2936 Cell: 312-7909 email: cattle@roseburn.net Lot capacity: 16,000/12,000

1 5 9 2 8 4 7 John Slingerland

Box 1425, Coaldale, Alta. T1M 1N2 Ph: 403-345-2210 • Fax: 345-6844 Cell: 382-9518 Lot capacity: 9,000

1 5 4 9 2 8

South Cara Farms Ltd.

Rick Cromarty Box 157, Provost, Alta. T0B 3S0 Ph: 780-753-4767 • Fax: 753-4745 Cell: 780-753-8801 email: scfl1@mcsnet.ca

1 9 2 8 5

James Bekkering 6311-56th Ave., Taber, Alta. T1G 1X9 Ph: 403-223-9090 • Fax: 223-9061 Lot capacity: 25,000

Uphill feeders

Colby Hansen Box 11, Tawatinaw, Alta. T0G 2E0 Ph: 780-801-2805 • Cell: 307-2574 email: Colbyuphill@hotmail.ca 2 Lot capacity: 500 9

V.C. feeders

south island farms ltd.

Martin M. Stahl Veteran Colony Veteran, Alta. T0C 2S0 Ph: 403-575-2169 • Fax: 575-2190 Lot capacity: 1,000

Scott MacLean Box 249, Bow Island, Alta. T0K 0G0 Ph: 403-545-2422 • Fax: 545-2442 Cell: 952-1405 Lot capacity: 6,500

1 5 9 2 8 4

9 2 4

Harold Vandenberg Box 454, Coaldale, Alta. T1M 1M5 Ph/Fax: 403-345-3991 Cell: 382-7986 email: vanfarm@yahoo.com Lot capacity: 5,000

Ken & Chris Box 2243, Athabasca, Alta. T9S 2B7 Ph: 780-675-9207 • Fax: 675-5095 Lot capacity: 6,000

1 9 2 8 4

stankievech ranches

Glen & Clare Stankievech Box 389, Trochu, Alta. T0M 2C0 Ph: 403-442-2242 • Fax: 442-3169 Cell: 588-6325 • Wintering cows Lot capacity: 2,000

1 5 9 2 8 4

Vandenberg cattle co. ltd.

John or Geert Box 531, Picture Butte, Alta. T0K 1V0 Ph: 403-381-3302 / 381-6569 Fax: 381-3364 Cell: 380-0300 Lot capacity: 4,300

5 9 2 8

5 2 4

van Loon farms

stauffer farm feedlot

Box 54, Tiger Lily, Alta. T0G 2G0 Ph: 780-674-3954 • Fax: 674-3502 Cell: 780-206-0024 email: vanloonfarms@gmail.com Lot capacity: 2,000

Murray Stauffer Jack Puddifant R.R. 3, Eckville, Alta. T0M 0X0 Ph: 403-746-5737 • Fax: 746-5739 email: stauff1@xplornet.com

1 9 2

1 5 9 2 8

Don Davies Box 12220 Lloydminster, Alta. T9V 3C4 Ph: 780-875-6231 • Fax: 875-6232 Cell: 808-5607 email: veetee@mcsnet.ca Lot capacity: 6,000

Ed Stronks Box 870 Picture Butte, Alta. T0K 1V0 Ph: 403-738-4106 • Fax: 738-2193 Lot capacity: 14,000

1 5 2 8 4

1 9 2 8 7

Sunnybend Feedlot

John B. Walter R.R. 1, Westlock, Alta. T7P 2N9 Ph: 780-349-3542 • Fax: 954-2633 Cell: 349-1740 Lot capacity: 2,000 9

Western feedlots ltd.

Tova Place Box 5279, High River, Alta. T1V 1M4 Ph: 403-652-3933 • Fax: 601-8670 Website: westernfeedlots.com

1 5 9 2 8 7

thompson colony feeders

Marvin Tschetter Box 160 Fort Macleod, Alta. T0L 0Z0 Cell: 403-635-0340 • Fax: 553-2958 Lot capacity: 2,000 9

5 market analysis

West Ridge farms

9 backgrounding

birch island land & cattle co.

Shayne Yewsuk / Mark Herman Box 236, Rhein, Sask. S0A 3K0 Ph: 306-273-4600 • Fax: 273-4601 email: birchisland@imagewireless.ca Lot capacity: 8,500

1 5 9 2 8 4

Border line feeders inc.

Bradley T. Nyhus Box 128, Ceylon, Sask. S0C 0T0 Ph: 306-454-2250 • Fax: 454-2216 Cell: 442-7401 email: brad.blfi@sasktel.net Lot capacity: 12,000

1 5 9 2 8 4 Ernie Wicks • Jordan Kowal Cody Wicks Box 566, Tisdale, Sask. S0E 1T0 Ph: 306-873-3702 • Fax: 873-5046 Cell: 306-873-0129 Lot capacity: 4,000

1 5 9 8 4 dietrich farms ltd.

Jim Dietrich Box 68, Mendham, Sask. S0N 1P0 Ph: 306-628-4249 • Cell: 628-7170 email: jdietrich@sasktel.net Lot capacity: 2,200

1 5 9 2 8 4 Excellerator Genetics

Ron Dietrich Box 116, Moosomin, Sask. S0G 3N0 Ph: 306-435-9381 email: excellerator@sasktel.net Website: www.excelleratorgenetics.com Lot capacity: 4,000

hagerty livestock ltd.

Larry Hagerty General Delivery, Box 11 Stony Beach, Sask. S0G 4S0 Ph: 306-345-2523 • Fax: 345-2085 Lot capacity: 3,000

1 9 2 8 4 M & T Feedlot

Greg Thompson Box 336, Moose Jaw, Sask. S6H 4N9 Ph: 306-694-5314 • Fax: 693-8822 Cell: 631-7413 Lot capacity: 3,500

1 5 9 2 8 4

McQueen Feedyards

Jim Hurt Box 321, Crossfield, Alta. T0M 0S0 Ph: 403-946-4198 Lot capacity: 1,300

2 health program

1 9 2 4 7

Vee tee feeders ltd.

stronks Feedlot

Layton Bezan Box 1726, Regina, Sask. S4P 3C6 Ph: 306-775-0412 • Fax: 775-0444 Cell: 537-8898 Lot capacity: 1,200

Burnt out creek ranch

H & R Vandenberg Farms

stafford feeders ltd.

bezan land & Livestock Ltd.

1 5 9 2 4

tfS Expanse Ltd.

9 8 2 5 4

9Saskatchewan 2

Bill & Dave McQueen Box 35, Tessier, Sask. S0L 3G0 Ph: 306-656-4465 • Fax: 656-2042 Lot capacity: 6,000

1 5 2 8 4

8 pen sharing

4 trucking

7hedging

ADD SAFE-GUARD ADD POUNDS

Safe-Guard ® (fenbendazole ) is a different class of dewormer than pour-ons and injectables. It works fast to stop internal parasites and the hidden damage they cause. These parasites suppress feed intake, reduce average daily gain, hurt nutrient absorption and immune function, reducing the health and performance of your cattle.1,2 Use Safe-Guard® as part of your parasite control program for more pounds of high quality beef in the feedlot.3,4 For more information, consult your veterinarian. 1 Endoparasite control, L.R. Ballweber, Veterinary Clinics Food Animal, 2006, 22:451-461. 2Economic analysis of pharmaceutical technologies in modern beef production, J.D. Lawrence and M.A. Ibarburu, Iowa State University, 2007. 3Pasture deworming and (or) subsequent feedlot deworming with fenbendazole. Effects of grazing performance, feedlot performance and carcass traits of yearling steers, R. Smith, et al., The Bovine Practitioner, 2000, 34:104-114. 4A fenbendazole oral drench in addition to an ivermectin pour-on reduces parasite burden and improves feedlot and carcass performance of finishing heifers compared with endectocides alone, C.D. Reinhardt, J.P. Hutcheson and W.T. Nichols, Journal of Animal Science, 2006, 84:2243-2250.

SAFE-GUARD ® is a registered trademark of Intervet International B.V., used under license by Intervet Canada Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, operating in Canada as Merck Animal Health. MERCK® is a registered trademark of Merck Canada Inc. in Canada.Copyright © 2015 Intervet International B.V., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA. All rights reserved.

SafeGuard ad Canadian Cattlemen FEEDLOT GUIDE 2015.indd 1

2015-07-07 11:49 AM

Nine Mile Ranch Ltd.

Foxwillow

Myles Heppner Box 70, Spiritwood, Sask. S0J 2M0 Ph: 306-984-2149 • Fax: 984-2450 Cell: 883-7476 Lot capacity: 5,500 • Custom feed cows 9 2

Christopher & Sarah Walwin Box 69, Hamiota, Man. R0M 0T0 Ph: 204-562-3633 email: cswalwin@mts.net • Specialize in pedigree cattle Lot capacity: 600

Hamiota feedlot ltd.

perrault feedlot

Larry Schweitzer Box 610, Hamiota, Man. R0M 0T0 Ph: 204-764-2449 • Fax: 764-2264 email: feedlot@goinet.ca Website: www.hamiotafeedlot.com Lot capacity: 13,000

Perrault brothers Box 182, Ponteix, Sask. S0N 1Z0 Ph: 306-625-3750 • Fax: 625-3978 Cell: 625-7804 Lot capacity: 1,000

1 5 9 2 8 4

1 9 2 8

plains livestock Inc.

Bruce Edwards Box 160 Porcupine Plain, Sask. S0E 1H0 Ph: 306-889-4500 email: plainslivestock1@xplornet.ca Website: www.plainslivestock.net Lot capacity: 10,000

1 5 9 2 8 4 purpose Farms Inc.

Jeff Carlson • Cam Buyer Eric Buyer Carnduff, Sask. Ph: 403-442-3186 • Fax: 442-2261 Cell: 403-350-9674 email: jcarlson@explornet.com Lot capacity: 5,000 1 9

Pound-maker agventures ltd.

Brad Wildeman Box 519, Lanigan, Sask. S0K 2M0 Ph: 306-365-4281 • Fax: 365-4283 email: pma@pound-maker.ca Website: www.pound-maker.ca Lot capacity: 28,500

1 5 2 8 4

Red Coat Cattle Feeders Inc.

Kevin Antworth Box 86, Hazenmore, Sask. S0N 1C0 Ph: 306-264-3844 • Fax: 264-3206 Cell: 391-9351 email: rccf@yourlink.ca Lot capacity: 18,500

9 2 8 15

Ross L-Seven Ranch

Chad Ross • Brian Ross Box 1087, Estevan, Sask. S4A 2H7 Ph: 306- 634-7301 • Fax: 634-7762 Cell: 421-6346 • Custom grazing • Heifer A.I. • Cow/bull wintering Lot capacity: 2,500 9 2

shur Transport exporting & trucking

Norm Shurygalo Box 308, Beinfait, Sask. S0C 0M0 Ph: 306-388-2329 • Fax: 388-2321 Cell: 421-3482 email: shurtruck@hotmail.com Lot capacity: 800

1 5 9 2 8 4 Sunny slope Cattle Ltd.

Don Bowyer Box 1744, Maple Creek, Sask. S0N 1N0 Ph: 306-662-2901 • Fax: 662-4450 Lot capacity: 1,500 9 2

1custom order buying and selling

wayne martin

R.R. 2, 7468 Wellington Road 8 Alma, Ont. N0B 1A0 Ph: 519-638-3871 Fax: 271-9382 • Fax: 638-3825 Lot capacity: 450

9 2 8 milldale farms ltd.

R.R. 1, Norwich, Ont. N0J 1P0 Ph: 519-468-2325 • Fax: 468-2326 Cell: 532-8748 email: vanker@execulink.com Lot capacity: 550

5 9 2 4 7

Nova Scotia

G.C. Klassen and sons

Garry or Cindy Box 1152, Altona, Man. R0G 0B0 Ph: 204-829-7706 • Fax: 829-3676 Cell: 324-7405 Lot capacity: 500

Tyner Valley Stock farms

Dave Taciuk Box 774, Wakaw, Sask. S0K 4P0 Ph: 306-233-5959 email: d.taciuk@sasktel.net

1 9 2 4 Phillip Penner Donavon Penner Box 66, Kelwood, Man. R0J 0Y0 Ph/Fax: 204-967-2009 Cell: 212-0221 Lot capacity: 850

Terry & Debbie Hull Box 160, Willowbrook, Sask. S0A 4P0 Ph/Fax: 306-782-7295 email: tdhull@yourlink.ca Lot capacity: 1,100

9 2 8

Vaughan Feedlot

Lyle Vaughan Box 22, Canwood, Sask. S0J 0K0 Ph/Fax: 306-468-2677 Lot capacity: 1,000

Rocking U feeders

Box 779, MacGregor, Man. R0H 0R0 Ph: 204-685-2264 • Fax: 685-2135 email: rockinguf@hotmail.com Lot capacity: 10,000

9 2 8

1 9 2

westwood Land & Cattle Company

Kevin Woods Box 6, Moosomin, Sask. S0G 3N0 Ph: 306-435-2102 • Fax: 435-4833 Cell: 435-7313 Lot capacity: 10,000

1 5 9 2 4

D&P Rooke Farms

Daniel and Penny Box 68, Alexander, Man. R0K 0K0 Ph: 204-756-2073 • Fax: 752-2341 Cell: 204-573-2082 email: daniel@d-pgroup.com

willow park ranch

Ben Wurz Box 70, Tessier, Sask. S0L 3G0 Ph: 306-237-9510 • Fax: 237-9511 Cell: 220-0400 Lot capacity: 800

9 Thor Jonsson General Delivery Oakview, Man. R0C 2K0 Ph: 204-768-2422 • Fax: 768-3393 Cell: 739-3230 email: tjonsson@mts.net Lot capacity: 2,000

Manitoba Bar M Stock Farms Ltd.

1 5 9 2 8 4 7 Wild Rose cattle ranch

Box 188, Kenton, Man. R0M 0Z0 Ph/Fax: 204-838-2003 Cell: 365-7149 email: johnsdm@goinet.ca Lot capacity: 1,000

Daniel Jeffrey

1 9 2 8 4 5 market analysis

Davanna Holdings Dean & David Acton

308 Cookville Loop Rd. Cookville, N.B. E4L 2A4 Ph: 506-536-2508 • Fax: 536-2826 Cell: 506-379-0024 email: davanna@xplornet.ca Lot capacity: 1,000

R.A. Farm

Robert Acton, Nathan Phinney, Corey MacQuarrie 550 Cookville Road Cookville, N.B. E4L 2A7 Ph: 506-536-2564 • Fax: 536-3396 Cell: 506-364-7263 email: rafarms1@xplornet.ca Lot capacity: 2,000

beech hill Farms

Ontario

Dana Johns

New Brunswick

Prince Edward Island

9 2 8

9 2

271 South Hampton Road Amherst, N.S., B4H 3Y4 Corey MacQuarrie Cell: 506-536-7886 Nathan Phinney Cell: 506-536-7563 Robert Acton Cell: 506-364-7263 Lot capacity: 500

1 9 2 8 4

Mark or Nicholas Symbol Box 18, Group 6, R.R. 1 Anola, Man. R0E 0A0 Ph: 204-866-2683 Lot capacity: 240

Brad McDonald P.O. Box 1345 Portage la Prairie, Man. R1N 3L5 email: cattlemen@hotmail.ca Ph/Fax: 204-239-5928 Cell: 856-6293 Lot capacity: 1,800

R.A. FArms

1 9 2

T.J. Livestock

1 5 9

Andrew Van Oostrum R.R. 2, Berwick, N.S. B0P 1E0 Ph: 902-538-7716 • Fax: 538-1411 Lot capacity: 400

1 5 9 2 8 4

PEnner feedlot

Td3L Hull Ranch

Van Oostrum Farms

127 Beech Hill Road Alberry Plains, P.E.I. C0A 2E0 Ph: 902-651-2173

R.R. 2, Stratford, Ont. N5A 6S3 Ph: 519-273-7843 • Fax: 271-9382 Cell: 272-9001 Lot capacity: 900

1 9

9 2 8 4 7 9 backgrounding

2 health program

8 pen sharing

4 trucking

7hedging

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* Per like-sized vial in animals of comparable weight. † Consult your veterinarian for details. NOTE: The correlation between pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (pk/pd) data and clinical efficacy is unknown. 1. Menge, M., Rose, M., Bohland, C., Zschiesche, E., Kilp, S., Metz, W., Allan, M., Röpke, R., Nürnberger, M. Pharmacokinetics of tildipirosin in bovine plasma, lung tissue, and bronchial fluid (from live, non-anesthetized cattle). J. Vet. Pharmacol. Therap. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2885.2011.01349.x. 2. As per the approved Canadian product label concentrations and recommended dosages. ZUPREVO® and RESFLOR® are registered trademarks of Intervet International B.V., used under license by Intervet Canada Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, operating in Canada as Merck Animal Health. MERCK® is a registered trademark of Merck Canada Inc. in Canada. Copyright © 2015 Intervet International B.V., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA. All rights reserved.

Zuprevo ad Canadian Cattlemen FEEDLOT GUIDE 2015.indd 1

2015-07-07 11:40 AM

 Holistic R a nc hi ng

By Don Campbell

improving our land

his year has been designated as the “year of the soil.” This might be an ideal time to reflect on the importance of the land not only to our individual farms but also to society in general. Let me begin with the following: I am the basis of all wealth, the heritage of the wise, the thrifty and the prudent. I am the poor man’s joy and comfort, the rich man’s prize, the right hand of capital the silent partner of many thousands of successful men. I am the solace of the widow, the comfort of old age, the cornerstone of security against misfortune and want. I am handed down to children, through generations, as a thing of the greatest worth. I am the choicest fruit of toil, credit respects me, yet I am humble, I stand before every man bidding him to know me. I grow and increase in value through countless days. Though I seem dormant my worth increases, never failing, never ceasing, when all things wither and decay. I survive, the centuries find me younger increasing in strength. I am the producer of food the foundation of cities — yet I am so common that thousands unthinkingly and unknowingly pass me by.

I AM THE LAND

I know that all of us involved in agriculture have a certain respect for the land. I don’t think that respect is as great as our forefathers had or as great as it should be. When people pioneered this country nature was seen as being very powerful. Man was somewhat insignificant. There was a natural respect for nature and the land. As time progressed we developed all types of technology. One result of this is that we feel more powerful and we think nature is less powerful. I believe this is a fallacy. Despite our technology we are still and always will be very dependent on nature. We would be wise to remember that: nature will bat last and she has very deep pockets. I think it would be helpful to have a greater awe and respect for nature. Every area has certain strengths. Each individual farm in that area has certain strengths. Each family has certain strengths. I believe we will all be more successful when we work with the strengths of our area, our farm and our family. A worthy goal would be to cooperate with nature as opposed to trying to dominate nature. To make these types of changes will require a paradigm shift. Let’s look at two different ways (paradigms) of viewing our businesses. In the first example our focus is on our cattle. We have some focus on the grass and little interest in the health of our land. Under this paradigm we may make money from time to time but over time our land tends to deteriorate and it becomes more and more difficult to make a profit. This was similar to the paradigm I had when I was introduced to H M some 30 years ago. In the second example our focus is on improving our land by co-operating with nature. We started doing this about 25 years ago. The results have been outstanding. As our land becomes more fertile

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

 par a d i g m sh i f t

Cattle Grass Land

(using management) we suddenly have ample grass. We can have more cattle if that is our desire. As our land improves over time it becomes easier and easier to make a profit. I believe this is a paradigm that will be profitable in the short term and sustainable in the long term. One way to put the health of the land in perspective is to remember that we don’t inherit the land from our forefathers. We borrow the land from our children. A sobering question might be, will my current management allow future generations (my great, great-grandchildren) to have the privilege of being on the land?” The following graph shows what happens to your cost of production if your land is increasing or decreasing in fertility (the ability to produce without inputs).  Cost o f p ro duct i o n

Land Declining C O S T Land improving Time

As your land decreases in fertility your cost of production will increase. As your land increases in fertility your cost of production will decrease. Is there any more valuable gift you could give future generations than highly fertile land with a low cost of production? Your management today can make a difference. I invite you to consider this important question. c Don Campbell ranches with his family at Meadow Lake, Sask., and teaches Holistic Management courses. He can be reached at 306-236-6088 or doncampbell@sasktel.net. C a t t l e m e n · s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5 35

 Healt h · vacc i nat i o n

By Heather Smith Thomas

Adverse Reactions to Vaccines and Drugs in Cattle

Allergic reactions can range from hives to itching or swelling to systemic shock leading to fluid in the lungs and sudden death

ccasionally cattle experience a reaction to vaccine or medication (injected, applied topically or given orally). An allergic reaction can be mild and local (swelling at the injection site after vaccination) or serious and fatal — if the animal goes into anaphylactic shock. Many of the things we administer are foreign to the animal’s body, and in the case of vaccines the goal is for the body to recognize it as foreign and develop antibodies to combat these foreign agents (antigens) in the future. The vaccine will therefore enable the animal to create an immune response. On rare occasions, however, the animal may develop an acute allergic reaction to a foreign substance. Reactions can range in severity from hives/

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

itching to systemic shock with fluid in the lungs and sudden death. Dr. Steve Hendrick of the Coaldale Veterinary Clinic in Coaldale, Alta., a feedlot, dairy and cow-calf practice in southern Alberta, says some of the clostridial vaccines result in a temporary lump or swelling at the injection site. “Most vaccines have been changed so they can be given subcutaneously, and those swellings become more apparent when they are not deep in the muscle,” he says. Label instructions give dosage, injection sites and whether the vaccine should be given intramuscular (IM) or subcutaneous (SC). The neck is generally the preferred site — so injections are not going into muscles that would be better cuts of meat, in case of injection lesions.

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

vaccination

If the neck site will swell, however, put the vaccine a little farther up the neck (in the acceptable triangular area) rather than close to the shoulder. A painful swelling ahead of the shoulder makes it difficult for the animal to move that shoulder forward, creating lameness for several days. The carriers of certain antibiotics are also somewhat irritating. “Some individual animals are also more sensitive to certain products. You don’t always know, however, when giving a medication or a vaccine, whether that particular animal will react more adversely than the rest of the herd,” says Hendrick. Hives sometimes occur when cattle are exposed again to a product they

have already been sensitized to. A serious adverse reaction may be sudden and unexpected because many producers routinely vaccinate and treat animals for years and never experience a serious reaction. “There are four types of hypersensitivity, including immediate anaphylactic reaction, and hives can be part of that, along with swelling that shuts off the airways. Others are a delayed type of sensitivity, and in some of these instances the animal may develop hives but no other problems,” says Hendrick. Dr. Trisha Dowling, professor, veterinary clinical pharmacology at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, and co-director of Canadian gFARAD (a global food animal

residue avoidance database), says the worst type of reaction is anaphylaxis. “Unfortunately, with severe anaphylactic reactions you don’t have a chance to treat; the animal just drops dead. In a less serious situation you can treat the animal with intravenous epinephrine, but most people don’t have this drug on hand,” she says. “Vaccines are the worst, for adverse reactions, just by their nature — because you are stimulating the immune system. Vaccine reactions also far outnumber reactions to drugs. The most common reactions are to clostridial bacterins that contain whole organisms,” says Dowling. Continued on page 38

CANADIAN SHORTHORN ASSOCIATION Box 3771, Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 3N8 • p: 306-757-2212 • f: 306-525-5852 office@canadianshorthorn.com • www.canadianshorthorn.com

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C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

vacc i nat i o n

Continued from page 37

“The next most common causes of allergic reactions are antibiotic injections. Penicillin is the most notorious for allergic reactions. I’ve not seen a fatal anaphylactic reaction to penicillin in a cow; we see it more in horses. This may be partly because more penicillin is used in horses because of its effectiveness for many infections. In cattle we see more reactions to oxytetracycline. If a cow or calf has an anaphylactic reaction to oxytetracycline, it’s usually not the first injection that they react to. It’s usually the second one, because they have been previously sensitized to this drug,” she explains. SIGNS OF REACTION

With a severe anaphylactic reaction the animal dies almost immediately. “They actually ‘die off the needle.’ I have never seen anyone save a horse with an anaphylactic reaction to penicillin, even if they have everything on hand to treat it. If a cow is going to have a serious reaction, however, she may run out of the chute and fall over dead. With a delayed type of reaction, by contrast, you see swelling at the injection site, hives, etc. and these can be more successfully treated,” says Dowling. Some of these swellings may be huge. “Tetracycline, for instance, is a very irritating molecule. Sometimes the cow’s neck is so big you can’t get her in the head-catch.” The carrier for a certain product may also cause irritation and reactions. “This is often the case with oxytetracycline. If you give the short-acting oxy-tet intravenously and give it too fast, it causes low blood pressure and the animal faints/ collapses. Intravenous oxytetracycline and

intravenous trimethoprim sulfas are notorious for that,” says Dowling. When an animal collapses during an IV injection, it usually recovers quickly — unless it is injured when it falls down. “It’s simply an acute collapse and then they bounce back up again. Those products should always be injected very slowly. With tetracycline, the reaction is due to both the molecule and the polypropylene carrier it’s in. With trimethoprim sulfa, it seems to be mostly the carrier that causes this reaction in which the blood pressure drops,” she explains. “There are not very many other kinds of reactions, in cattle. There is one report in the literature of hives in a cow, resulting from an injection of ceftiofur (cephalosporin), but this is uncommon,” she says. “Adverse reactions are not well reported in our Canadian system. It’s a bit easier to report adverse reactions in the American system. But we do know the most common reactions we see are from vaccines rather than drugs. With the drugs, fatalities are infrequent, but there are still many issues with irritation at the injection site,” she says. WAYS TO AVOID OR REDUCE RISKS from REACTIONS

Local swelling after an injection is generally temporary, resolving in a few days. “If a subcutaneous injection causes swelling, this will be more visible and obvious than a swelling in the muscle from an intramuscular injection. The area will be sore and the animal won’t eat as well for a few days, but at least it’s just under the skin. A bigger problem would be tissue damage from an intramuscular injection,” she says. “For instance, tilmicosin (Micotil) is very

 daRT DANG E RS

Problems with misplaced injections Some ranchers use a dart gun to give injections out in the pasture without having to bring the animal in or restrain it. “Pasture cowboys often do this, and it can create all kinds of problems. Not only is there risk for getting it into the wrong place on the animal, but we’ve heard stories about the dart bouncing off the animal and coming back past the cowboy’s head. If this was a syringe loaded with Micotil and you shot yourself, it would be enough to be a fatal dose,” says Dowling. “And depending on how you hit the animal with the needle — whether it goes SC or IM — can be a problem. The injection is more difficult to control with this method. Someone has a video on YouTube showing a cow that’s three-legged lame with what looks like horrible foot rot. They shoot her with the dart gun and it sticks into her hip bone and she’s running across the pasture with the dart embedded in the bone!”

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

irritating, so it is labelled only for SC administration and you expect some swelling. But if you give tilmicosin intramuscularly it creates very nasty tissue damage,” she says. You can prevent some adverse reactions by giving the product according to label directions — at proper dosage and in the proper injection sites. “Regular penicillin is a lot more irritating if you give it subcutaneously than if you give it intramuscularly. But now we have penicillins that are labelled for subcutaneous injections and they are OK to give that way. There are also different oxytetracycline products; Biomycin is less irritating if given subcutaneously, whereas Tetradure was labelled for IM and when given subcutaneously it was horrific. Make sure you follow label directions for each product,” says Dowling. Most swellings are just tissue reaction at the injection site, but if a dirty needle was used, it may create an abscess. This needs to be opened and drained, but may break open on its own. It’s very important to use clean needles, and follow proper procedures for injection. “I run the food safety database for Canada. When we do have violations we go back and look at these things. With penicillin, people generally call me and say they used the labelled dose and followed the directions and still ended up with a positive (tissue residue), and then I wonder what volume they injected. Some people put the whole dose in one injection, since cattle don’t like multiple injections — rather than 10 ml per site. If they put it all in one spot, it doesn’t absorb the same way; there is delayed elimination from the body,” explains Dowling. “It’s also common (especially in dairy cows), to accidentally put an IM injection between the semimembranosis and the semitendinosis muscles on the back of the hind leg. The drug then ends up in the facial plane between the muscles rather than in muscle and then it is absorbed much more slowly. It is best to do IM injections in the neck, where there are lots of small muscles and a lot of movement. The drug will be absorbed faster, and the irritation is in the less valuable cuts of meat. I have photos of things like phenylbutazone or even flunixin (Banamine) given IM in the neck versus hindquarters. In every case, using the same drug dose, the lesions are much worse if given in the hindquarters versus in the neck muscles,” she says. c

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GROUNDED IN ALBERTA AGRICULTURE. Penn West is an integral part of the communities in which we operate. Like Alberta’s farmers and ranchers, Penn West understands the meaning of “grassroots”. We’re a Canadian company who spends a lot of time in rural Alberta. Penn West believes that by supporting the agricultural community, a vibrant economic sector, we can truly help farmers and ranchers improve their operations. Both the Agriculture and Oil and Gas industries have historically shaped Alberta’s sustainable economic future and that’s why supporting initiatives like Ag for Life are important for both improving farm safety and promoting the role and importance of agriculture for all Albertans. Penn West is a Founding Member for Ag for Life, a program that delivers educational programming to improve rural and farm safety. Ag for Life also builds a genuine understanding and appreciation of the impact agriculture has on the lives of all Albertans. To learn more about Ag for Life, go to agricultureforlife.ca. Visit Penn West at pennwest.com.

09/15-23180_05 CC

 Health · d rug r es i sta nc e

By Debbie Furber

Tracking resistance to drugs in cattle bugs It’s on the increase

he warning sign went up as results came in from two Alberta projects exploring the susceptibility of bacteria involved in bovine respiratory disease (BRD) to available antimicrobials. Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) administered the year-long project testing for antimicrobial resistance in feedlot cattle in order to develop an in-province screening tool. The project involved several industry, research and government collaborators and was funded by the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) and Growing Forward 2. Seven veterinary clinics submitted 750 samples from feedlot cattle that had been treated for or died from BRD from October 2014 through March 2015. The bacteria most frequently isolated from the samples were Mannheimia haemolytica (22.5 per cent of all isolates), Mycoplasma bovis, Pasteurella multocida, Histophilus somni, and Trueperella pyogenes. In all, 1,045 isolates were obtained and screened against 18 antimicrobials, some commonly used to treat BRD and others not, explains ABP beef production specialist Karin Schmid. Each bug had some level of resistance to one or more antimicrobials, while four out of 223 M. haemolytica isolates showed resistance to drugs from eight classes of antimicrobials. This multi-class drugresistance finding for M. haemolytica mirrors results from a recent study in the U.S., although it has yet to be confirmed whether the strain in the U.S. is the same as the strain in Canada. “We expected to find some level of resistance because all of the samples were from ill animals after treatment and many after death, so all had at least one treatment, but we couldn’t get full treatment records,” Schmid notes. “The sky isn’t falling because this was a very small sample size, but we did see multi-class resistance.” All antimicrobial use in people and animals leads to some level of resistance because antimicrobials never kill 100 per cent of the target and other bacteria. Those that survive go on to reproduce and some have the ability to pass their genes for resistance to other bacteria (Canadian Cattlemen, October 2014). “For example, treatment with tetracycline could lead to resistance against another drug in that class or another class. It’s complex and really depends on the bug and the drug,” says Schmid. Similar to the practice of rotating herbicides to curb the evolution of herbicide-resistance weeds, rotating antimicrobials from differing classes may be an effective way to reduce the odds of some, but not all, bacterial strains acquiring a high level of resistance to any one drug. “The good news is the low frequency of resistance to Category I antimicrobials,” she says. Resistance levels were generally below four per cent, depending on the antimicrobial. Health Canada has 13 drug and therapy classes in this category because of their importance in human medicine. The bug most frequently resistant to Category I drugs was M. bovis. Its unique structure, with no cell wall, makes it naturally resistant to beta-lactams including ceftiofur (Excenel). Some studies suggest M. bovis could be susceptible to the fluoroquinolones, but that didn’t prove out in this project with 93.8 per cent of M. bovis isolates showing resistance to the fluoroquinolone enrofloxacin (Baytril). Resistance to the florfenicals (Nuflor, Resflor), a Category III

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

Karin Schmid and Dr. Krishna Datt Bhatt

(medium importance) antimicrobial, ranged from 1.3 to 30.9 per cent, indicating that it remains a feasible option for treating BRD. Another positive outcome was that some of the clinics referred to the results of the antimicrobial susceptibilities test (AST) on samples they had submitted to select the most effective treatment options during the course of the project. The turnaround time between submitting a sample and receiving the results was 72 hours for most isolates. The Public Health Agency of Canada runs the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS) that monitors the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria that cause disease in people, such as salmonella, E. coli, and campylobacter. Schmid says industry officials are in the early stages of discussions to establish a regular surveillance program, possibly tied to CIPARS, to monitor antimicrobial resistance to livestock drugs. This project provided some tools that could be useful for such a service. A fact sheet outlining the results of the project is available at www. albertabeef.org. Test before you treat

The work of Dr. Krishna Datt Bhatt, a veterinarian from Nepal doing research at the department of ecosystem and public health, University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine (UCVM), says the resistance of H. somni to a number of antimicrobials used in Alberta feedlots is on the increase. Continued on page 42

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d rug r es i sta nc e

Continued from page 40

His initial work involved screening H. somni isolates from 56 feedlot cattle diagnosed with BRD against 10 classes of commonly used antimicrobials. Treatment records weren’t available so he had no way of knowing which drugs were used on these animals. However, 96 per cent of the H. somni isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic, most frequently gentamicin (94 per cent), oxytetracycline (74 per cent), penicillin (50 per cent) and tylosin (40 per cent). The high level of resistance to gentamicin was interesting as it is banned from use in feedlot cattle. Resistance may be due to coselection, which is a genetic process of transferring two or more resistance genes together. Seventy-three per cent of all isolates were resistant to more than one class and 34 per cent were resistant to four classes. None of the isolates had resistance to enrofloxacin, tulathromycin and the folate pathway inhibitor trimethoprim+sulphamethoxazole. Resistance to spectinomycin, ampicillin, ceftiofur, phenicol, and florfenicol was very low (less than 10 per cent). The resistance pattern has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, according to results just in from screening tests on 32 H. somni isolates collected in the 1980s from the tissue samples of cattle that died from BRD. These isolates were obtained from the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. “For the older isolates there was no resistance to tetracyclines,” Bhatt says, adding that this was quite surprising. “In summary, the older isolates are sensitive to almost all of the antimicrobials we tested. In addition, the minimum inhibitory concentration of the older isolates is pretty low for almost all antimicrobials compared to the new isolates. This means that a very low concentration of the antimicrobial is sufficient to kill the older isolates compared to the new isolates.” “What this means for producers and veterinarians is that things change over time in response to antimicrobial use. It is worrisome for public health and the cattle industry as well,” says project supervisor Dr. Karen Liljebjelke, assistant professor with ecosystems and public health, UCVM. Adding to the concern is the fact that current vaccines against his-

tophilosis are not terribly effective. This could be because of changes in the virulence (disease-causing) factors over time as observed by feedlot veterinarians in the way the disease has been presenting itself in recent years. Bhatt’s study focuses on H. somni but any one of the bacterial pathogens associated with BRD could have been the subject. All are commonly found in cattle and never cause a problem until stress pushes the immune system over the edge and gives one or more of the pathogens an opportunity to multiply out of control. Stress adds up at each step of the way from the ranch to the home pen at a feedlot as newly weaned calves are mixed, transported and processed on arrival. “Veterinarians and producers can only use what’s legal for drug treatment. When choosing, they must consider cost, the delivery mechanism and what’s practical, their own experience as to what’s still effective, and other regulatory issues like withdrawal times,” Liljebjelke explains. “I really encourage regular diagnostic sampling to identify the bacteria and antimicrobial sensitivity. Economically, sampling and getting a good idea of what’s causing the problem will give you a better bang for your buck because you won’t be wasting money on drugs that aren’t going to be effective.” This approach of sampling to identify bacteria causing illness is also being encouraged in human medicine, she adds. Bhatt’s research, funded by ALMA, is now examining the genetic fingerprints of the new and old isolates to try to determine how the new H. somni isolates acquired this resistance over time and whether it is the same bacterial strains that have acquired resistant genes, or a whole mix of new strains from many feedlots that are building resistance. They will identify resistance genes and whether those genes can be passed to susceptible bacteria and if so, the mechanism of transmission. Another angle will follow up on the findings from a U.S. study that found acquired genes for resistance to tetracycline along with tolerance to copper and zinc (common ingredients in feed rations) being passed on together in a single genetic package. These genetic packages seem to acquire genes over time and could end up passing multi-drug resistance in one package, which is really the big issue of the day, Liljebjelke says. c

- Jen C., Ontario, 2014 AWC Delegate

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Measure it up A brutal summer in much of Western Canada has left hay and forage reserves extremely low. Tallying up an accurate number of what you've got on hand could save you money or eliminate the midwinter scramble to find feed It could be said that there are two measures of yield — total tonnage and total nutrition. While tonnage is the easiest to measure, just knowing how many bales or tonnes you have on hand isn't necessarily an accurate depiction of if you've got enough feed to get through winter. The earlier you can assess actual yield (a function of both tonnage and nutrient levels), the more time you have to prepare for a shortfall in stocked feed. While late-spring seeding with an eye to fall grazing can help stretch winter feed needs, it's September — what action can you take now to make sure you're ready for the months ahead? First off, if you're not in the habit of feed testing, this may be the year to start. Cattle don't just eat pounds of feed, they ingest nutrients — bales of equal weight can have vastly different nutritional profiles. Testing hay is always a good idea, but can be especially beneficial when feed is tight or very expensive. And remember — visual assessments of feed may be

able to quickly split feed into high- vs. low-quality categories, but this isn't enough to build a balanced ration from. Once you've determined what amount of energy and protein you have, it's time to flex those networking muscles. Even if you have tried-and-true hay suppliers you go to, you may already have had to go outside your typical sourcing area to find feed. This is where getting creative may help — is there the possibility of fall grazing some non-traditional acres? What about non-traditional feed sources like silaged canola or straw/residue? If you've got cattle that respect hot wire, the possibilities to stretch the grazing season well into the fall could buy you a much needed reprieve on feed costs. While tight feed supplies and poor forage growth are the immediate concerns, there's a second valuable side to having an accurate measure of the nutrients coming off the field — determining your true cost of production both of the hay and silage and of the cattle, but we'll discuss that in our next feature.

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 prime cuts

By Steve Kay

Millennials eye the meat case

onsider these numbers. The millennial generation in the U.S., those born between 1980 and 2000, are 80 million strong. By 2020, spending power of older millennial parents will hit US$1.4 trillion a year. The numbers for Canada are much smaller but equally important. This is the generation that must be the North American beef industry’s target market for beef promotion and education. The U.S. Cattlemen’s Beef Board has got millennials firmly in its sights. It recently outlined some fascinating details about what this generation thinks about food and how they shop. My three children are all millennials and I agree with everything the board says. One thing I would add is that some millennials, especially if they are in the information technology industry, are making enough money to buy beef every day of the week. This generation presumably eats a lot of hamburgers, as they remain a staple of Americans’ diets. Fiftyseven per cent of consumers eat burgers each week, says a new report. Beef’s great taste is the No. 1 reason that millennials and other consumers eat beef, says the board. The most limiting factors to increased beef consumption are health reasons, limiting cholesterol or fat and “other

meats seem healthier.” But 45 per cent say they are extremely or very likely to add one more beef meal per week once they discover that beef is nutrient rich, that many lean cuts are available and that lean beef compares favourably to chicken, says the board. My take is that the industry’s challenge is to maintain beef’s great flavour without adding fat inside or outside a cut. Millennials trust what they can see but also the advice of foodies and health professionals, says the board. They also want to dig online and find out what their friends and other sources tell them. They love great food, since they grew up in the era of food shows on TV, and beef is included in their definition of craveable, wonderful food. They want hints, tips, knowledge about choosing a great steak, anything that can help them maximize their enjoyment of beef, says the board. They care about where their food comes from and how it serves their families’ needs. They want their beef to be safe, nutritious, flavourful, tender, convenient, easy to prepare and raised with care for the animals and environment. They want lots of choices and information that will set a good example for their children, says the board. When millennials want to celebrate by getting out to the grill, they choose beef

more often than any other protein, says the board. On an everyday basis however, they make decisions about what to fix for supper at 4 p.m. or later and often make decisions while in the grocery store. They choose ground beef for family meals most often but want information to expand their choices to new and different cuts and uses. Millennials shop at various retail stores but they love Trader Joe’s, Costco, farmers’ markets, and food trucks. Millennials overwhelmingly get their information about beef and beef production through online and social-media channels. Millennials are also more racially diverse, finding their niche in the world, asking more questions about their food and increasing their food spending, says the board. They get their information overwhelmingly through social media, including food bloggers, dietitians, foodies and other influencers. About 83 per cent of them sleep with their cellphone right next to their bed. More than 90 per cent of millennials eat beef at least monthly, and 35 per cent have more than three servings of beef a week. The future of the beef industry lies with this generation. c A North American view of the meat industry. Steve Kay is publisher and editor of Cattle Buyers Weekly.

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 straigh t f ro m t h e h i p

By Brenda Schoepp

Revelation in the Boardroom

he constant evolution of the boardroom experience is one which every industry is experiencing. The transparency and rapid transfer of information allow for higher knowledge coming into the boardroom and a more transparent level of discussion. What is it that makes for an industry board that empowers members and hits all the right targets while executing within budget? The boardroom experience need not be boring or redundant. It can be a fascinating journey with diverse individuals pulling in the same direction from different viewpoints. It is up to the individual board member to choose to contribute to a board or committee that aligns with their core values and beliefs and to be accountable at all times. It is up to leadership to create a platform for discussion. It is up to staff to execute the directive of the board and not to be micromanaged by it. And it is the responsibility of all to engage in ongoing dialogue and reporting. Often industry boards are seen as battlegrounds to protect the status quo or impose a personal agenda rather than fostering an environment for growth and service. As a new board member you may wish to know what to look for. What are a few of the characteristics of a functional board? It starts with asking the fundamental questions prior to commitment beginning with: what is the mandate of the board? If that cannot be clearly articulated then there is a risk of feeling lost at sea at the table. There must be a reason for the existence of that board that is clear, measurable and accountable. What is the governance structure of the board? Governance is a broad term that embodies the interactions of decision-making and the tiers of authority and execution. For example how does a collectively recommended action become executed and by whom? Small plays in governance make for big changes and can be as simple as agenda construction to radiate the needs of the board members and ensure their comfort regarding times allotted for discussion. This is important because if the board is presented actions already in play that do not have board approval then the tail is wagging the dog. The board itself does not have a function and the governance model is upside down. What are the roles and responsibilities of the board member and how do they support the mandate of the board and the vision of the stakeholder? New board members should ask for and receive a complete orientation package and a briefing that clearly defines the mandate and purpose of the board and the roles and responsibilities of the members. This is for all boards of all sizes and for all purposes. Along with the value of expertise and a desire to serve, the board member commits to a great attitude and to affirm the best in their fellow members. Ego is parked with the car. The goal is servitude toward a higher good

C at t l e m e n · S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5

expressed as a common objective. As one size does not fit all you may have to ask for what you need to serve well. If you cannot hear — then ask for a microphone or for your fellow members to speak up. Need a break or a special diet, more complete board packages, further information or a meeting with staff or the chair to clarify a detail? — ask. When internal barriers block the ability of the board member to fully function they should be immediately addressed. The ongoing tolerance of this only leads to frustration and an ineffective board. Take the example of board packages. The entire meeting may be fruitless if board packages are incomplete or delivered too close to the meeting date. Having resolutions of importance worded and included in the package helps board members to understand what they may be voting on in advance. Templates that measure the past success on a topic are important to visualize complex situations. Even seemingly trivial items such as dress code for board functions are important to the smooth workings of the board. How questions are expressed is important to keep engagement at a high level and to boost moral. Questions are about the issue or item and not the person. One might ask, “Jane, thank you for your report, may I have more clarification on the number of cattle in quarantine referred to in this report?” rather than stating,“This report is not complete because Jane did not supply the numbers I need.” As representatives of our constituents we are ever polite and eloquently brief. When on a board and it seems like too much work, too much time commitment or too much repetitive discussion then there is a failure in the design and a lack of leadership to provide the platform for open discussion. Functional design respects details in purpose, governance, diversity, leadership, roles and responsibilities and empowers board members. The problem is the solution and a failure creates an opportunity to work collectively to design a structure that assures results. The exercise of determining board mandate and assessing the skills required while constantly mirroring the vision of the stakeholder creates value. And at the end of the day, board members want to feel that their time has been of value to their industry and community. It is a fascinating experience, a revelation, to be on the team of a highly functional board. Great experiences lead to strong comradery between board members and assure staff that the board is supportive of their work. Most importantly it fosters growth in individuals, communities, companies and industry. c Brenda Schoepp is an inspiring speaker, consultant and mentor who works with young entrepreneurs across Canada and around the world. She can be contacted through her website www.brendaschoepp.com. All rights reserved. Brenda Schoepp 2015

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

BUILDING TRUST IN CANADIAN BEEF

McDonald’s talks sustainability and beef in Canada And why VBP can bridge beef producer and corporate Canada goals McDonald’s Jeff Fitzpatrick-Stilwell has worked with the beef industry to help tell the beef story.

It’s been eye opening for Jeffrey FitzpatrickStilwell. The McDonald’s Canada senior manager of sustainability is the company lead on its innovative “verified sustainable beef” pilot project. This project, he believes, is significant for Canada’s beef industry. It also inevitably raises questions about the role of corporate players such as his company in driving industry direction. Fitzpatrick-Stilwell is comfortable with that discussion. His career has taken him to the front lines and backrooms of the sustainability world. He knows the realities of the global food industry and how Canada’s beef producers can bridge those worlds today.

Many operations use strong record-keeping systems including Standard Operating Procedures, says Fitzpatrick-Stilwell. Written records anchor the food system. They provide a proof point that third-party verifiers can see and give producers a way to prove continual improvement. “That allows McDonald’s to tell this story in a more positive and credible way from our end.”

Why Canada?

Scale differences

When McDonald’s searched globally for options for a sustainability pilot, Canada stood out, says Fitzpatrick-Stilwell. McDonald’s Canada sourced all of its beef supplies from Canadian sources, two beef suppliers and a very simplified supply chain. As well, the Canadian beef industry demonstrated leadership with the Verified Beef Production (VBP) program, BIXS and Cattlemen’s Young Leaders.

“Scale matters” usually means the larger the better. In the case of the McDonald’s pilot it means producers of all sizes have equal access. The goal is a credible, scalable process, says Fitzpatrick-Stilwell. It is outcomes based so whether you have 40 head or 4,000 head the goal is the same. For example, protecting animals from weather may be different in northern Alberta than P.E.I., but the desired outcome is the same.

Key pilot messages

How VBP builds brands

Lots of things are being learned as the pilot unfolds, but one early lesson is the critical importance of record-keeping.

As a core element of the sustainability effort, VBP gives additional proof points to take to consumers. That builds brands.

“Our consumers are really focused on quality, safe and sustainably and responsibly sourced food,” he says. “VBP food safety and new modules are going to let us talk to consumers in a new way. A third-party process will also let producers tell their already very positive story in an even more credible way.” Food’s future

“The food world is not going in the direction of less information, fewer proof points and less verification. It’s going to be more because this is what consumers are demanding,” says Fitzpatrick-Stilwell. “So participation in programs like VBP is going to be critical to the social licence to operate. “We want to make sure we aren’t just dictating but rather that we are working collaboratively with producers for this reality. That’s why we work with existing programs like VBP and BIXS, to take those to the next level to meet all of our needs.”

Module update

VBP is adding modules with some ready within 2016. See next month for an update on VBP+.

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 CCA repo rts

By Dave Solverson

North American producers stand firm on COOL

he Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) held a busy and productive semi-annual meeting in Winnipeg, Man. in August. Much of the discussion and debate around the board table focused on addressing factors that may be preventing some producers from expanding their herds to take advantage of current market opportunities. While drought and extreme dry conditions remain a very real issue for some producers in parts of B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan, recent rainfall across a broad swath of Western Canada has alleviated the situation somewhat for many others. The precipitation is too late for crops but good for pastures and later-seeded cereals. The CCA continues to urge those who manage the programs to make decisions in a timely manner to allow producers to make timely decisions that are best suited for their operations. The CCA was pleased to host a contingent of North American cattle association allies at the semi-annual meeting. Representatives from the U.S.-based National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association, and Mexico’s Confederacion Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas (CNOG) were in attendance. In addition to supporting the CCA’s fight against U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labelling (COOL), the national associations are part of the Five Nations Beef Alliance, ensuring consistent messaging on beef access to the negotiators of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Canada needs a TPP agreement to ensure Canadian beef producers can improve access to Japan and other growing markets in Asia. The CCA intends to be at the next, and hopefully final, round of TPP negotiations, which are expected to occur in late fall. The CCA attended the most recent round of negotiations in Hawaii, where TPP members fell just short of reaching an agreement due to the complexity of the negotiations. There’s been a small development in the U.S. COOL case currently in the arbitration process at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The U.S. recently submitted its estimate of costs related to COOL arbitration at a nominal US$91 million. The dollar amount is related to the U.S. government’s requested arbitration, following Canadian and Mexican requests for arbitration, which the U.S. found “excessive.” Recall that Canada has requested authorization to impose tariffs on more than C$3.1 billion per year of U.S. exports. Mexico is requesting authorization for over US$713 million in retaliatory tariffs. A hearing will take place in Geneva in the middle of September for the arbitration panel to hear arguments from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. on their respective calculations. The CCA notes that the U.S. estimate ignores any valuation related to segregation of cattle, transportation issues or price suppression in the Canadian market. Given that the WTO has already found these issues to be at the core of the

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COOL violation, the CCA feels confident that our calculations will be strongly considered by the arbitrators. The CCA calls on the U.S. to fully repeal the red meat requirements of the COOL legislation before the arbitration process is complete and tariffs can be put into place. At that time, the Government of Canada will decide when the tariffs go on, how high they will be, and under what conditions the tariffs will be removed. CCA’s Mexican and U.S. allies shared their perspectives on the U.S. COOL case at the semi-annual meeting. CNOG legal representation Alejandro Gomez said Mexico wants nothing short of full repeal. Mexico is prepared to retaliate and will defend the US$713M year figure at the WTO. Instead of publicizing a list of possible retaliation targets, CNOG and Mexican officials have approached individual U.S. congressional leaders and hand delivered lists of items for retaliation. In the U.S., understanding that the only way to avoid retaliation is for the Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives, Senator Pat Roberts recently put forward legislation that repeals COOL once and for all. The U.S. Senate was unable to make the required legislative change to repeal COOL prior to its summer recess, which commenced August 7. NCBA Associate Director of Legislative Affairs Kent Bacus said it is important for the entire U.S. Senate to understand that if they don’t support Senator Roberts and vote to repeal COOL, then retaliation is imminent. If retaliation does occur, then those senators who did not stand with Roberts and vote for full repeal will be held accountable for the many American jobs lost to retaliation. In addition to COOL, Congress must also take action to avoid a government shutdown on October 1 and Congress must also address a potential default if they fail to increase the debt ceiling this fall. In previous situations the threat of defaulting on the debt and a potential government shutdown created a toxic environment and crisis mode inside Washington, D.C. COOL is a priority in Canada as well, with a federal election on October 19. The CCA has issued its election priorities document and in it requests that the Government of Canada keep up the momentum of retaliation. The document also outlines a number of issues that can help create the operating environment for beef cattle herd expansion in Canada, such as fully funding programs that help producers manage risk, investing in infrastructure, secure access to high-value and growing markets, policies that ensure the competitiveness of Canadian producers, investment in research and sustainable practices and access to sufficient labour. The CCA election priorities document is available on the CCA’s website www.cattle.ca and I encourage producers to read it. c

Dave Solverson is president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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 THE INDUST RY

NewsRoundup research

Cocktails for cattle under stress By Debbie Furber

Cells lining the inside of your digestive tract are on guard 24-7 letting nutrients into the bloodstream and blocking harmful substances from entering the bloodstream. It’s no different in cattle. Barrier function of the bovine intestinal tract is the subject of new research in progress at the University of Saskatchewan where master’s candidate Rae-Leigh Pederzolli will be analyzing the potential of an altered feeding strategy with a novel supplement added to the ration to reinforce barrier function during times of stress. The novel supplement will be a cocktail of several compounds that may help minimize tissue damage and promote tissue growth in the digestive tract so that calves resume normal feed intake without digestive upsets following a disruption in the diet. “The main situations in the beef industry that hinder performance are new cattle at feedlots and cattle going off feed once they’ve been adapted,” Pederzolli says. A general practice at feedlots after inclement weather that delays feeding operations is to go to a storm diet by backing off grain a couple of steps and replacing it with forage for a short time before stepping up the grain content again, she explains. Likewise, the two storm diets, one with the cocktail and one without, in

Rae-Leigh Pederzolli

her study will include a higher percentage of forage than the baseline finishing ration, but both will be fed for a full week following five days of low feed intake. Another group will immediately return to the high-grain finishing ration, which is expected to cause acidosis. The control

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group will remain on the finishing ration without interruption. If the cocktail storm diet proves to be effective, this strategy could be useful following other times when feed intake is reduced, such as weaning and transport. Preconditioning on the ranch has long

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

NEWS ROUNDUP

been suggested as a way to ease transition to the feedlot, but it comes at a cost to cow-calf producers, often with little reward from the marketplace, so there’s not much incentive to do it if they’re not retaining the calves, she adds. The hope is that managing the feed program following a disruption, by including a high percentage of forage, a cocktail supplement, and a week-long recovery period, will improve health and production without the use of antimicrobials, thereby reducing cost and the chance of antimicrobial resistance developing. This study builds on background from her initial trial that looked at permeability of the gastrointestinal tract (rumen, omasum, duodenum, jejunum, ileum cecum and proximal and distal colon) under two typical scenarios, ruminal acidosis and low feed intake, compared to a control group. The baseline diet was a backgrounding ration, half forage and half concentrate. Ruminal acidosis was induced by restricting dry-matter intake to 25 per cent of the steers’ voluntary feed intake for one day, followed by one day of feeding pelleted barley grain to make up 30 per cent of daily dry-matter intake. Rumen boluses with pH probes confirmed acidosis with an average pH of 5.86 compared to an average pH of 6.55 for the control group. The low-feed-intake challenge was five days of restricting daily dry-matter intake to 25 per cent of body weight. Average rumen pH was 6.94 over the five days. The steers were killed immediately following the challenges and samples were gathered from each region of the gastrointestinal tract. Permeability was tested with the use of a Ussing chamber, which measures how molecules cross tissue. Inulin (large-size molecules) and mannitol (smallsize molecules) were used in this study. There were no differences among the control, acidosis and low-feed-intake groups for inulin flux across any of the tissues. The distal colon was the only part of the digestive tract with altered permeability and that was for mannitol in response to restricted feed intake. Short-duration ruminal acidosis didn’t affect permeability of any part of the digestive tract, although Pederzolli doesn’t doubt that sustained ruminal acidosis could lead to ulceration and potential perforation of the lining. When this happens, bacteria from the digestive tract could leak into the bloodstream causing a systemic infection that damages the liver and potentially the hooves. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

The new trial will again evaluate differences in permeability of tissues from certain regions of the gastrointestinal tract and a concentration gradient applied in the Ussing chamber will shed more light on fluctuations over time. She will also be looking at short-chain fatty acid absorption. Short-chain fatty acids include acetate, propionate and butyrate metabolized from feed and released fairly quickly into the bloodstream to provide energy.

“Tissue permeability is just one piece of the barrier function puzzle that also includes roles such as mucous secretion and supporting microbial communities,” she explains. “There has been a lot of research on the rumen, yet a decent amount of fermentation takes place in the hindgut (cecum and colon) as well and very little research has looked at how hindgut tissues respond when challenged.” Continued on page 52

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