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MEASURING PAIN • M.C. QUANTOCKʼS FIRST COW SALE • WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A SQUEEZE CHUTE www.canadiancattlemen.ca

October 2011 $3.00

SEEKING HEALTHY GENES Dr. Graham Plastow, Livestock Gentec Edmonton, Alta.

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2. Give the Canadian Angus Association permission to share your contact information with buyers looking for Angus tagged cattle.

3. Sell Angus tagged cattle at Canadian Angus Rancher Endorsed Sales or contact licensed participants directly.

4. Cash cheque and appreciate the value and efficiency of the Angus breed and its superior meat quality.

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08/09/2011 3:29:32 PM

October 2011

Volume 74, No. 10

Established 1938 ISSN 1196-8923 Cattlemen Editorial: Editor: Gren Winslow 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 (204) 944-5753 Fax (204) 944-5416 Email: gren@fbcpublishing.com Field Editor: Debbie Furber Box 1168, Tisdale, SK S0E 1T0 (306) 873-4360 Fax (306) 873-4360 Email: debbie.furber@fbcpublishing.com

FEATURES Cull those unproductive beef cows.................................6 Seeking genes for robustness............................................8 M.C. quantock’s cow sale is a first............................... 10

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Marketing my mistakes................................................... 12

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The science of measuring pain........................................ 14

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The long road to trading beef in east asia.................. 16

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Avoid vaccine blowups.................................................... 22

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Choosing a squeeze chute.............................................. 26

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Calgary vet students learn basic skills on simulated animals................................................. 28

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Verified beef production................................................ 33 Departments

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COMMENT............................................... 4 NEWSMAKERS......................................... 5 NUTRITION............................................ 20 PRIME CUTS......................................... 30 RESEARCH............................................ 31 VET ADVICE.......................................... 32 CCA REPORTS...................................... 34 STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP...................... 35 HOLISTIC RANCHING.............................. 36 NEWS ROUNDUP................................... 38 PURELY PUREBRED............................... 44 THE MARKETS...................................... 47 MARKET TALK....................................... 49 SALES & EVENTS.................................. 50

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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, C anadian C attlemen and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as C anadian C attlemen 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.

Cattlemen / october 2011 3

c o m m e n t

by Gren Winslow

Value chains need more than talk Time to decide if we are an exporting nation!

C

anada Gold Beef Inc. (CGB) shut down the beef line at its SunGold Specialty Meats plant in Innisfail last month.

This does not spell the end for CGB but it is a set back for the 19 shareholders who have already invested more than $19 million is this venture. It is also a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks value chains are a smooth road to riches in the cattle business.

The producers who own CGB obviously believe in the potential of the value chain to earn a premium price by shipping a quality product from their farms to the consumer’s plate. They’ve even had a taste of it. But they’ve also run up against the bitter realities facing small players who try to reach overseas to find those premium markets.

You might think they were victims of our shrinking cattle numbers, but that wasn’t the case this time. As CGB chairman Rick Paskal explained in announcing the shutdown, it wasn’t that simple.

They have the cattle. With the EU opening up they paid a premium to cow-calf producers in the chain for hormone-free calves. That amounted to $40 to $50 a head on the 16,000 eligible cattle enrolled to date.

European Union (EU) regulations formed the first hurdle. CGB had Europe in mind when it bought the SunGold plant from Sunterra Meats in July last year. The plant was set up to process lamb, bison and beef but even more important it was EU accredited. Unfortunately it required another $1.5 million to meet current Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) requirements to retain that accreditation, and the demands of interested overseas customers.

The other big hurdle was labour. They couldn’t attract enough skilled workers to Innisfail so they turned to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, but everyone they hired needed extensive training to supply the cuts demanded by European customers. Despite installing the best fabrication machinery available the plant still struggled to supply the proper cut and trim specs.

To make it work they had to sell a container a week (180 head) at a premium price to Europe.

For a time it seemed that it was going to work out. Their agent in Europe quickly tapped into a demand for Canadian grain-fed beef, selling up to 50 containers to different clients in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Belgium until the import quota became too expensive.

4 Cattlemen / october 2011

Canada was given access to the 20,000-tonne high-quality duty-free quota as compensation for the EU ban on hormone beef but Pascal was shocked to learn countries that had no claim to compensation could also access this quota. “In hindsight,” he said in his announcement, “if CGB would have realized that the agreement the Canadian government negotiated allowed other countries to piggyback onto our compensation agreement… then CGB would not have made any investment in this area.”

To make matters worse he says the EU offers the quota to large importers who simply flip it to “legitimate” beef importers. Quota is currently trading for 50 cents a pound, an amount that pretty much squeezes CGB’s product out of the market.

Instead of just talking about the benefits of value chains, Paskal believes it is time government and industry got involved to give fledgling organizations such as his a chance to become established in overseas markets.

Specifically, he would like to see some progress in the negotiations to write a more realistic import protocol for EU beef shipments. CFIA’s current protocol goes beyond what is required of Australian and U.S. exporters, resulting in unnecessary costs and delays for Canadian firms.

He would also like to see the rules for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program softened on the temporary part. When work permits are restricted to six months or a year you end up with a high turnover. At that rate you just get someone trained to do the job and they have to leave.

He’s also looking for government and industry to back up producer-run value chains with money. “The beef industry of Canada wants to get into other profitable sustainable markets, but their direction on where they are committing funds is not proving in my opinion, to give a good return on those funds,” says Paskal. “More of a focus must be put on a value chain’s ability to execute on every aspect of production.” “(We) put our best foot forward, but we cannot carry all the aforementioned challenges on behalf of the beef industry on our own,” he said.

In the meantime, CGB has cut its work force and will processing lamb and bison and custom kill enough cattle to satisfy its growing list of domestic customers. They know they can do well in Europe too, but it will take more than a firstclass product. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

NEWSMAKERS Blair Vold, the owner of the Vold, Jones and Vold auction market in Ponoka, was abducted from outside his home south of Ponoka September 15 by a gun-wielding man who demanded a large amount of cash.

After forcing Vold to approve a large cash withdrawal on his credit card the perpetrator Blair Vold drove to the parking lot of the ATB Financial branch in Lacombe. When he got out of the truck Vold managed to get his hands untied and escape to a gas station to call police as the abductor fled. At press time the man was still at large. The police released a photo of him wearing dark glasses and a touque as he left a bank in Wetaskiwin. He is described as slim, about six feet tall, 45 to 50 years old, with a white moustache and goatee. Anyone recognizing the suspect is asked to call the RCMP in Ponoka at (403) 783-4471 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

The CCA has contracted Holly LaBrie as program administrator of the Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS).

LaBrie holds a diploma in computer programming from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and has considerable experience with database and technological project management and training.

Holly and her husband Sean run a 120-head Anguscross commercial herd and custom graze another 80 head each year northwest of Didsbury, Alta. As the daughter of Longview-area rancher John Cartwright, LaBrie grew up on a commercial operation and has a good understanding of the Canadian cow-calf industry. As program administrator, LaBrie will manage the design and function of the BIXS portal and database including reporting, system queries and user liaison and system monitoring.

top-up has basically served its purpose in that most producers in the province are now aware of how important it is to submit older suspicious animals for testing.

Integrated Traceability Solutions (ITS) completed the purchase of ComputerAid Professional Services from Ralph and Yvonne Tollens of Okotoks, Alta., in late August. ComputerAid was started in 1986 as a part-time venture by the Tollens to assist family and friends in the cattle business who were looking for ways to collect and manage data. ITS is the company that supplied the equipment and expertise for the Alberta traceability study in several auction markets around the province.

The government of Alberta has confirmed it will provide a grant of $5 million to fund the Calgary Stampede Centennial celebration July 6-15, 2012. This matches the $5 million pledged by Ottawa earlier in the year. The stampede attracts more than a million visitors from across Canada and around the world every year.

XL Foods Lakeside Packers met all the federal protocols last month to begin using the German e+v camera to augment beef grading at its Brooks, Alta. plant. The graders at the plant are using the camera to confirm their visual inspection of the carcass. Cargill uses the same equipment to sort carcasses for fabrication.

C

Walt Browarny, the man who brought livestock photography to a fine art, passed away in late August at the age of 75. Originally from Calgary he got his start doing technical photography in the oilpatch later branching out into freelance work. In 1970 he attended the Denver stock show and the rest, as they say, is history. He Walt Browarny spent the remainder of his life travelling the world taking memorable photos of cattle. His work can still be seen on the website www.browarny.com and is still available from the Walt Browarny Legacy Collection at www.showchampions.com/.

Keith Robertson the CEO of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association returned from medical leave on September 1. Jamie Blacklock, the SCA bookkeeper and former manager of the Saskatchewan Cattle Feeder’s Association served as interim CEO while Keith was away.

Fits your small ration needs and your pocketbook too.

On September 15 Alberta stopped paying producers a $150 top-up incentive payment to submit suspicious animals for testing under the Canada and Alberta BSE Surveillance Program. Producers still receive the $75 federal payment and veterinarians are still being paid a fee to harvest the sample. Provincial chief veterinarian Gerald Hauer says the

Toll Free 800.809.8224 www.JAYLOR.com

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011 5

MANAGEMENT

CULL THOSE UNPRODUCTIVE BEEF COWS

F

all processing is an ideal time to cull problem cows.

In early fall prices for beef cows are generally higher than later in the year and calves are being weaned then. But the big savings are on the cost side.

The yearly cost to maintain a cow on the Prairies is at least $400, whether she is productive or not.

Reproduction is the biggest loss in a cow-calf operation so a timely pregnancy diagnosis by your veterinarian will save considerably on feed costs. Your profit is derived by pounds of beef sold so open cows contribute nothing to the revenue pool.

But that is not the only benefit to a pregnancy exam.

While palpating the cows, internal pelvic size can also be assessed in heifers. Internal infection in the abdomen (adhesions), tumours, and infected kidneys can also be detected in time to ship the animal.

Freemartins (heifers born twin to bulls) will be detected if they were mistakenly kept as replacements. In 95 per cent of these cases they will never breed.

Late-bred cows can also be detected and marked. If all calves are weaned together these late-bred cows will wean smaller calves since the calves will be much younger. They may however fit well into another producer's program and could be sold as bred cows. Since most herds average five to 10 per cent open or late cows, pregnancy diagnosis is an invaluable and necessary part of any beef operation.

Many other conditions can be eliminated as they pass through the chute. Cows with vaginal prolapses, arthritis, bad feet and poor udders (coke-bottle teats or swing bags) should be marked out as well. There are methods of scoring udders.

Remember vaginal prolapses are generally hereditary so it is wise not to keep any female offspring off cows culled for that weakness. Uterine prolapses on the other hand are not hereditary so the cow can be kept as long as she has rebred.

The likelihood of her prolapsing the next year is no more likely than any other cow.

Cracks, long toes or other foot problems need to be culled or attended to in order to enable these animals to be productive the following season. Again some foot problems such as corkscrew claws and corns may be hereditary so don’t retain their daughters in the herd.

Poor udders with large teats or broken down suspensory ligaments should be closely scrutinized. These cows are more prone to mastitis. As well, getting newborns to suckle on these large teats or low bags can be a formidable task in the spring, when your time is at a premium.

Temperament is another consideration for culling. My attitude has always been there are too many quiet cows in the world to keep the wild, hard to handle, or fence crawlers.

Some cows of course get quite possessive right at calving but if they endanger workers culling should be considered.

A scale is a very valuable aid in selecting unproductive cows. Remember the age-old rule of cows weaning at least half their body weight. Large cows need to wean larger 6 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

You are generally better off if you cull early. calves in order to be profitable. Weighing calves at weaning and knowing the cow’s mature weights makes this decision very easy. Unproductive cows may be poor milkers, over fat or have some underlying disease resulting in unthrifty calves.

A mature cow with chronic diarrhea especially if loosing weight is a likely candidate for Johnes disease and is best shipped for slaughter immediately after your veterinarian has made the diagnosis.

Older cows will start to lose teeth at about 10 plus years of age making it difficult to graze efficiently. Mouthing of some cows allows you to estimate age and cull while salvage is still an option. Cows should have all eight front incisor teeth. If the root is visible on the inside incisor the cow is about nine years old. With older cows reproductive longevity was definitely good so these cows are often kept if pregnant as a surrogate.

The calf can be removed after birth to orphan onto a young cow that may have lost her calf.

Producers must record potential culls during the year otherwise memories fade by fall. An age-old method of marking is to crop the switch but I prefer notching the ear tag as a very visible reminder that a cow is on the cull list. The cow that almost did your wife in at spring calving cannot be forgotten about by fall culling.

Producers may have questionable culls where the final decision is made at pregnancy checking time. If the open or late rate is lower than expected this is an ideal time to cull these borderline females. This keeps herd sizes the same while eliminating problems.

It is far better to cull early and maintain good salvage value. The quicker you cull and sell the more feed you save.

By doing these things the younger more productive cows are maintained in your herd. You cannot make these decisions without clear records. For that proper identification tags must be maintained in both cows and calves. When culling insure all the cull cattle are carrying their RFID tags.

C — Roy Lewis DVM www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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SEEDSTOCK

SEEKING GENES FOR ROBUSTNESS

I

Maybe you can breed for healthy cattle

n the not-too-distant future, beef producers may be able to add reduced disease susceptibility, also described as robustness, to the list of beef animal traits when making breeding and management decisions. A study involving the universities of Alberta and Calgary and GrowSafe Systems of Airdrie is moving along nicely into the second year of a two-year project to develop a molecular phenotype to select for robust beef cattle.

Molecular phenotype is actually a new term that describes precisely what the team is investigating, says project manager Dr. Graham Plastow of Livestock Gentec (former Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Livestock Genomics Technology) at the University of Alberta.

An animal’s phenotype is what you see — its physical characteristics resulting from its genetic makeup and the environment. In this project, the phenotype of importance is the state of the animal’s health. At first sight, it’s either ill or healthy, Plastow explains. At the molecular level, scientists will be studying gene products in the blood to define the gene expression of sick animals to look for genes that are switched on in response to infection.

They hypothesize that the gene expression profile, or blood transcript, of healthy animals will differ from that of sick animals and that it will also differ according to the cause of the illness, whether that be bacteria, viruses, toxins in the feed, or metabolic conditions such as bloat, he explains.

If it proves out — and preliminary results from swine research suggest that it should — researchers will be able to establish molecular phenotypes and group them according to the cause of the disease. The classification system could then be developed to provide a routine measure for health, which has been the missing link in making progress toward using genetics to improve animal health. In order to make genetic improvement in any trait, it has to be measurable.

Ultimately, the classification system would give researchers a tool to go on to find DNA markers to identify animals that are less likely to become ill when infected, in other words, animals that are more robust to various stresses so that their immune systems are likely to respond effectively to infection.

Plastow says the molecular phenotyping and classification project is on target to wrap up next May. The first year focussed largely on collecting the blood samples, which was accomplished under some rough working conditions throughout the winter months by the University of Calgary team and veterinary medicine students in co-operation with staff at feedlots involved in GrowSafe’s related project.

GrowSafe Beef is a pen-monitoring system that elec8 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

Dr. Graham Plastow tronically records data from individual animals 24 hours a day with the use of radio frequency identification tags and remote computer software. Each time an animal drinks from the GrowSafe Beef unit, the system calculates its weight, rate of gain and health profile. Variance from the normal water intake pattern is an early indicator of disease. The system has been programmed to visually mark an animal with altered water consumption behaviour for follow up. GSB also estimates a best-marketing date for each animal, that is, when the cost of gain begins to exceed the value of gain, and automatically marks market-ready animals to maximize profit.

(CANADIAN CATTLEMEN, Feeding for Profit, fall 2010) The validation project wrapped up with the cattle going to market in early July and GrowSafe is now in the process of analysing the GSB and carcass data, says GrowSafe coCEO Alison Sunstrum, who has a new-found appreciation for the incredibly hard work that feedlot cowboys do. The entire report will be reviewed by Dr. Monty Kerely at the University of Missouri.

During the sampling for the molecular phenotype project, blood was drawn from individual animals marked by GSB and identified by pen checkers as having altered drinking, eating or behavioural patterns. A “control” sample was also collected randomly from a penmate regarded as healthy.

More than 700 animals were part of the trial and more than 2,000 samples were collected for the various aspects of the study with multiple samples drawn from some animals.

Sick animals were examined by a veterinarian and their blood samples tested to diagnose the specific ailment and its cause for cross-referencing to determine whether each animal’s genetic expression matches its apparent state of health.

All animals were managed according to the feedlots’ standard operating procedures with the outcome noted, whether that was a speedy recovery, chronic illness and repeated treatments, or death.

The ball is now in Livestock Gentec’s court to analyze the samples, define the genetic expression of each, and classify the genetic phenotypes. “I certainly think we have a terrific data set. With this number of samples we feel we will really be able to test the phenotype,” Plastow says.

C — Debbie Furber www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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SEEDSTOCK

M.C. QUANTOCK’S COW SALE IS A FIRST

M

ac and Pat Creech of M.C. Quantock Livestock just north of Lloyminster, have carved a niche for themselves in the Canadian cattle industry as “Canada’s Bull Supplier” selling more than 8,800 purebred and hybrid bulls at some 42 sales they’ve hosted through the years. Now, they have put together their first and perhaps their only “Canada’s Cow Sale” slated for Saturday, December 10 at Vermilion, Alta., leading up to their annual “Canada’s Bulls” sale the last Saturday of January at the Lloydminster Exhibition Grounds.

Like the “Canada’s Bulls” sales, the “Canada’s Cow Sale” will feature large numbers of uniform cattle offering commercial and purebred cattlemen the opportunity to make volume purchases of “hard-nosed” commercialstyle purebred and hybrid females. Mac describes them as the kind of cows that know how to go out there and get down to business earning a living.

The Creeches assure customers that they aren’t going out of business, or even contemplating slowing down much. They’ve been stockpiling cows, so to speak, with a sale such as this in mind and the herd has really grown during the past five years.

“This has been part of our business plan for some time. Except for culling, and we have been culling hard, we haven’t sold any females for the past eight years with the idea that when the value was there, we would move some of them,” Mac explains. “Because this is a first-in-a-lifetime sale, we wanted to make it special and that’s why, for the first time, we are cutting loose so many cows from the heart of our herd so that customers will be buying the good ones — the ones behind the million-dollar bull sales every year.”

Their entire April-May calving herd of purebred Angus and Red Angus cows bred either to their home-raised purebred Angus and Red Angus bulls or to purebred Fleckvieh Simmental bulls will be sold.

Creech anticipates that a highlight

10 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

Mac and Pat Creech will be the offering of all of their 2009 bred heifers, which are purebred and first-cross (F1) females bred to their purebred Angus or Red Angus bulls for April calves.

All of their 2010 open replacement heifers will sell, too. This group features purebred Angus and Red Angus heifers as well as F1 heifers, all of which will be extra-age 14-monthold heifers.

That’s a grand total of 850 oneiron, youthful cows and heifers in their prime all at one sale. They aren’t the culls and none have been retained or sold from the groups that will be on offer.

They will retain their 500-head fall-calving herd and 200 of this year’s heifer calves. By the time all is said and done, cow-wise, the ranch will be back to its 2003 numbers, Mac says.

He admits that sometimes when he is riding through the herds it really is difficult to think about letting so many quality females go, but on second thought, he expects it won’t be long before the numbers start adding up again.

The breeding program involves eight lines of registered purebred and hybrid cows and bulls, which requires

a lot of attention to detail, not only in the everyday management of the groups, but from Pat’s perspective running a one-woman office keeping the registrations and other paperwork up to date. Though their three children have careers of their own and aren’t involved with the day-to-day ranching operations, they still contribute their energy and expertise to the business.

All are intimately involved at sale time.

It’s a total family and staff effort.

Mac says they will continue to raise all eight lines: purebred Angus, purebred Red Angus, purebred Hereford, purebred Charolais, and their hybrids, Super Baldies (5/8 Red Angus, 3/8 Fleckvieh Simmental blood), Black Super Baldies (5/8 Angus, 3/8 Fleckvieh Simmental blood), Super Guppies (Red Angus X Gelbvieh), and H-2s (Hereford X Fleckvieh).

The reduction in the size of the cow herd won’t significantly affect the number of bulls they have to offer each year, which averages about 450. The bulls for the 2012 sale are in development and those for the 2013 sale are on the ground. They may be down in number for the 2014 sale, but could Continued on page 11 www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Continued from page 10

very well be back up there by the time the 2015 sale rolls around — or they may let it settle out at 300 bulls instead of 450 bulls, which would be a little easier to handle. It all remains to be seen.

One of the greatest challenges with selling 450 bulls each year is getting them delivered to points across Canada all in one month. Mac likes to make as many deliveries as possible in person to get to know his customers and meet the 30 to 40 per cent of the buyers who purchase bulls sight unseen every year. Many of their customers testify to the professional service the Creeches offer right from the sale itself, with a bull selling every 50 seconds for about six hours straight, selecting sight-unseen bulls that meet customers’ expectations and promptly replacing any bull that isn’t on target. Customers also note the quality and easy-going disposition of the bulls.

The purebred operation has evolved with the times. The Creech family has been in the bull business for more than 100 years. Two generations ago it was with Shorthorn cattle.

The purebred Hereford herd was established in 1951, with the Red Angus cattle introduced through the 1960s and the blacks in the 1990s. During the past two decades, they’ve introduced some exotic breeds with muscle and milk to compliment the hardy, maternal traits of the British breeds, but never have they strayed away from maintaining moderate frame size with light to moderate birth weights in every line.

It was about 25 years ago that they abandoned the show ring circuit and implemented a business plan to develop bulls exclusively for commercial cattlemen, stressing uniformity within each line so that their customers would be able to make volume purchases of like bulls and benefit from that uniformity in their own calf crops and replacement heifers.

They switched the whole herd to fall calving about 17 years ago, then reintroduced spring calving to spread out the work load as they reached 600 to 700 cows.

Around the same time as the switch to fall calving, they began their crossbreeding program to capture hybrid vigour in the offspring and sell that advantage to commercial cattlemen. They have built up a large customer base for their hybrid bulls because the two-breed cross offers simplicity for commercial cattlemen, who often find that running a two- or three-breed cross program within their own herds complicates management. A hybrid bull allows them to capture 75 per cent of the hybrid vigour inherent in the first cross, however, raising hybrid seedstock of consistent quality starts with using good cattle, not the bottom end of the herd.

Their production system mirrors that of many of today’s commercial herds in that as much as possible it is done on grass. The exception is the small bull development facility where the bulls are raised from freeze-up until the January sale. Many buyers choose to leave the bulls at the ranch in the bull development option program until delivery in April or May. The fall-born bulls are weaned in March then fed a highroughage diet until the end of May, when they start into their pasture rotations with moves every day through to mid October so that they have fresh grass in front of them every day.

As the grass browns off in the fall, they receive a salt-limited pellet product with 60 per cent total digestible nutrients to maintain the energy level in their diet. Once frost sets in and the pasture watering systems have to be shut down, they are moved into the feedyard and receive the bull development www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Their entire April-May calving herd will be sold Dec. 10. ration up to sale time. The spring-born bulls are weaned in late fall, roughed through the winter, then managed like the fall-born bulls from there on up to sale time.

The spring-calving cow herd rotates through the home pastures for the summer, however, the dry pregnant fall-calving cows are custom pastured from May through August to allow the grass in their calving fields to be stockpiled for fall and spring calving. During calving, the cows rotate through the stockpiled pastures, but rather than forcing the move, they are free to drift onto the next pasture on their own time.

They calve in five locations with up to 200 cows in a group and one person in charge of one or two calving fields.

The heifer calves are weaned on the same schedule as the bull calves and managed through two winters on an allroughage ration if possible. The mature spring-calving cows are stockpile-grazed or bale-grazed with minimal supplementation. The fall calvers are kept closer to home and after breeding in November and December are wintered on a straw-based ration with protein and energy supplementation.

Doing away with most of their field operations is one change that has helped free up time for the ranching operation.

They have been purchasing feed grains from neighbours for the past 30 years and streamlined things one more notch about 15 years ago by purchasing hay and straw as needed. They still grow some of their own silage, which is harvested by custom operators. These changes have allowed ranch staff to spend most of their time working with cattle, which is what they enjoy, so it has helped to retain good employees, Mac explains.

The cows and heifers that clients will have an opportunity to purchase in person, over the phone or by watching the sale and bidding via the Internet on December 10 are coming straight out of this herd of ranch-raised seedstock.

“We’ve seen a lot of changes in the industry over time and we are really looking forward to and wouldn’t want to miss the next number of years,” Creech concludes. “It’s going to be fun and profitable for us all!”

For more information, call the Creeches at 1-800-561BULL (2855) or visit www.mcquantock.com.

C — Debbie Furber Cattlemen / October 2011 11

MANAGEMENT

MARKETING MY MISTAKES

M

arketing by definition is the commercial process involved in promoting, selling and distributing a product or service. In agriculture we think of marketing as selling our calves, our grain or our hay. These are all products that we sell. Who can we contact to get the best price? We might also have to think about transportation cost to sell that product. What if we don’t have any products? Some producers might market their services as a custom operator.

Custom silaging, custom haying, custom swathing — we need to promote our ability to provide a good service at a fair price. I run a custom grazing and feeding operation.

I promote my ability as a manager to get good gains for a good price. What do you market?

Here is a question for you. I am a custom grazier, what is the most important part of my business? If I am a good grazier but can’t get the land to graze, or maybe I can’t find the cattle to graze on the land, does it matter how good I am at the production practice? I have learned by experience that the most important skill in my business is in human resources. My ability to communicate is far more important than my skill as a grazier.

I deal with more than 20 different landowners in my pasture rentals. I have had up to eight different customers in one season that supply me cattle. To acquire and hold on to land at a rental rate that still allows me to take home some profit has been a challenge. I have turned down land that does not give me my desired 40 per cent rent ratio. Sometimes I need to market other aspects to the landowner. Can I provide other services or benefits to him besides cash that might help us both have a win/win situation?

I want to make a profit. What do they want? To some landowners, I can provide fire control or brush control.

I have established shelterbelts and improved biodiversity for some. I can improve aesthetics by improving pastures and controlling “weed” issues. I can create and allow good hunting grounds as well as protecting riparian areas.

There are many different aspects of my management that I market.

Have you ever supplied photographs of dung beetles in dung pats to get your rent lower? I have and it worked. I have had other producers offer my landowners more money to rent their land, but because of the positive relationship I have created and the other benefits I have provided them, I still have the land.

I have also found that customers come and go. Sometimes it is their decision not to return, sometimes it is mine, but I will say that I never want to burn a bridge on purpose. This is not always possible when dealing with human resources but I look at business relationships as advertising. Each relationship I have with a customer, landowner, buyer, trucker, salesman or anyone else associated with my business, is advertising for the next relationship. Word of mouth is a powerful force and I would love to keep it in my favour if possible. Again, is this a type of marketing? I am marketing myself.

12 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

Kenyon is often asked to speak about his “mistakes.”

I have also developed another profi t centre on my operation. I have fi gured out how to market my mistakes. I like to experiment and try new ideas. They don’t always work but I like to think that I will only lose money at something once. I am a little outside the box and stray away from traditional agricultural ideas. But from my mistakes, I have learned a lot. I always have a calculator handy and like to work out the profitability of a new idea. Producers and extension agents started inquiring about some of my management practices. I started to work with the Sustainable Grazing Mentorship Program and began providing one on one mentorship services to producers. Repeatedly I was asked to speak at seminars and conferences. My “mistakes” seemed quite interesting to folks so I decided to develop a small grazing school. I began travelling all over teaching grazing management ideas to producers. This gradually developed into a three-day Ag businesses School. I now travel all across Canada and even into the U.S. to teach my “mistakes.” I host a pasture walk every year and speak at dozens of seminars and conferences. This is a very unique profit centre I have created and I am quite proud of it. It keeps me busy in the off-season and is very rewarding and enjoyable for me.

My question to you is, “What other goods or services can you market on your farm?” Do you have a unique skill, product or service that you could sell? Sit down and brainstorm. Maybe you can surprise yourself with what you can market, when you put your mind to it.

C — Steve Kenyon Steve Kenyon runs Greener Pastures Ranching Ltd. in Busby, Alta., www.greenerpasturesranching.com, 780- 307-6500, email skenyon@ greenerpasturesranching.com. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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RESEARCH

THE SCIENCE OF MEASURING PAIN

O

bserving changes in animal behaviour has long been used by producers and veterinarians when assessing animal health. However, using animal behaviour to actually measure pain is a relatively new science because researchers have first had to develop techniques to put hard numbers to what has traditionally been considered a subjective analysis.

Objective measurements of physiological changes, such as a rise in blood cortisol level or heart rate for example, are the standard method of measuring pain and stress found in almost all scientific literature, says Dr. Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein, beef cattle welfare researcher at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre and adjunct professor with University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine (UCVM). Now, new technology and methods of assessing both behavioural and physiological indicators of pain are allowing scientists to gain a better understanding of what an animal may be experiencing. The challenge is collecting data in a way that doesn’t interfere with the animals’ normal response to the procedure being assessed.

“There is no single best indicator or silver bullet to gauge pain associated with procedures such as castrating and dehorning,” she explains. Researchers use both behavioural and physiological indicators together. The outcomes may at times be contradictory — for instance, it’s not uncommon for the behaviour of the animal to indicate that there was pain and the physiological measures to show no change, or vice-versa.

That’s why it is important to distinguish between acute and chronic pain by measuring as many appropriate indicators as possible at points in time relative to when the procedure was performed, Schwartzkopf-Genswein adds.

It is also why each animal is used as its own control for comparison by measuring the behaviour and physiology of each animal before the procedure to establish what is normal for each one, then assessing changes after the procedure. They can also compare groups of treated animals to a nontreated control group.

14 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

For example, following castration they typically see an increase in values for physiological indicators as well as behaviours such as tail flicking and vocalizing, while other behavioural signs, such as lying down or feeding, may decrease.

“Producers often question how researchers know they are measuring pain and not the stress of actually taking the samples or temperament. Most of the techniques we use are what we

Dr. Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein call non-invasive, meaning they would not cause any more stress than normal handling. We also use anesthesia or analgesia as part of our experimental treatments so we can see if the typical behaviour and physiological responses are eliminated or reduced after administration. If anesthesia or analgesia reduces or eliminates the response, then we can assume the responses were most likely due to pain.”

How they do it Behavioural indicators of pain are routinely used in combination with measuring stress hormones (cortisol, epinehprin and norepinehrin), heart rate, body temperature and inflammation using infrared thermography, along with evaluating production factors, such as gain, feed intake and feed efficiency.

Some of the techniques that

researchers have developed for using animal behaviour to measure pain in a research setting include: 1. Observing the frequency of a behaviour associated with pain — tail flicks, stomps, kicks at the belly, vocalization, time spent lying down or standing or the number of times the animal change from one behaviour to another — with each carrying an equal weight when assessing a procedure. The data is usually captured by trained observers on site or via video for review and documentation at a later time.

2. Detailing changes in eating behaviour with the use of an electronic feed bunk monitoring system that collects data on each individual animal 24 hours a day to monitor feed intake, time spent eating and the number of visits to the feed bunk.

3. Instrumented headgates with strain gauges and accelerometers measure the force and frequency with which an animal hits the headgate while restrained during a procedure. An animal’s escape response can be indicative of the severity of pain it may be feeling.

4. Assessing the stride length and gait of intact animals versus castrated animals immediately after the procedure when they exit the chute can indicate whether the procedure is painful.

Typically, animals castrated with a knife have a reduced stride length in their back and front legs.

Why do it A requirement to provide pain medication when performing routine on-farm procedures, such as castrating and dehorning older calves, may become the world standard sometime in the not-too-distant future as the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) continues its work on animal welfare. “It then becomes a sustainability issue in that if we want to trade with countries that adopt OIE recommendations, we will have to be up to snuff,” says Schwartzkopf-Genswein. “At the same time, we have to be aware that we can’t simply adopt practices from other countries with completely different management systems and expect them to be effective on Canadian farms and ranches.” www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Pain mitigation strategies must be appropriate, effective, user-friendly, economical and sustainable for industry. To achieve that goal, researchers must first determine whether a particular procedure is painful, the extent of the pain, and when the pain occurs.

“It’s best for us as an industry to be engaged, compile the research, and position where the lines should be drawn,” she adds. “Science can prove where we are doing just fine and don’t need to make changes, or it can show where and why changes are needed and the most appropriate way to achieve specific goals.”

Schwartzkopf-Genswein uses recent research on the castration of older bulls as an example. Producers have always been encouraged to castrate and dehorn early in the calf’s life because people intrinsically believe that it would be least painful at a very young age because the nerves are less developed and there is not as much tissue. However, Alberta feedlots estimate that upwards of 30 per cent of the male calves they receive are still intact. Feedlot managers have indicated that they prefer using the banding method over the surgical method because it is safer, cleaner and easier to do in a feedlot setting.

A 2010 study led by SchwartzkopfGenswein in collaboration with the UVCM and the Western College of Veterinary Medicine examined the outcome of using pain medication when castrating 210-day-old bull calves by banding compared to a group of month-old bulls castrated without pain medication.

As expected, there was a significant difference in behaviour during the first 30 minutes following application of the band, with far less stomping and tail switching observed and recorded among the group that received a local anesthetic. What they didn’t expect was to see a drop in feed intake among the castrated bulls about three weeks out when the testicular tissue sloughed off. Some swelling, indicating inflammation and pain, is oftentimes observed above where the band has been placed.

So, while it may be possible to give pain medication at the time of banding, is it really warranted if the effect is so short-lived? Would three weeks after castration be a more appropriate time?

If so, how many days and at what level should treatment be given to control pain, yet allow the animal to continue to function in its environment? What are the best types of pain medications approved for use in Canada that can be easily delivered by producers? Would putting animals through the chute a number of times to administer pain medication create more stress than the stress of coping with the pain itself?

Would administering pain medication through feed or water to an entire pen be an alternative? And, what is the effect of the pain medication itself on production?

These are but a few of the questions Schwartzkopf-Genswein and her team hope to address with continuing research on this topic.

C — Debbie Furber

Strapped on sensors monitor heart rate continuously in the feedlot. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Strain gauges monitor movement.

OIE animal welfare initiatives The OIE first identified animal welfare as a priority in its 2001-2005 strategic plan, with the Animal Welfare Working Group formalized in May of 2002 and the first global conference on animal welfare held in 2004.

Since May, 2005, the Animal Welfare Working Group has recommended seven animal welfare standards that have been adopted into the Terrestrial Code. They relate to transportation, slaughter for food, killing for disease control, control of stray dog populations and use of animals in research and education.

During 2009-2010, two ad hoc groups on animal welfare and livestock production were formed — one for beef cattle and one for broiler chickens — with plans underway to establish an ad hoc group for dairy cattle. As of yet, no standards have been approved for any of these production areas.

Standards must be approved by the OIE’s 178 member countries before they can be written into the code.

Considering the diversity of production systems, climate, genetics and many other variables, it will take time for all these countries to find agreement.

More detail can be found at www. oie.int.

Cattlemen / October 2011 15

MARKETING

THE LONG ROAD TO TRADING BEEF IN EAST ASIA

T

Dr. John Longworth walked it for 40 years

he globalized economy doesn’t lend itself to doing things slowly. We wake up some morning and our customers on the other side of the world have created trade barriers which change the game completely. So we are not inclined to sit back with a cup of tea and reflect on how things have gone over the decades.

But that is exactly what the fascinating career of John Longworth compels us to do. Longworth, an emeritus professor in agricultural economics at the University of Queensland, has been studying agricultural trade in East Asia for 40 years in a career that has taken him from government offices in Tokyo to 3,000-metre altitude villages in China.

The story of how the fruits of his research slowly floated upwards to decision-makers in Australia is an instructive one for Canadian trade officials.

When the NIKKEI, Japan’s national business newspaper, runs a photo showing Japanese elementary school children wearing Meat and Livestock Australia aprons, enthusiastically learning about food safety in the classroom, it is tempting to be resentful that the Australians waltzed into the vacuum created by the 2003 BSE crisis in North America.

However, Longworth’s experience reminds us that over the past 40 years, Australia has been forced to do the same kind of firefighting we have been doing in East Asia over most of the past decade.

He first went to Japan in 1975 as a visiting professor at Kyoto University where he reactivated an extensive set of Asian academic contacts established during a sabbatical at the University of Chicago in 1969. He was in Kyoto because in October 1973 Japan had placed a complete embargo on the import of beef from Australia, which flattened the Australian beef industry. Exports to Japan dropped from 140,000 tons a year to zero overnight and prices at home fell by 60 to 70 per cent. Many Australian beef producers, including feedlots in which the Japanese had invested money, went out of business. Longworth wanted to figure out what the heck was going on.

To understand the Japan beef story, it is worth first stepping back to try and understand the research Longworth was doing in Japan back in the 1970s. He might term it trade policy intelligence, as distinct from market intelligence.

Market intelligence involves finding out how consumers both domestically and overseas want stuff graded, packaged and distributed. The private sector can make money by gathering market intelligence. But trade-policy intelligence is gaining an understanding of the historical, cultural, or socioeconomic phenomena that lie behind the trade policies that other nations impose. This kind of information is a public good, the gathering of which needs to be undertaken collectively by exporting industry groups and/or the government of an exporting country, in Longworth’s view.

Nowhere was trade-policy intelligence more crucial than in

16 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

John Longworth’s research was from the ground up.

Japan in the 1970s. When Australian beef exports were cut off in 1973, the Japanese government said it was because of the threat they posed to small beef producers in Japan. But in 1975, when Longworth visited many of these small beef producers he found they were largely rice growers who sold one or two cattle every other year. There were very few specialized beef producers to be protected. So he started asking questions of his Japanese colleagues; then he rephrased the questions and asked them again until finally, a clearer picture began to emerge.

The beef market was actually closed because Japanese wholesalers and supermarkets were importing Australian beef and selling it through the newly emerging supermarkets in competition with small retail butchers. These corner-store butchers were all from the burakumin class, an underclass in Japan which once controlled undertaking, basketry, and of course abattoirs and the beef-distribution industry. The burakumin were very sensitive to the threat that supermarkets posed to their beef markets, particularly in the retail shops in the Kansai region, which included higher beef-consuming areas of Japan such as Kobe and Osaka. The Japanese government knew it had to protect this vulnerable and, behind the scenes, very politically powerful group.

These insights started to bear fruit in the last half of the ’80s when Australian negotiators who went to Japan armed with Longworth’s 1983 book BEEF IN JAPAN were startled to find their Japanese counterparts sitting across the table with a Japanese translation of the same book. This led to a very worthwhile set of negotiations, because now everyone was “on the same page.” The Australians could ask the Japanese www.canadiancattlemen.ca

if the book had it right; if they had it right, then the Australians could ask the Japanese what could be done about it. Instead of one side demanding that quotas be relaxed and the other side saying they couldn’t relax them, the two parties talked about why the quotas were there, and why they had to be relaxed slowly.

“If you look at the historical and cultural framework through which agricultural policies in importing countries are developed, you can understand what the constraints are to modifying them.

Understanding what makes those hard constraints hard is the first step to trying to negotiate them away,” Longworth observes.

China unveiled The story of how Longworth and his collaborators began studying the beef industry in China and how Meat and Livestock Australia got a toe-hold in Beijing and Shanghai is another story with another set of insights.

Longworth’s early research interests in China initially had nothing to do with beef. He himself had grown up on a wool farm, becoming a certified wool classer from Sydney Tech., and in the 1980s the owner of a large sheep farm.

So it was natural that his eye wandered to the emerging wool trade between China and Australia.

During the ’80s, China had gone from virtually no trade to being a massive importer of Australian wool.

This intrigued Longworth as China was also home to a sheep population two-thirds that of Australia that were all producing wool. Even more interesting, the wool was raised in the predominantly Muslim areas of Northwestern China. “Here we have a minority group not unlike the burakumin in Japan,” Longworth says, “producing poor-quality wool in direct competition with ours. The Chinese may well put embargoes or significant barriers on trade to protect their minorities in the remote areas.” www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Longworth first took his doomsday story to the Australian Woolgrowers Corporation, the pinnacle body of the wool industry in Australia, trying to sell them on the idea of the need for policy intelligence research in China.

The reply was what you might expect.

“The Chinese are totally dependent on our wool industry, and they can’t produce wool like us,” he recalls the reply being. “We aren’t interested in funding your sort of research.”

That was until late 1989 when China drastically curtailed its wool

imports and thus killed off Australia’s Wool Reserve Price and Buffer Stock Scheme which ultimately cost the Australian wool industry $4 billion. Even today, the Australian wool industry is half as big as it was in 1989, primarily due to a disaster industry leaders said just couldn’t happen.

Longworth eventually did get funding from the Australian aid budget to study pastoral minorities (and hence wool growing) in China. That work led Continued on page 18

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to three books and many papers. But it also primed Longworth and his colleagues for an exhaustive survey of the Chinese beef industry.

The growth of beef production in China was interesting in its own right for Australian researchers because it was providing ancillary income sources for millions of farm households throughout China, particularly low-income farmers in the heavily settled triple cropping zone extending from Nanjing north.

Longworth and his colleagues were phenomenally successful in producing research about China’s rural development and beef industry that could also make interesting reading for bureaucrats back in Canberra. His books Rural Development in China, and Beef in China: Agribusiness Opportunities and Challenges not only charted the rise of a new beef mega-industry, but also laid out the framework for industry development in rural China, a key future target for foreign direct investment.

He received some money from Meat and Livestock Australian but much of the funding came from the Australian government through the Australia Center for International Agricultural Research which guaranteed support from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. So on a trip to China, the first port of call would be the relevant director in the ministry. Over the years, long-standing relationships have been developed with officials in government and scientists in the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the prestigious Academy of Social Sciences.

Their government contacts allowed Longworth and his colleagues to do all the “muddy boots” policy research they wanted. Much of China, especially the remote areas in western China, are off limits unless you have a Ministry of Agriculture official or Animal Husbandry Bureau official with you to not only guarantee access but also gain co-operation.

The story of John Longworth’s engagement with China and Japan has some of the exoticism of the Adventures of Tintin, but the important take-away points are more fundamental. Over the years, Longworth has watched Australian trade attaches and people stationed by industry in Tokyo and Beijing become seriously sidetracked by endless trade delegations and individual tax payers wanting introductions to certain groups. Space must be made for trade policy research, not just short-sighted market intelligence gathering.

His story also tells us this type of research takes time.

John Longworth has been collecting business cards from the Academy of Agricultural Science in China for 25 years now.

These relationships are much broader than just researcherto-researcher. They have become institutionalized.

These friendly relationships often start simply by being curious. John Longworth has been carrying a map of China in his back pocket for 40 years, which he pulls out whenever he meets someone new. Sometimes all it takes is to put down the map and ask, “Hey, where is your home town?”

C — Paul Sinclair Born on a Saskatchewan farm, Paul Sinclair has a PhD from Osaka University for Foreign Studies and has worked in Taiwan.

Currently he is enrolled in the MBA program at the University of Alberta and maintains an interest in the family farm.

18 Cattlemen / october 2011

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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N u t r i t i o n

by John McKinnon John.mckinnon@usask.ca

Byproduct feeding — is this your future?

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

L

ast month we looked at the growing movement towards byproduct feeding. One of the best examples of this trend is the use of byproducts from the ethanol industry. The last 10 years has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of ethanol plants across North America. At last count there were over 200 producing plants in the United States and 16 in Canada.

A typical rule of thumb is that for every bushel of corn fermented, the distribution of co-products is approximately one-third ethanol, one-third feed byproduct (i.e. distillers grains) and onethird carbon dioxide. With approximately four billion bushels of corn used annually in the U.S., you can readily appreciate the huge volume of distillers grains available for feeding livestock.

There are several types of byproducts generated by ethanol plants. Their nature and nutritional value will vary depending on the nature of the plant. In a broad sense distillers byproducts can be classified by their moisture content. Wet distillers byproducts include wet distillers grains and distillers solubles (also known as thin stillage). Wet distillers grains have about the same moisture content as silage while thin stillage is greater than 90 per cent moisture. Obviously, to economically feed these products, you must be reasonably close to a plant. Some plants concentrate the thin stillage and market condensed distillers solubles at 20 to 40 per cent dry matter.

This product is an excellent protein and energy source for cattle on poor-quality forage.

The most common feed byproduct from the ethanol industry is distillers dried grains with solubles or DDGS. This product is dry (90 per cent DM), has excellent shelf life and can be shipped anywhere in the world. Fed wet or dry it is an excellent source of protein, digestible fibre, fat and specific minerals. Since DDGS is the most commercially available of these byproducts, the remainder of this article will focus on its use.

One of the most surprising attributes of DDGS is its energy value. Numerous research and practical feeding results have shown that corn DDGS has a higher energy value than that of the original corn grain, typically 110 per cent or better. This combined with the fact that corn DDGS will average 30 per cent crude protein, gives you a feel for the value of this byproduct. In comparison, wheat DDGS will have a higher protein (36 to 40 per cent) but lower fat (four to six per cent) content.

As a result the energy content of wheat DDGS is typically equal to that of barley grain.

20 Cattlemen / October 2011

While DDGS have traditionally been fed as a protein supplement, recently we are seeing a move to their use as an energy source in feedlot diets with 15 to 25 per cent of the grain replaced with either wheat or corn DDGS. At these levels, few issues with performance or carcass quality are reported. Some producers will even go to 40 per cent or more DDGS in the ration depending on the relative price of DDGS to barley or corn grain. However, at these inclusion rates, particularly with wheat DDGS, intakes will tend to increase while gains remain the same, thus negatively impacting feed efficiency.

In addition to its relative feed value, the fact that you do not have to process DDGS is another bonus. There are, however, some negative drawbacks to DDGS feeding. For example, outside storage can be an issue, particularly in windy locations. There is also the fact that when you include DDGS as a replacement for cereal grains at 20 to 40 per cent of a finishing ration (DM basis), in most cases you are overfeeding protein and certain minerals such as phosphorus and sulphur. Excess protein is excreted as urea in the urine while excess phosphorus ends up in the manure. While some may argue that this creates a more valuable fertilizer, we need to recognize the potential environmental consequences of overfeeding these nutrients.

Urea can be hydrolyzed to ammonia and is lost to the atmosphere while excess phosphorus can lead to contamination of surface water bodies.

A sound manure management plan that focuses on meeting plant nutrient requirements is a must if you are going to be feeding DDGS on a regular basis.

When feeding DDGS, it is also important to be aware of the sulphur intake of your cattle. High sulphur intake can lead to issues with polio as well as with cattle going off feed. The maximum sulphur content of the diet (DM basis) has been set by the National Research Council at 0.4 per cent. Since sulphur levels in DDGS can reach up to one per cent or greater, it is always a good idea to check with your feed company or nutritionist to ensure that you are not overfeeding this mineral.

Do byproducts have a future in your program? While the answer to this question is going to be dependent on where you reside and what byproducts are locally available, if you can do your homework on supply, pricing and nutrient content, for many of you byproduct feeding may well be the way to go. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

2011 Fall meeting & election schedule ZOne 1 Oct 26 Oct 28

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HEALTH

AVOID VACCINE BLOWUPS

T

You might start by checking your fridge

o be effective, vaccines must be properly stored and handled. “When in doubt, do what it states on the label,” says Dr. Chris Clark, an associate professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM), University of Saskatchewan. “It’s always important to follow the label directions, because there are no absolute generalities about vaccines and their use.”

Refrigeration Most vaccines must be kept cool. Dr. John Campbell, a professor at WCVM, says it’s crucial to store modified-live vaccines in appropriately refrigerated conditions. Check the refrigerator periodically to make sure it stays at the proper temperature.

Several studies have shown that temperature in many refrigerators is not ideal for vaccines. In a University of Idaho study, only 33.3 per cent of 129 ranchers’ refrigerators were functioning properly. Many refrigerators are a little warmer or colder than ideal temperature. This may not matter for keeping food cool for short periods, but could be disastrous when storing vaccine. The Idaho study also looked at vaccine storage at the retail level and only 34 per cent of the 43 suppliers they checked had refrigerators that were functioning properly 95 per cent of the time. University of Arizona studies found more than 76 per cent of the refrigerators tested (at ranches, veterinary clinics and retail outlets) were unacceptable for storing animal health products.

Check the temperature inside your refrigerator to make sure it’s within proper range. If you’re using an older refrigerator out in the barn to store vaccine, it may be keeping things too cold or not cold enough.

“Temperature can be one of the big issues in veterinary practices and supply stores,” says Clark. “They’re supposed to have a thermometer in the refrigerator and periodically take readings to make sure they are within the proper temperature range.”

Refrigeration of vaccines is necessary, and it is important to take this seriously. “There’s no point in buying $200 worth of vaccine at your local veterinary practice or farm store and then put it on the seat of your pickup. You’re just throwing your money away. Bring a cooler and ice pack, especially if it’s a warm day and you might be running errands before you get home,” says Clark.

“It’s also important to keep vaccine cool out at the chute when working cattle. You spend a lot of money for vaccine, so don’t ruin it by allowing it to get too warm,” he says. Keep it in the cooler with an ice pack, in the shade, with the lid on to keep it out of direct sunlight.

There are several types of vaccines — mainly live vaccines and killed (inactivated) products. “In general, killed vaccines are more resilient, and not as fragile. For instance blackleg 22 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

vaccines can tolerate a little abuse (such as warmer temperatures) and still be effective. By contrast, most modified-live vaccines come as a powder that you mix with liquid just before use — and use them up quickly. Not all of them are this way; the anthrax vaccine is a live vaccine that comes as a liquid,” explains Clark.

Live vaccines “You need to be much more careful with live vaccines than the killed products. The ones you mix before use need to be used up quickly. Once you’ve mixed those, the clock is ticking. The label will tell you how long you’ve got before they are no longer effective,” says Clark.

“Don’t start the day by mixing every batch of vaccine you’ll be using — or the doses you inject later in the day won’t be any good. Mix according to need,” he explains.

And if you get done and still have 20 doses left in the vial, throw that vial away; it won’t be any good by tomorrow morning when you start working cattle again.

Campbell says it is very important to mix only the amount you’ll use within one hour, and to use a new, clean needle when mixing it or drawing it out of the bottle. “When adding diluent, make sure the product is then well shaken before use,” he says.

“We have seen IBR breaks — generally in a feedlot situation — when people mix up too much ahead of time or take a break and leave the vaccine in the heat for too long before using it up,” says Campbell. He recalls one instance in which the feedlot crew mixed a large batch of vaccine and took a break before they finished using it, leaving the vaccine in the processing barn under a heater. The animals vaccinated after they came back to finish the job did not receive any protection. Most vaccines are also light-sensitive, so keep them out of the sunlight.

“Modified-live vaccines have just a small amount of antigen or altered virus. This tiny amount has to multiply within the animal to stimulate the immune system to develop immunity.

This means that more care must be taken with these live vaccines than with killed vaccines. If a live vaccine is exposed to heat and sunlight, you may kill that little bit of live virus and www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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the vaccine will be ineffective,” explains Campbell.

For these reasons it’s wise to buy modified-live vaccines in small bottles, so you can be sure to use them up before they are no longer effective.

“Often they come in bottles of 50, 20 and 10 doses. If you need 100 doses, there’s often value in buying a 50, two 20s and a 10,” suggests Clark.

“When vaccinating cattle, use very clean needles and syringes, especially with live vaccines. If you use a dirty syringe that might have penicillin residue or traces of some other vaccine, this will inactivate live vaccine. If you use multi-dose syringes, they must be scrubbed and cleaned in the most extreme way possible before being used again,” he says.

You cannot use any kind of detergent or disinfectant when cleaning syringes, if you plan to use them for live virus vaccines. “After scrubbing them, flush with large volumes of clean hot water, and let them thoroughly air-dry before you use them,” says Clark. There should be no moisture residue of any kind.

“With killed vaccines, it’s not quite as crucial. With live vaccines, however, I am torn between the practicality of using a multi-dose gun and using a disposable single-use syringe. You know the latter is clean and sterile when you start. Do not re-sterilize, wash or boil these syringes and needles. They are not that expensive. It’s best to use new ones,” he says.

Administer properly When vaccinating cattle, follow all the beef quality guidelines. Inject into the neck, and no other locations.

“Change needles periodically, to make sure your needle is always clean and sharp,” says Clark. A sharp needle goes in easier, with less pain, and causes less tissue damage.

“Disposable needles are designed for single use and become dull quickly.

If you have trouble pushing it through the skin, or it seems to be snagging as it’s coming back out, it’s time to change needles. If you drop it, don’t wipe it on your jeans and keep using it. It will be dulled and dirty; get a new needle,” he says.

Route of administration is also important. “If the label says to give it in the muscle, inject it into muscle. If it says subcutaneous, put it under the Continued on page 24 www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Size: 4.5’ x 10’ Colours: CMYK - 4 colour Publication: Canadian Cattlemen Material Deadline: September 7, 2011 Insertion date: October 10, 2011

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Small Business Banking

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skin. It won’t be as effective if you give it in the wrong place. Drug companies have spent millions of dollars developing vaccines and finding out how to get them to work best. So read the label and follow directions,” he says.

Check expiration dates “This is something the supplier should be doing. The product might also have been sitting in your refrigerator a long time,” says Clark. Check the date before using it, especially if it was left over from last year.

Think twice before you buy a large batch because it’s on sale. You may not want to keep it a long time; it might be safer to buy a new batch for your next cattle working six months from now.

You don’t want it expiring about the time you use it. Even though you might like to stockpile some products so you always have them on hand, if you keep them for a long time — especially the more delicate vaccines — they may get too old.

“You’ll never get the drug companies to give a straight answer on how long the vaccine might be good. These products don’t become ineffective overnight when the expiration date occurs. But they are only guaranteed up until that point. They are probably fine to use a few weeks beyond that date, but you wouldn’t want to use vaccine that’s a year past its expiration date,” says Clark.

Also remember that if you are not

storing it at proper temperature the shelf life will be much shorter; effectiveness may be gone before the expiration date.

Avoid accidents “Be careful when handling vaccines, syringes and needles, and try to avoid injecting yourself by accident.

You won’t get the disease but you can get a nasty reaction to some of the vaccines,” says Clark. Your hand or finger may swell and hurt for several days.

“Some of the adjuvants (additives that help stimulate the immune system to respond to the antigen in the vaccine), particularly in the killed products, can be quite irritating. If you’ve accidentally injected yourself and experience a lot of reaction, seek medical advice. Take the insert from the vaccine with you when you go to the doctor.

The doctor can phone the company and speak to their technical services person and ask about that product, to know whether to be worried.”

Accidents sometimes happen in spite of best efforts to be careful. “The one that really worries people is anthrax vaccine. You won’t drop dead if you accidentally inject yourself, but do contact your doctor if this ever happens,” he says.

Caution when using anthrax vaccine With the excess spring moisture in recent years many stockmen are thinking about vaccinating for anthrax.

“Keep in mind that with anthrax, because it’s a live bacterial vaccine, you cannot administer any kind of antibiotic within two weeks of vaccination (prior to or following the vaccination),” says Clark. The antibiotic would kill the vaccine and prevent it from stimulating an immune response in the animal.

“If you have a cow with foot rot at the time you’re vaccinating, you should probably treat the foot rot because that’s an immediate problem, but it’s pointless to give her anthrax vaccine that day. You can do a catchup vaccination two weeks later, and then she will be protected. If cattle are coming through the chute and you see a problem that needs treatment, you generally give an injection of antibiotic at the same time because this is the practical thing to do — but not when giving anthrax vaccination,” he explains.

This is not a problem with other vaccines; you can administer antibiotics at the same time if needed. “We don’t use any other live bacterial vaccines. Antibiotics won’t adversely affect the efficacy of killed vaccines,” says Clark. The live viral vaccines are also not an issue. Viruses are not affected by antibiotics. If you’re giving a clostridial vaccine (7-way or 8-way) or a respiratory viral vaccine like IBRBVD, there’s no problem in treating the animal at the same time with antibiotics. Anthrax is the only vaccine that has this precaution.

C — Heather Smith Thomas

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24 Cattlemen / October 2011

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Tips & Tales

calving We need your...

Friends and neighbours, we are once again looking for your best calving tips and tales for Cattlemen’s expanded January 2012 Calving Special. We’re looking for good ideas, practical advice, or humorous tales and calving photos to share with fellow readers. A reward will be sent for Tips & Tales printed in this special.

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Enter before November 30, 2011

Canadian Cattlemen cap Send your Calving tips & Tales (and your address) to:

Canadian Cattlemen

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EQUIPMENT

CHOOSING A SQUEEZE CHUTE Check first with your vet.

Who has worked with more chutes in all types of weather?

26 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

RYAN GOODMAN/AGRICULTUREPROUD.COM

W

hen you are looking for a cattle squeeze chute there are plenty of choices.

Most offer good quality and are well built. Each has unique advantages and disadvantages depending on its intended use and the size of the stock to be handled. Generally speaking, the higher the quality of the chute the higher the price. Some excellent ones are manufactured right here in Western Canada so one doesn’t have to look far.

I am seldom asked about what chute I prefer and yet if you think about it veterinarians should be the best authority. They work with all types of chutes with all classes and sizes of livestock.

Veterinarians also utilize chutes for every type of chore whether it be preg testing cows or examining lame bulls.

In large herds they see chutes pushed to their limits, so they know their downfalls and good points.

I would consider several key points when making a decision on which chute to purchase.

If you regularly run a mix of cattle where numerous head adjustments have to be made make sure these can be accomplished quickly. There is nothing more frustrating than having to pull out the wrenches every time you want to make a change. Scissor-type chutes have an advantage in this regard as no adjustments are necessary.

Head capacity is another key component. Do you need it wide enough for large bulls yet small enough for young calves? Few chutes have this range. In fact, in my experience only systems with a hydraulic head gate can manage it consistently.

The other thing to notice about the head gate is whether it can be set to self-catch and what percentage of cattle will break out. Some models have cables or chains, which allow both sides of the head catch to swing simultaneously. These may be prone to breaking. Also watch to see if the catch mechanism can be forced open by a cow throwing her head. Some older

Base your choice on its intended use and the size of the stock to be handled. chutes were bad for that but most of the new ones have guards to prevent these breakouts.

Straight-sided chutes are better for restraining young calves and cows are less likely to get their legs outside the chute (increasing the risk of injury) when the sides are straight.

Is the head gate and squeeze mechanism easy to use, and release? Some aren’t and after putting through 200 head with one of these you will find yourself exhausted and maybe needing a helper to release the squeeze mechanism.

Accessibility to the animal is another important feature. Try to predict your most common uses with the chute to ensure accessibility. Purebred breeders need access to the underside of bulls for semen testing and head capacity will also be a critical rquirement.

Feedlots need very good head restraint for implanting and access to the neck for vaccinating and other injections.

C-sections or other surgical procedures require good access through the sidebars and preferably sides that can be removed if necessary.

Most if not all new chutes are manufactured with side releases. These allow for sorting and provide a quick

escape for downed animals. Chutes can often be selected for left or right hand release so make sure you select the one most appropriate for your facility.

Backdrop gates are probably the least used component in the chute. I see most of them either in the locked up position, pulled out or broken. This is because they are heavy and require another arm to operate. Some manufacturers have constructed drop gates out of aluminum and counterweighted them to make it easier to use them. The best idea I have seen is a sliding blocker gate attached to the back of the chute which is easy to run and can be locked out of the way when its not needed.

Flooring is critical to control slippage. Steel construction is preferable to prevent rotting and make sure the floor bars are well anchored so the animals can grip them with their claws.

Some manual chutes can be run from the back. This is a nice feature because the operator is not in a position to spook the cattle.

Some rigs use ropes and pulleys instead of levers to insure nothing is sticking out to injure the operator or passers-by.

The jury is still out on the newest option, the sternal bars. For branding, www.canadiancattlemen.ca

etc they seem to help by keeping the cattle up. Besides, if they aren’t needed they are easily removed.

Generally speaking, the higher the price, the better the quality or the more options are available. A few models are considerably cheaper because they are constructed with lighter material and intended for small herds. One salesman told me these lighter chutes are for hobby-type producers who can name all their cattle. Certainly these lighter chutes are not made for herds with several hundred head.

Palpation cages need to be safe, meaning they should be sturdy with a good locking mechanism. Several manufacturers sell chutes with cages as one complete unit. This is especially good if the unit has to be moved around a lot. Making the back door solid will minimize cattle trying to push forward when waiting their turn.

All bison manufactured chutes are built to be strong and crash gates are an absolute necessity with bison. If you are looking for a dual-purpose chute

my only suggestion would be buy a bison chute but choose one that allows natural light in, as cattle will tend to move through it more easily.

I cannot stress too much the importance of asking your veterinarian for some suggestions before purchasing a new or used handling system for your operation. They work with all makes and models and have learned first-hand the advantages and disadvantages of each. It will be a few minutes very well spent.

C — Dr. Roy Lewis DVM

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HEALTH

CALGARY VET STUDENTS LEARN BASIC SKILLS ON SIMULATED ANIMALS

T

he University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) has teamed up with Veterinary Simulator Industries (VSI) of Calgary, to develop a unique line of realistic animal models to help students learn basic clinical skills and gain confidence before trying their hand on live animals at veterinary clinics.

The new company was spawned quite by coincidence, when UCVM’s dean, Dr. Alastair Cribb, happened to ask his neighbour, Russell Gray, about the possibility of constructing an attention-grabbing, interactive model that people of all ages could use at UCVM’s promotional and educational events.

Not everyone has a neighbour with 25 years experience creating props for movies and television and educational displays, who happens to have a business partner with a knack for building animals.

Gray admits it’s an odd skill set, but with input from the UCVM vets, he and his partner, Bryan Pfahl, have made some ground-breaking advancements in the field of veterinary simulators — an industry they never even knew existed!

Their first attempt — a bovine rectal palpation simulator — in the fall of 2008, was all it took for faculty veterinarians to see the possibilities.

Drs. Gordon Krebs and Gordon Atkins have had significant input in developing the bovine simulators, while Dr. Emma Read is similarly involved with equine models.

“The vets had the idea that they could be built and knew what they wanted, but they lacked the fabrication experience and knowledge of materials, how they react when used together and their availability,” Gray says. “Both of us know what will survive when a calf has to be born, not once, but maybe 15 times a day!”

Building a model begins with sculpting the full-sized figure, then layering it with rubber jacket in prepa-

28 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

Meghan McCarty and Dr. Gord Krebs monitor a simulated deliver y. ration for a fibreglass covering that becomes the casting mould from which copies of the animal are made, including details such as removable side panels and working udders. Once the fibreglass mould is removed, the model is fitted with the pelvic simulator, a soft panel insert with the vulva and anus for palpation training, and a pneumatic, inflatable cradle to mimic the uterus, onto which model calves can be positioned to simulate different types of calving problems. The finished models are found in the large animal lab at the university’s Clinical Skills Building and on the Internet at www.vetsimulators.com.

Gray and Pfahl formed VSI Ltd. and completed their first prototype model of a Holstein cow early in 2010, followed quickly by an interactive equine simulator and prototype dystocia calf.

The latest models of an Angus cow and a Hereford cow emerged from the mold in time for UCVM’s first beef cattle conference in May of this year.

While the cow models are rigid, the 60-pound calves are pliable with a skeleton, moveable joints and a skull with moveable jaw, teeth, soft palate, tongue, esophagus and soft eye sockets. The hooves are durable enough to withstand repeated chaining during simulated deliveries.

This summer VSI was completing an equine colic simulator, which is a soft, inflatable model of the gastrointestinal tract that fits inside the abdomen. The company has also created artificial wounds that can be placed on the leg as well as suture training pads that simulate real flesh.

All of the materials used are scrubbable so they can be fill the udders with milk, or hang intestinal or reproductive tracts in proper position.

The payoff Gord Krebs, a clinical skills instructor at the UCVM, has designed a research project to validate the effectiveness of simulators as an educational www.canadiancattlemen.ca

tool, but expects it will take several years to complete.

Even so the use of simulators in veterinary schools is gaining momentum throughout the world, fueled by increased regulation regarding the use of healthy animals in educational settings and the challenge surrounding their purchase, maintenance and disposal.

More importantly, Krebs says simulators offer students a chance to learn practical skills without the fear of injuring an animal or being injured, and they can practise their skills as often as they want.

“In the first year students can get right into learning skills such as how to run needle drivers, tie sutures, insert catheters, and deliver calves without yet having to know exactly why or when they will need to use the skill,” Krebs explains. “If they learn how to do the skill with their hands, when they get into a live animal situation they will have confidence in knowing they can perform the skill and can then concentrate on all of the other aspects.”

The horse model and bovine rectal palpation simulators can be used for realistic examinations so the students can see how a technique is done as the instructor demonstrates it.

The VSI automated milking parlour, Jenny the dog, Gerry the cat, and Lucky (a 1,300-pound horse model used for mock horse trailer accidents) are examples of some of the most advanced physical simulators at UCVM. Other smaller models include a jugular vein consisting of surgical tubing covered with hide and hooked to a corvay to simulate blood pressure; a bovine abdominal tract that allows students to move the various parts around; surgical tubs with furlined lids with small cutouts through which cadaver parts are retrieved; and lambing tubs to birth lambs through an inner tube.

UCVM doesn’t have a haptics simulator, however, they are common in Europe. These sophisticated machines allow students to see in 3D with their fingers, Krebs says. Students place their hand into a glove and the computer provides resistance to the hand to make the examination feel like the real thing even though there are no physical animal parts involved.

Krebs says, in a way UCVM has been compelled to advance the use of simulators because there is no teachwww.canadiancattlemen.ca

ing hospital associated with the college. It does, however, maintain a herd of 20 cows, horses, dogs, cats and a llama. Sheep and swine are brought in as required and poultry labs are conducted in co-operation with two nearby veterinary clinics. Once the students become proficient on the simulators they progress to minor surgery on live animals.

Practical experience in all areas

of veterinary medicine is also gained through the Distributed Veterinarian Learning Community program, whereby students in their first, second and third years spend two weeks working with veterinarians throughout Alberta. In fourth year they spend 40 weeks in the Distributed Veterinary Teaching Hospital program to learn advanced and specialized skills.

C — Debbie Furber

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P r i m e

c u t s

by Steve Kay

Producers want marketing options A North American view of the meat industry.

Steve Kay is publisher and editor of Cattle Buyers Weekly

T

he big story in Canada’s western provthat critics demanded and should have occurred inces is the future of the Canadian before the proposed rule was published.

Wheat Board. Its survival hinges on As to the final rule, I suspect it will differ little whether the federal government pushes from the proposed rule. USDA appears indifferent ahead with its plan to end the board’s monopoly to the consequences and would rather continue to power, against the wishes of a majority of producgarner a few votes from the Prairie populists who ers. The story is more complicated than this, of support the rule. The U.S. is soon to start a presicourse. But it will sound familiar to beef producdential election year (it’s started already on the ers and other industry participants on both sides Republican side) and Agriculture Secretary Tom of the border.

Vilsack will want to deliver as many rural votes to Canadian packers and sellers of all slaughter his president as possible. I look for the industry to cattle are still suffering from a decision by the file a lawsuit the minute the final rule is published.

Canadian government over specified risk materiWhich brings me back to the CWB. As you als. Despite widespread opposition, the governknow, it has been the only seller of wheat and ment introduced an enhanced SRM ban in July barley in the western provinces for 70 years. The 2008 that meant the removal and disposal of Conservative government wants to end this, argumore SRMs than is required in the U.S. ing that producers should have the right to marThe government’s rationale was that the move ket their own grain. This sounds noble but not to would help Canadian beef regain access more the 62 per cent of wheat growers and 51 per cent quickly to key export of barley growers who markets. It argued that recently voted in favour the cost of additional of keeping the monopoly.

In every sector of North SRM removal and disThe vote was commisposal would be offset by American agriculture, the sioned by the CWB and higher export returns. is non-binding. So the But this has not occurred. largest players want more federal government will The industry since press ahead and intronot less options as to how 2008 has been saddled duce legislation this fall. with added costs rang- they market their products This might seem noning from $10 to $30 per democratic to CWB head. This is one reason supporters. But the why XL Foods closed its Conservative Party camMoose Jaw, Sask., plant. paigned with a promise USDA’s proposed livestock marketing rule to end the board’s monopoly. So its election gave (known as the GIPSA rule) is an even more it a mandate of sorts. I also suspect that the growextreme example of a federal government acting ers of a majority of the Canadian wheat and against the wishes of a vast majority of producbarley harvest support the government and are ers and others. As I wrote last year (Cattlealready preparing their risk-management strategies. In every sector of North American agriculmen/August 2010), the rule proposed sweeping ture, the largest players want more, not fewer, restrictions on long-established livestock maroptions as to how they market their products. But keting practices. If implemented, it could wreak western Canadian grain growers need to be prehavoc on the value-based marketing of livestock pared for dealing with the kind of market volatilin the U.S. ity that beef producers face daily.

USDA received thousands of comments to this effect and faced unprecedented bipartisan criticism from members of Congress. The comment Cattle Buyers Weekly covers the North American meat period on the rule ended last November and the and livestock industry. For subscription information, agency has been largely silent since then about contact Steve Kay at P.O. Box 2533, Petaluma, CA the rule. All we know is that it is conducting an 94953, or at 707-765-1725, or go to www.cattleeconomic analysis of the rule’s impact, a move buyersweekly.com.

30 Cattlemen / October 2011

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

RESEARCH

Replacing silage with distillers grains

R

umen microbes convert dietary starch and fibre into volatile fatty acids, which cattle absorb and use as an energy source. On high-grain diets, rapid volatile fatty acid production from starch causes rumen pH to drop (become more acidic). Grain overload (acute acidosis) can occur when cattle that are not adequately adapted to a high energy diet consume too much grain, too quickly.

So much lactic acid is produced that the rumen stops functioning properly, and the animal temporarily goes off feed. Acidosis may cause rumen ulcers that allow bacteria to enter the bloodstream, infect the liver, and cause visible liver abscesses at slaughter. Other problems, founder for example, can also occur.

Rumen bacteria produce less lactic acid in cattle that are properly adapted to a high grain diet, but they can still produce enough volatile fatty acids to cause “sub-acute ruminal acidosis.” Keeping a small amount of silage in the finishing diet helps provide the neutral detergent fibre (NDF) necessary to maintain a healthy microbial population and stimulate rumen function.

DDGS contain very little starch and much more NDF than grain. However, maintaining rumen health on high grain diets requires adequate NDF particle size as well as adequate NDF levels. The NDF particles need to be large enough to be “physically effective” in slowing digestion and stimulating rumen contractions. This is referred to peNDF. Although DDGS have relatively high NDF, they may have low peNDF. This means that DDGS fibre may be digested relatively easily by rumen microbes, and too small to stimulate rumen contractions.

The Beef Cattle Research Council and Alberta Beef Producers co-funded studies led by Drs. Yang and Li at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre to examine whether using wheat DDGS to replace barley grain and silage in finishing diets affects rumen function, animal performance, carcass quality, and liver abscesses.

What they did: The same four finishing diets were used in two experiments. The control diet contained 85 per cent barleybased concentrate and 15 per cent barley silage. One experimental diet replaced some of the barley grain with wheat DDGS (65% concentrate, 10% silage, 25% wheat DDGS). The other two experimental diets replaced silage with wheat DDGS. These two diets both contained 65 per cent concentrate, and either five per cent silage (30% DDGS) or zero silage (35% DDGS). Cattle were fed once per day, and the supplement contained Rumensin but not Tylan.

In an intensive metabolic experiment, the four diets were fed to eight heifers with rumen cannulas. Two heifers were fed each diet for a three-week period. After two weeks of adaptation to the diets, rumen pH was con-

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tinuously measured for seven days. Then the heifers were rotated to another diet, and this was repeated until all heifers had been fed all four diets.

A feedlot experiment fed these four diets to 200 crossbred steers. Animal performance was monitored, and carcass measurements and liver abscess data were collected at the packing plant.

What they learned: Replacing barley grain with 25 per cent wheat DDGS reduced diet digestibility but had little effect on rumen pH. In the feedlot trial, replacing grain with DDGS resulted in slightly higher dry matter intakes but no change in growth rate or feed efficiency, carcass weight, dressing percentage, lean meat yield, quality grade, or liver abscess scores.

Replacing barley silage with DDGS led to steady increases in diet digestibility and increased the amount of time that rumen pH was below 5.8 (mild acidosis) or below 5.5 (moderate acidosis). Cattle fed the 10 per cent silage diet spent 3.3 hours per day in mild acidosis, compared to over 5.5 hours for cattle fed five per cent or zero silage. Cattle fed the 10 per cent silage diet spent one hour of the day in “moderate acidosis,” compared to over two hours for cattle fed five per cent or zero silage. In the feedlot trial, replacing silage with DDGS led to significantly lower feed intake, but no significant changes in growth rate or feed efficiency, carcass weight, dressing percentage, lean yield or quality grade. However, the percentage of abscessed livers rose from 16 per cent (10% silage) to 24 per cent (5% silage) and 50 per cent (no silage).

What it means: Replacing barley grain with DDGS exchanged some of the grain starch for very small DDGS fibre particles that rumen microbes could degrade easily. This did not change rumen pH, but it did reduce the energy density of the diet. This meant that cattle ate more to meet their energy needs, with no clear benefit in feedlot performance or carcass value.

Replacing silage with DDGS exchanged large fibre particles (peNDF) from the silage for small, easily degraded fibre particles (non-peNDF) from the DDGS. This made the rumen more acidic and reduced feed intake. Feedlot performance and carcass value were not affected, but the incidence of liver abscesses increased.

This shows that an increase in the duration of moderate acidosis does not always impair animal growth. In commercial practice, feeding animals more frequently, or adding Tylan to the concentrate may help overcome some of these challenges.

— Reynold Bergen Reynold Bergen is the science director for the Beef Cattle Research Council. A portion of the National checkoff is directed to the BCRC to fund research and development activities to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of Canada’s beef industry.

CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011 31

VET ADVICE

T

Preconditioning pays

he argument over the economics of preconditioning has always been out there. The debate has primarily centred around: Who incurs the cost?

Who enjoys the benefits? Does it add value?

The word “preconditioning” is implicit in the credo “raised right.” With greater attention given to beef quality and safety, good animal husbandry practices and a preventive approach to health management, no one can argue about preconditioning being the right thing to do.

The average cow-calf producer doesn’t necessarily think about biosecurity and the play between stress, exposure to pathogens and immunity.

Preventing disease, the primary outcome of preconditioning, requires planning and lead-time. Preconditioning implies adoption of proven biosecurity and herd-health practices through the year. A sound working relationship between a producer and herd-health veterinarian in the planning processes are needed for optimum results.

Foragebeef.ca, a website providing technical information on forage and beef production, summarizes preconditioning in the following way: A preconditioned animal is a feeder calf that has been vaccinated, castrated, dehorned and weaned for 30-45 days prior to sale date and has had experience feeding from a bunk.

Preconditioning reduces stress and resulting health problems for the transition period when the calf is being weaned from the cow and starting to consume dry feed.

Preconditioning offers advantages to both the buyer and seller of the calf. The seller benefits from higher weight gains resulting in more dollars per animal.

The purchaser receives a calf that is familiar with a feed bunk, will continue to grow and is less likely to become sick.

When properly advertised, preconditioning provides the seller with a marketing edge over sellers of similar calves.

Preconditioning adds value to the calves in the feedlot and should put them in higher demand from similar calves if they are properly described.

Develop a protocol for treatment and handling of calves specific to your area. Include your veterinarian as an independent third party verifying that the work has been done according to the protocol. Keep detailed records of what has been done and have these records available to prospective buyers.

While research indicates that feedlots can benefit from preconditioned calves they must have confidence in the calves they are buying. This can be done documenting calves back to the herd of origin or participating in a recognized preconditioning program.

Preconditioning is very beneficial for placement of calves into a custom feedlot where the cow-calf operator retains the ownership of the calves. Lower death losses, lower medical costs and improved weight gains improve net profit to the owner.

Creep feeding calves prior to the start of the preconditioning program improves the willingness of the calves to change over to dry feed.

Studies on preconditioning show that after account-

32 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

ing for factors such as weight, grade, sex, feed prices and lot size, preconditioned calves brought higher prices.

Feedlot studies show that preconditioned calves are at lower risk economically due to lower disease incidence.

Calves able to withstand disease pressures perform better during their feeding period.

Considering various protocols of drug treatment for incoming cattle, Oklahoma researchers conclude that the only real solution to disease losses is prevention, such as value added cattle that have been preconditioned.

Preconditioning pays for the same reasons it always has, it prepares calves to enter feedlots, which benefit from health programs covering tailored vaccine protocols, lowstress weaning and becoming “bunk ready.” The value associated with preconditioning come with two caveats: producers must start with uniform groups of calves and sell the fact that calves have been preconditioned.

Preconditioning improves the transitional period between weaning and dry feeding. Resistance to respiratory diseases, for instance, starts prior to weaning and is boosted at the time of weaning in preparation for exposure to pathogens at every turn of the road. An exposure that is generally minimal while calves are still at the ranch.

Preconditioning when done properly significantly reduces sickness, death loss, number of calves pulled to sick pens, losses in weight gain, and increases feed efficiency.

Documentation is key to capturing benefits of a preconditioning program. Prospective buyers need verification that a program was followed and that vaccines were used in compliance with Verified Beef Production Guidelines.

They need more proof than just the seller saying, “the cattle have had their shots.” Cattle buyers will usually pay for value but they need to be assured that the preconditioning has been done properly. Availability of animal information to the buyer has never been better, which allows buyers to find cattle easily. Source verification of cattle has become as important as preconditioning itself.

Cattle that have been properly handled prior to being placed in a feedlot have a much greater potential to perform efficiently and be profitable. Profitability of preconditioning is related to market conditions; value fluctuates between premiums paid and discounts avoided. Costs and risks become the variables. Buyers normally are willing to pay premiums for preconditioned calves.

U.S. studies have shown a per-head return to facilities labour and management in the range of $23 to $57 compared to animals entering feedlots not preconditioned or source-verified.

In addition to the economic parameters of increased production and reduced treatment costs, preconditioning moves the industry along the continuum of meeting two important goals: satisfying customer demand for quality and assuring an increasingly critical public that food animals are appropriately cared for.

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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BUILDING TRUST IN CANADIAN BEEF

Use SOPs to anchor quality

VBP provided a base structure Border Line Feeders built around to develop its quality-focused approach The car company slogan “Where quality is job No. 1” could easily apply to the Border Line Feeders Inc. beef operation in Ceylon, Sask. The communityowned feedlot operation is directed by a board of Ryan seven, primarily made up Thompson of area producers, and run day-to-day by a team of 12 employees, all with one overriding focus — producing high-quality Canadian beef.

A major tool Ryan Thompson, manager, and the team at Border Line have used to develop their culture of quality is the Verified Beef Production (VBP) program.

“VBP has played a very important role in establishing our approaches to support our focus on quality,” says Thompson. “The Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the program are the backbone of everything we do. They have provided a foundation that has worked very well for us.”

Sending the right message. R yan Thompson speaks to a local 4-H group.

VBP is a voluntary program aimed at supporting food safety and other benefits of best practices, through the implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). If they wish, producers can also move to the VBP registration stage, which is based on an initial validation audit.

Border Line Feeders is now in its third year as a registered participant in VBP. Since becoming operational in 2005, the company has both won and been a finalist for several of the province’s Achievement for Business Excellence Awards — including in the categories of investment, new venture, exporting and community involvement — and has grown from a 7,300-head into a 12,000-head operation. “Good structure and consistency have been the keys to our progress,” says Thompson. “VBP has been a big part of that.”

Building a foundation for success Thompson points to four key ways the VBP program has benefited the management of Border Line Feeders.

1. Take advantage of an existing model “We’re still a relatively new operation,” says Thompson. “When we were getting started, we saw the program as a base we could use to set up our best practices. It has saved us from having to develop something on our own. It has also given us peace of mind that we’re moving forward on solid footing.” The operation was able to then look for ways to build on the SOPs in key areas, secure in the knowledge the fundamentals were looked after. “We were able to look for areas where we could enhance those and be a little more customized.”

2. Keep good records VBP has a major emphasis on good record-keeping. This is helps guarantee the right protocols are followed by providing written confirmation of what has been done, when, and by whom. For one example, Thompson is particularly impressed with how VBP-based approaches have helped Border Line Feeders manage drug withdrawal times and feed sequencing.

“These are areas where it can be complex to keep everything in order, but the protocols and records make it simple.”

3. Clear approaches anchor teamwork, training Border Line Feeders does a lot of what Thompson calls “cross training” within its organization to support teamwork and training. “We want an environment where everybody understands and has a good sense of each other’s jobs. VBP is a good fit with that approach. The protocols are a good training tool and the record keeping ensures that all procedures are done as they should.”

4. Be a good ambassador Thompson believes the more participation in VBP grows, the more the industry will benefit. “You look at everything from food safety to quality control to animal welfare. All of these are getting more attention from the consumer. The VBP program addresses all of these at a base level.”

It’s not a silver bullet but it’s a big step forward, he says. “From my perspective, I think it’s an excellent place to start and I think if everybody in our industry can get there as a minimum I think we’ll be doing very well.”

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C C A

r e p o r t s

by Travis Toews

Workable traceability

F

Travis Toews is president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association

ew issues in the Canadian cattle industry today are more controversial than traceability. Rarely has there been an issue where the benefits have been so overstated by some and understated by others.

After listening to the debate for some time, it appears clear to me that there is value in traceability from an animal disease management and eradication standpoint. Furthermore, while it is impossible to quantify, as we develop a more robust ability to manage animal health issues, there will almost certainly be some benefits in market access negotiations and domestic confidence will be enhanced.

The challenge is that it is unlikely consumers at home or abroad will be willing to pay for it. It is for this reason that we must enhance our traceability system in a manner an that will not result in the loss of our competitiveness.

In the late 1990s, Canada’s cattle and beef producers established the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) to develop a national identification program to address the risk to our export-based industry posed by our inability to rapidly identify and trace individual animals.

The national identification system had been in existence for approximately two years when BSE hit. Tracing several of the older infected animals back through several ownership changes to their herds of origin required a considerable amount of brand inspection, paperwork and effort. However, the CCIA system played a positive role in getting the U.S. border opened to boneless UTM beef less than four months after the first diagnosis of BSE, and was critical to having Canada recognized as a controlled risk country for BSE. Traceability becomes an important tool in managing contagious diseases that can be transmitted directly from one animal to another. Knowing where an animal came from and which animals may have been exposed can save considerable time in controlling disease spread, reduce the number of animals that may need to be destroyed and hasten the return to a normally functioning marketplace.

In September, I participated in the National Cattle Traceability Summit in Saskatoon. The three-day event was well attended with all sectors represented. A number of key points came out of the summit that will reinforce ongoing efforts to develop a traceability system that is cost-effective and workable for Canada’s beef cattle producers.

There was general agreement at the meeting on a few key points: • Before movement reporting can take place, premise ID is essential and must be uniformly applied across the nation. For producers, the definition of premise is the headquarters or home

34 Cattlemen / October 2011

quarter of the operation. This means that movement reporting will not be required between pastures or land parcels.

• Movement reporting should be phased-in using an industry standard as opposed to a regulatory approach, and will take place at those times and locations when it coincides with management practices.

• Movement reporting will take place at movein by the owner of the cattle using a phased in approach. A feasible next step is that feedlots greater than 1,000 head record cattle upon movein. The vast majority of these cattle are restrained and processed at move-in, and many operations are already scanning the RFID tag information into their management system. For cow-calf operations, this means cattle sold will not have to be read out, and that the practice of tagging calves before selling will continue to be their only responsibility. It should be noted that in Alberta this read-in requirement already exists.

• Funding must be sorted out between the public good versus private good. We concluded that it was essential for government cost-sharing infrastructure and technology programs to continue as the system is phased in. However, the system must be built in a very cost-effective manner, as we cannot depend on government funding to sustain the system in the long term.

Many of the Summit points echo the policy recommendations put forth last year by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA). The CCA recommendations were made on behalf of the beef cattle industry and relate to the next steps of implementation of the federal/provincial/territorial agenda to have a mandatory comprehensive national system for livestock traceability in place in 2011.

There are additional benefits to the RFID tag for producers. Through the Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS), producers can use the tag’s individual animal ID to record herd health management protocols, vaccination records and the like, and later, extract detailed carcass information. This information will help producers improve or refine production methods to produce cattle with specific attributes that the market demands. In time, BIXS will enable production enhancing decisions that will leave the industry more competitive.

The CCA position has been that the traceability system we establish must benefit the industry and be sustainable in the long term without an over reliance on government funds. Our work on traceability continues and we are moving forward carefully in this regard. We remain committed to improving and enhancing our traceability system to ensure it is implemented in a cost-effective manner. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP

Antimicrobial resistance in our world

T

he controversy surrounding antimicrobial use and resistance has hit the courts. In May 2011, a coalition of consumer groups in the United States filed a federal lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They allege that the FDA knew that feeding low doses of penicillin and tetracycline could lead to a rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans and did not act on that knowledge.

They are filing an order to compel the FDA to withdraw the use of non therapeutic penicillin and tetracycline in animal feed. In other words, they wish to see the withdrawal of mass medication to all livestock in a pen or cage on arrival or at any stage in the feeding process.

“Cattle have been implicated as a source of human infection with antimicrobial resistant Salmonella through direct contact with livestock and through the isolation of antimicrobial-resistant salmonella from raw milk, cheddar cheese, and hamburger meat traced to dairy farms,” according to the Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics.

The study found that 10.7 per cent (21/195) of cows and 13.6 per cent (3/22) of the human subjects did shed salmonella and 83 per cent had resistance to two or more antimicrobials with 100 per cent having resistance to ampicillin. Sobering data to be sure but the application to the North American is questionable when one realizes that the research was conducted in an environment much different than ours, namely Ethiopia.

In North American studies, the results have varied.

At the University of Maryland researchers have found significant differences in antibiotic resistance in organic versus conventionally raised birds. Ten of each conventional and organic large-scale poultry barns were tested for the presence of bacteria in poultry feed, litter, and water and tested for resistance to 17 common antimicrobials. The results were rather staggering with 84 per cent of enterococci faecium from conventional farms being drug resistant compared to just 17 per cent on organic farms, indicating a distinct health advantage in the organic birds.

Further work in Canada led by Dr. Ron Read from the University of Calgary looked at the issue from a larger perspective that included measuring antimicrobial resistance in a broad suite of pathogens including Methicillinresistant staphylocuccus (MRSA), Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE), salmonella, campylobacter, and E. coli in both feedlot cattle and their handlers. The findings were also compared with historical information from the Calgary Health Region. What they found was that MRSA and VRE were not found in cattle or handlers, nor was salmonella. Although campylobacter was found in the cattle it was not found in the handlers. Feedlot staff carried Ampicillin resistant E. coli at the beginning of the 70-day trial but that dwindled over time as did Gentami-

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cin-resistant E. coli. E. coli resistance to Ciprofloxacin was absent in cattle and staff. The study basically proved that the appropriate handling of antimicrobials was a positive measure and indicates that in this test group of 2,662 head, resistant pathogens were not lurking at high levels.

While interested parties in both Canada and the U.S. are seeking further investigation, the American Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently concluded that there is enough data to support the study of a link between the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals and resistance in humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) declares, “The continuing emergence of pathogenic organisms that are resistant to antimicrobials is a cause of increasing concern. Antimicrobial agents are essential drugs for human health, animal health and welfare. Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health concern that is impacted by both human and non-human antimicrobial usage and the resultant development and spread of antimicrobial resistance.” It is a fact that the same week of the GAO statement, the WHO announced that ”Multi-drug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB) are spreading at an alarming rate in Europe and will kill thousands unless health authorities halt the pandemic.”

(Reuters, September 2011).

New discoveries are unearthing another side to antimicrobial resistance. In the Canadian permafrost, samples of soil which are thousands of years old reveal genes that are encoding resistance to penicillin, tetracycline and vancomycin. Why? According to researchers from McMaster University these ancient molecules have an old resistance mechanism. Bacteria (and other pathogens) not only duplicate quickly but are capable of swapping genes and moving from species to species, genus to genus.

Despite the rather current historical development of antibiotics, this “deep genetic reservoir of resistance” (NATURE) is likely to have been and will be responsible for antimicrobial resistance. The answers to consumer concerns over antibiotics in food are no more easily addressed than those of antimicrobial resistant pathogens. It has been proven however that the responsible handling, use and consumption of antibiotics is a positive step. Accepting that antibiotic resistance is part of the history and natural ecology of our earth motivates researchers to look beyond the current perceived linkages of food animal and human resistance. For as much as antibiotics are necessary in our world, pathogens have and will find a clever way to negate them.

— Brenda Schoepp Brenda Schoepp is a market analyst and the owner and author of BEEFLINK, a national beef cattle market newsletter. A professional speaker and industry market and research consultant, she ranches near Rimbey, Alta. Contact her at brenda.schoepp@ cciwireless.ca.

CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011 35

HOLISTIC RANCHING

10 Benefits of Holistic Management

F

all is fast approaching and winter is just around the corner. I thought this might be an appropriate time to point out some of the benefits of Holistic Management (HM). Most courses are held during the winter. One could be held in your local community this winter. Here are some of the benefits that could accrue to you if you

choose to attend.

1. Most people attend an HM course to learn about better grazing management. Planned grazing is a proven method to help increase grass production. Many people have more than doubled their grass production on a set land base. Stop and think about this in regards to your place. What would doubling your grass production mean to your bottom line? Doubling your grass production is like doubling your land base at no expense.

Would this be a benefit to you?

2. The second most common reason people attend a course is to learn about HM financial planning. Again HM financial planning is a proven way to get a handle on your finances. There are four main ways that it is different from conventional planning. These are: • We are always working in the future. We are not recording what has happened but what we anticipate will happen. Since the future hasn’t happened we can influence it. We can plan and replan until we get the results we want.

• We set our profit up front. We don’t wait until the end of the year and hope there is some money left.

We start the year by determining how much profit we want to make. We then plan to make it happen. In simple terms we pay ourselves first. We define profit as an increase in net worth. Profit is after living expenses have been paid. Profit is a return on our investment and a return to our management skills. Do you plan for a profit each year?

• We have a system that allows us to sort our expenses and spend our money more wisely. There is not time to give a lot of detail here perhaps I will cover that in another article at a later date. Suffice to say that not all expenses are equal. Some can be ruthlessly cut, others should be increased. We have a system that helps us determine which is which.

• We monitor our finances monthly. This gives us an opportunity each month to know if we are on track.

Small deviations are dealt with within our plan. Major deviations are dealt with by doing a “replan.” What doesn’t change is our profit goal.

HM financial planning allows us to manage our business instead of having our business manage us. Where do you fit in regards to this statement?

3. A key part, in fact an essential part of HM is developing a written goal. This is done with input and agreement from all the people involved. Having a clear goal gives us direction. We know what is important to

36 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

us. We have the tools to achieve our goal. A clear goal helps us achieve balance in our lives. When you come to the end of the week and can say “yes, I did the things that were most important to me.” You live with a sense of accomplishment, achievement, contentment, satisfaction and peace of mind. You are empowered to create the future you desire.

4. The basis of HM is decision-making. You make decisions towards your unique individual goal. The testing questions help increase your confidence that your decisions are simultaneously socially, environmentally and financially sound. Having increased confidence in your decision making allows you to deal with the many challenges we all face.

5. Improved communication is one of the benefits of HM. This occurs partly because of our written goal.

Everybody has agreed and knows what we want and what is most important to us. As we focus on what’s best for the business as opposed to whose idea it is or whose in charge we create an environment where people feel valued and important. The end result is more respect, cooperation and understanding among our team.

6. HM helps us see our business as a tool to achieve our quality of life. This goes a long way in allowing the older generation to let go and in giving the young generation the freedom and security they need to grow and develop. Since HM offers better communication and more financial success it is easier to involve the next generation.

7. Each year HM Canada holds an annual convention. While the convention is open to anyone you are much more likely to come if you have taken a course.

The convention provides networking opportunities, education, socialization and motivation. The convention is the highlight of the year for many of us.

8. At each HM course a management club is formed. During the course a certain level of trust and acceptance develops. As the club continues to meet it is a powerful tool to help us achieve our goals. Just imagine going to a meeting where there is a high level of trust and acceptance. You are free to discuss whatever challenge you are facing. Instead of having just your input to solve the challenge you have the input of eight or 10 other families. Each of these people understands what you want. Each of them wants you to succeed. In the end you make your own decision but having input from friends often helps us find a better solution.

9. HM is a movement as opposed to an organization. Let me explain, in an organization you usually pay a membership and either belong or don’t belong. In HM there is no organization, no leader and no dues or fees. We are a group of people who have taken HM and benefited. We would like others to have the same benefit. Everyone who has ever taken a course is part of the movement. Once you belong you have the opportunity to interact with people all over Canada and even around the world. This networking is a huge benefit. Nobody

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knows it all but knowing who to contact can be just as valuable.

10. The last point I want to touch on is personal growth. This is likely the last reason anyone would take HM. Yet for me and many others this has been the biggest benefit. HM encourages personal growth. Once you begin to shift your paradigms everything changes. You become a life-long learner and a better communicator. You realize how powerful you are. You realize that you have the power to choose. The result is growth of each individual.

As you grow and improve everyone around you tends to grow and improve. The result is a better quality of life for all.

As you read this you might think it is too good to be true. I don’t believe it is. The above benefits are all real and have been experienced by many people.

HM is a comprehensive program. It deals with people, land and finances.

It can help you create your dream and give you the tools to achieve it. It has the power to revolutionize your life. If you desire a more fulfilling life I invite you to find out more about HM. I think you will be please with your efforts.

Happy trails — Don Campbell Don Campbell ranches with his family at Meadow Lake, Sask. He can be reached at 306-236-6088.

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CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011 37

NEWS ROUNDUP DISEASE NEW VACCINE CENTRE WELCOMED The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) welcomed the opening last month of the International Vaccine Centre (InterVac) at the University of Saskatchewan, a state-of-the-art facility that will help build Canada’s critical research capacity in the prevention and control of infectious diseases that bridge animal and human health.

InterVac will be the only Level 3 containment laboratory in North America capable of securely accommodating large-animal clinical vaccine trials. As such it will facilitate the development and initial testing of vaccines under contained conditions in advance of commercial field trials.

The work carried out at the $140-million facility will enhance Canada’s research capacity, improve our ability to prepare for emerging diseases and train specialized workers, says feedlot operator Brad Wildeman, a past chair of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) and current chair of Canada Beef, the industry’s checkoff-funded marketing and research arm. InterVac will operate as part of VIDO. Slated to be operational in 2012, the InterVac facility will be the largest of its kind in Canada and the only facility in Canada and the U.S. to house large animals. The funding for it came from

STAMPEDE

By Jerry Palen

“All I said was, ‘nice rain Flo.’” 38 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

a variety of sources, including $49 million from Ottawa and $57 million from the province of Saskatchewan.

The CCA greatly values VIDO’s contributions to the beef industry, which include the development of effective vaccines to prevent economically important diseases affecting the cow-calf and feedlot sectors, says Wildeman. VIDO researchers are also working on bovine respiratory disease, mycoplasma pneumonia and Johne’s disease with funding from the Beef Cattle Research Council.

RESEARCH PEERING AT GENES TO DETECT THE ORIGIN OF CATTLE DISEASES Researchers at the USDA’s Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, Nebraska, have found genes associated with the incidence of pinkeye, foot rot, and bovine respiratory disease in a quantitative trait locus (QTL) on bovine chromosome 20.

“Scientists have spent a lot of effort and money studying the pathogens that make animals sick,” says geneticist Eduardo Casas, one of the scientists who made the discovery. “We’ve made a lot of progress, but the microbes are still around. Therefore, the main focus of this research was to look at diseases from the animal’s point of view.”

Casas’ approach involved looking at the genetic makeup of cattle for evidence of genes associated with resistance or tolerance to diseases. His initial study focused only on pinkeye because it’s easy to see and measure in cattle.

Different breeds vary in their pinkeye tolerance. For example, Herefords are very susceptible, but Brahmans are highly resistant. With this in mind, a Brahman-Hereford crossbreed sire was mated to other breeds to yield more than 540 offspring.

“This particular bull was heterozygous for all genes that would confer tolerance to pinkeye,” Casas says.

“Half of the offspring inherited the resistant gene, and the other half inherited the susceptible gene.” When scientists looked at 36 offspring affected by pinkeye, they found regions on chromosomes one and 20 harboured genes

that influence the presence of bacteria, but no strong linkage to a QTL was identified.

Following up on a theory that the immune system is influenced by various genes, Casas and his collegue Gary Snowder conducted a second study looking at the incidence of three highly prevalent bacterial diseases affecting feedlot cattle — pinkeye, foot rot, and bovine respiratory disease. “When you put all three diseases together, you’re looking at the overall health of the animal, or resistance to multiple diseases, rather than a disease-specific response,” Snowder says. “In other words, the particular loci affecting an individual disease may not be easy to pick up, but it might be easier to pick up markers that are related to the general health of the animal.”

A common condition affecting breeding-age beef heifers, pinkeye has a marked economic impact on the cattle industry — costing an estimated $150 million a year in the U.S. due to lower weight gains, decreased milk production, and treatment. Although not fatal, this highly contagious disease can affect up to 80 per cent of a herd.

Bovine respiratory disease — pneumonia — is the most common and costly feedlot disease in the U.S., accounting for 75 per cent of feedlot morbidity and up to 70 per cent of all deaths. Economic losses to U.S. cattle producers exceed $1 billion annually from animal deaths, reduced weight gain, lower feed efficiency, treatment costs, and poor-quality meat and hide products.

Producers have been managing these diseases with various treatments and management practices. USMARC, which has more than 6,000 head of cattle, provided an ideal location to study different breeds affected by pathogenic diseases.

In addition to the Brahman-Hereford family studied in the pinkeye experiment, three other half-sibling families were produced to detect QTLs associated with combined incidences of the three diseases.

The second half-sibling family was developed from a Brahman-Angus sire and produced 176 offspring. A Piedmontese-Angus sire fathered 209 calves, and a Belgian Blue-MARC III (part Red Poll, Pinzgauer, Hereford, and Angus) sire produced 246 offspring. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Researchers used microsatellite markers — short, repetitive DNA sequences used as genetic markers to track inheritance — to screen the genome of each family. Informative markers were chosen within a family based on their location in each chromosome.

All animals were observed daily throughout their lifespan for pinkeye, pneumonia, and foot rot and treated when symptoms occurred. The 240 calves infected by one or more of the diseases were classified as affected by a microbial pathogenic disease and coded. Analysis of DNA blood samples taken from these animals revealed QTLs for disease activity.

Though scientists have discovered genetic locations that may influence resistance or susceptibility to bacterial diseases, there’s more to do.

“We don’t know what the gene or genes are yet, and that’s what we are working on,” Casas says. More study needs to be done to confirm the association between the genes and disease.

“What’s interesting about the markers on chromosome 20 is that they are in very close proximity to other markers related to other diseases. That particular region may have a significant effect on the general health of animals,” Casas says.

Additional studies are underway to detect genes associated with reduced susceptibility to bacterial diseases, including Johne’s disease and bovine viral diarrhea.

“The costs for treating animals that have these diseases are enormous,” Casas says. “Identifying genes responsible would provide an opportunity for effective crossbreeding to produce animals with increased disease tolerance, which would greatly reduce the economic impact to the cattle industry.

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Dr. Greg Douglas, Saskatchewan’s chief veterinary officer, alludes to Nassim Taleb’s Black Swan theory to drive home his message to producers • Heavy duty conabout the importance of implementing biosecurity measures on their struction, farms.

• Aerodynamic The Black Swan •theory to 3 Year speaks warranty! the disproportionately large impact • Livestock & Flatunpredictable events have on shaping deck models history. The First World War, 9-11, and the advent of personal computDr. Greg Douglas ers and the Internet are commonly cited examples. These events are also characterized by a lot of rationalizing after the fact, mostly by experts trying to explain why they were taken by surprise.

Experts can’t predict catastrophic events with any degree of accuracy. The same goes for any animal disease event, says Douglas. “All we can do is employ strategies that help us prevent the event and then respond quickly if and when the event occurs.”

The best historical and scientific information available today points to the best disease control strategy being a layered approach: biosecurity at the farm, early detection by veterinarians and rapid response using traceability,

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NEWS ROUNDUP Continued from page 39

movement controls and quarantines, along with timely communication with industry and customers.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) ranks high on the watch list across North America and it would be considered a new disease in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, which are FMD free at present with the last outbreaks in 1952, 1929, and 1954, respectively.

Central America, Australia and New Zealand are other major beef producers in the same category.

FMD isn’t a food safety or public health issue, since the virus only infects cloven-hoofed animals — swine and ruminants — but it still limits production and shuts down borders with devastating results.

Almost as quickly as a first case is announced in Canada, bans on our live ruminants, swine and meat (fresh and frozen), semen, embryos, hides, raw wool and all other products would spring up around the world. The movement of horses, poultry, dogs and cats not susceptible to the virus would still be prohibited for fear they may transport the virus on their bodies. An outbreak would have to be brought under control within six months to avoid significant losses.

The degree to which FMD limits production is somewhat controversial.

The virus rarely kills animals, although younger ones are more likely to show signs of illness and, or die from it than mature animals. It’s people who cause the large losses by resorting to emergency slaughter of infected and susceptible herds to contain the disease.

These welfare culls raise a whole other set of concerns. First they potentially wipe out important genetics, and then there is the worry over the public’s reaction to them. North Americans of today may not accept this mass disposal of animals. As a result there has been a change in the thinking about the use of vaccination to head off FMD outbreaks.

Historically, vaccination was avoided because it gave every animal a titre making it impossible to separate vaccinates from FMD carriers. More recently, vaccination has been used to control outbreaks or as a long-term control strategy after an outbreak and the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) has created an FMD-freewith-vaccination category for trading

purposes. Unfortunately, few countries have been willing to accept the risk of buying vaccinated animals or their products.

No single vaccine protects against all seven known types and more than 60 subtypes of FMD viruses. Since Canada shares a vaccine bank with the U.S. and Mexico, quantities of the specific vaccine required might be limited should an outbreak occur in North America.

FMD virus is present in the tissues and secretions of infected animals and can survive outside the body under extremely harsh conditions, including freezing. It enters the body through mucous membranes or cuts and is easily transmitted animal to animal or on contaminated bedding, feed, water, facilities, equipment, vehicles, clothing, footwear, clinging to dust blowing in the wind or on infected meat and products such as bone marrow and hides.

Imported meat sits on Canadian docks every day making it highly probable that there is FMD-contaminated meat somewhere in Canada at any given time. Exposure to a susceptible population is all it would take to trigger an outbreak.

Preventing that exposure is largely in the hands of producers and their veterinarians. The new national beef biosecurity standard that is being developed will provide some tools for setting up on-farm biosecurity programs. But the first line of defence remains individual vigilance.

FMD is a reportable disease meaning veterinarians must immediately notify the CFIA when they come across suspicious cases. This federal agency implements control measures but the provinces are responsible for the proper disposal of carcasses and contaminated materials.

FMD was the sole topic of discussion at the fourth annual Cross-Border Animal Health Conference at Portland, Oregon in July. The conference was established to better co-ordinate the livestock disease control efforts of authorities in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Yukon Territory. Next year’s meeting will be held in Saskatoon.

Douglas, who co-chaired the conference, says three action items were agreed upon in Portland: 1. The need to pursue electronic certification as a means to accelerate live animal trade. Collaboration between the U.S. and Canada in sharing electronic information could streamline www.canadiancattlemen.ca

the whole process of moving animals and animal products.

2. The need to work toward formally recognizing zoning and regionalization between Canada and the U.S. It’s important that the normalization of trade be a priority during any foreign animal disease outbreak or investigation.

3. T he need to expand the understanding of the role that vaccination may play in the control of an FMD outbreak in Canada or the U.S. During the next year, officials in both countries must consult with stakeholders on the potential and the process for FMD vaccination.

equipment NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR RFID TAGS TO BE TESTED The Alberta Meat and Livestock Agency has awarded a grant of $950,000 to the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Polytechnics school of manufacturing and automation to field test ultra-high-frequency radio-frequency identification (UHF RFID) tags along with the hardware and software developed by SAIT students.

There are many radio-frequency technologies and some are better suited for certain applications than others, explains Glen Kathler, applied research chair of RFID application development at SAIT. In all their RFID work the school tries as much as possible to design solutions for Alberta business and industry.

About three years ago, Kathler connected with Livestock Identification Services and began learning how the livestock industry uses radio-frequency technology. Visits to farms, feedlots, auction markets and packing

plants revealed frustrations in using the current low-frequency (LF) radiofrequency tags and readers. With this understanding of how business happens, the students investigated which type of radio-frequency technology would be best suited to assist the livestock industry.

LF was the first radio-frequency technology invented about 30 years ago, Kathler explains. It operates off a magnetic field and was designed to read one tag at a time. It does a great job of that, irrespective of the surrounding environment, but it was never intended to read multiple tags at one point in time.

UHF is the latest in radio-frequency technology, introduced around 2003.

Operating purely as a radio signal, its maximum read capability is 800 tags a second and SAIT students have proven that it is capable of reading 500 tags a second in a lab setting. UHF tag design is more specific to its environment than LF, therefore, one of the elements of the field trial will be to determine how well UHF tags operate in the cattle environment, Kathler adds.

The reason UHF technology has advanced so quickly is that many

large industries and retail businesses have made investments in research and development. The uptake of the technology has grown by 200 per cent in each of the past two years with approximately two billion tags incorporating UHF technology sold globally last year.

This demand has driven down the price of the UHF inlay, the coil wire that acts as the antenna attached to the electronic chip inside the device, Kathler explains. The lower the frequency, the more wire is required. There are basically three forms for LF technology: a button as seen in current livestock tags, an inlay such as a credit card installation, and the subcutaneous capsule for pet tags. The inlay for UHF technology requires very little wire relative to that of LF technology and with about 96 per cent of the RFID applications worldwide being non-animal identification, the forms UHF can take are almost endless.

Competition amongst the nine manufacturers of UHF equipment in North America has also driven down the cost of readers. The Alberta auction market Continued on page 42

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News Roundup Continued from page 41

traceability study stated markets could spend $50,000 to install a four-panel, wide-alley reader system for LF tags. A similar setup to read UHF tags would cost in the neighbourhood of $5,000 to $10,000, Kathler says. SAIT students are investigating ways to adapt wand readers to read both LF and UHF tags.

Kathler says UHF tags should be priced about the same as the current LF tags, depending on the uptake from industry in Canada and other countries.

As a technical institute, SAIT doesn’t spin off companies to commercialize its research. Suffice to say there has been a lot of interest from existing tag companies, but Kathler says he will proceed cautiously on this front because their product has been developed to meet identified needs of Alberta’s livestock industry. It would be very discouraging if those characteristics were to be altered by a company manufacturing the tags elsewhere.

To ease the regulatory approval process, the school has followed the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency tag guidelines. The students have also been experimenting with various plastics to find the “secret sauce” to improve durability and retention. If, during the field trials, they determine that a part of the tag could be improved, Kathler says they can make changes on the fly because the tags can be manufactured right on campus.

The prototypes and participants in the trials were to be confirmed this month. But a dairy farm, a packer and a couple of cow-calf producers, feedlots and auction markets had already expressed interest in participating in this study.

food safety 10 Alberta colonies enrol on VBP If a program is measured by the support it receives, the Verified Beef Production (VBP) program just got stronger in Alberta. By the summer of 2011, a total of 10 of the province’s Hutterite colonies had joined the official national beef on-farm food safety program and advanced to the voluntary audit stage.

That’s a substantial endorsement 42 Cattlemen / October 2011

of the industry’s efforts to continually strengthen on-farm food safety, says Eileen Leslie, provincial co-ordinator for the VBP program in Alberta.

“Our Hutterite Colonies are typically well-managed progressive operations, and the commitment of this many colonies to documenting on-farm beef food safety is exactly the kind of producer attitude our industry can build upon.”

The VBP program establishes a set of standard operating procedures or SOPs, designed to ensure that proper food safety procedures are being followed in beef production. The program advocates strong record-keeping to provide clear documentation that SOPs are followed. It also offers an optional process whereby operations can undergo a third-party assessment confirming good adoption of the program, and can earn registered VBP status as a result.

While each colony operates on its own, a quick check shows some common threads among the reasons they give for signing up for VBP. Pine Haven Colony, near Wetaskiwin, slaughters its own beef and is building a reputation for marketing the product directly to consumers. The colony is an early adopter of the VBP program and sees first hand the value it offers at both levels.

“It’s important for us to have clear, effective protocols to support good management and get consistent results in our products,” says spokesman William Hofer. “It also really helps our marketing to be able to show this to our customers. We believe it’s the way of doing things for the future.”

Pine Haven Colony feeds 3,200 head annually and runs a 400-head cow-calf operation. Both are registered with VBP. Morinville Colony operates on a smaller scale but was the second colony in the province to become VBP registered. The reasons for getting on board are simple, says Jonathan Wurz. “It’s better for records. It supports safe beef.”

Morrinville’s 200-head cow-calf operation is run by Wurz and two other workers. VBP helps them keep organized and identify simple ways to fine tune their processes. “It’s not a lot of extra work,” says Wurz. “The program is step by step and easy to follow.”

He also believes that food safety protocols such as VBP are going to become more common with the increased focus on food safety. “We figured if we get a head start and get

familiar with it there’s an advantage to that.”

Another early adopter is O.B. Colony near Marwayne. Gideon Hofer says the program is made up of common-sense approaches and signing on was an easy decision. “It’s a good way to make sure the beef we raise and put on the shelf is up to high standards.”

Adopting the program provided peace of mind that things were being done the right way, in line with wellaccepted HACCP approaches and other industry best practices, says Hofer. “We’ve found it has very good structure and a lot of good reminders and good precautions.”

The decision to adopt VBP was a quick one for Codesa Colony. “When we first learned about the program, we were in the process of shipping cattle,” says Steven Wipf. “We saw the protocols would help us with that job and others. There was no reason to wait and see. We were ready for it.”

That feeling is echoed by Johnathan Tschetter at Birch Hills Colony, who found little to argue with after learning about VBP through workshops. “We just want good management practices.

Learning ways to improve is good.

Everything in the program is things we should be doing.”

Tschetter also appreciated that the program helps the colony be more selfreliant. “We’re not wondering what is the best way or relying on advice. It gives us more control.”

education A visit to Ladies Livestock Lessons

A round of cupcakes marked the fifth anniversary of Ladies Livestock Lessons (LLL), held this year at Camp Kindle near Water Valley, Alta.

LLL is actually the youngest of three similar events organized each year by www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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the municipal counties and Cows and Fish (Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society), explains Sarah Schumacher, Wheatland County’s agricultural conservation and communications co-ordinator, who has been involved with LLL since its inception. Each of the events takes the form of an overnight camp at the Original Grazing School for Women held in a northern location, the Southern Alberta Grazing School for Women in the south, and LLL in central Alberta.

Schumacher has been involved in organizing all kinds of extension events and typically finds women make up a relatively small percentage of those in attendance. Which is why these events are designed specially for women.

An overnight camp venue seems to fit the bill and enrolment at all three events is maxed out at 40 almost every year. This year was an exception with everyone busy playing catch-up due to the late spring.

The schools attract women of all ages and experience.

At this year’s LLL, some women were fairly new to the livestock industry, having recently married a rancher or established a new operation. Those with more experience are of the mind that there’s always something new to be learned.

According to their evaluations they feel less intimidated speaking out and asking questions in small groups of other women.

The usefulness of the information delivered and the opportunity to try their hand at some of the skills are also appreciated. Aside from the formal sessions, finding inspiration from talking with other women in agriculture rates high in the feedback.

The social side is a definite draw and those who’ve attended several camps say they look forward to reconnecting with friends from previous camps.

The one aspect that doesn’t escape mentioning is that it’s like an all-inclusive two-day getaway with room, meals, entertainment and activities, all for a most reasonable price of $105 this year. It’s really a chance to focus on agriculture without the everyday distractions, a place to become re-energized and return home with new ideas.

Schumacher says they try to change up the agenda from year to year, but it always includes sessions on riparian health and tame or native range health covering plant and weed identification put on by resource people from Cows and Fish and Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

Hands-on activities generally include sessions on fencing and watering systems.

Animal health and livestock handling are popular topics. This year’s presenter Dylan Biggs, demonstrated lowimpact livestock handling with a group of yearlings from horseback. Working stock dog demonstrations are also popular.

Often ranchers will talk about projects they have tried.

Gardening with low-water-use plants (xeriscaping), edible native plants, grazing management, species-at-risk and watershed initiatives are a few examples.

Women talking about their own ranching experiences goes over well. This year at LLL, Genuine Cowgirls out of Big Valley, Alta. (www.genuinecowgirls.ca), filled that role, sharing songs from their first album, “Songs from the Saddle Shop” released this year, and their personal thoughts about everyday ranching life.

For more information on Ladies Livestock Lessons, contact Sarah Schumacher 403-934-3321, www.ladieslivestocklessons.blogspot.com.

The Original Grazing School for Women (north), Kerri O’Shaughnessy, 780-427-7940, koshaugh@cowsandfish.org.

Southern Alberta Grazing School for women, Norine Ambrose, 403-381-5538, nambrose@cowsandfish.org. C

Mail this ad with payment to: Canadian Cattlemen 1666 Dublin Ave, Winnipeg, MB R3H OH1 Or call toll-free: 1-800-665-1362 E-mail: subscription@fbcpublishing.com

CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011 43

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◆ The September Oldtimers picture was of a young Duncan Porteous taken with his Hereford 4-H calf. Duncan is the former secretary manager of the Canadian Hereford Association and presently a project manager for the Canadian Beef Breeds Council. It was taken around 1955.

◆ This issue we have a photo that

I hope will stump some of you and bring back memories for others. Identify the ringman if you can, then tell me who the fellow is in the red jacket.

Love the hairstyles and hats back then.

44 Cattlemen / October 2011

◆ GOODBYE TO A FRIEND OF US ALL: Walt Browarny, beloved husband of Marie of Calgary and noted livestock photographer, passed away on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at the age of 75 years. Walt gave it a good fight but lost his battle with cancer, and passed away after Allan arrived from Eastern Canada to say goodbye.

Besides his loving wife Marie, Walt is survived by his children, daughter Shannon Browarny; son Allan Browarny and daughter-in-law Roxana; two grandchildren Corbin and Sophia.

A celebration of his life was held Aug. 29 in Calgary. Walt was a familiar figure in livestock rings all over the North American continent for over a quarter of a century. ◆ The Canadian Beef Breeds Council suffered a drastic cut in funding for international marketing endeavours this year. Apparently the export statistics get lost in the system and fund holders (government) are not able to justify supporting the CBBC due to lack of recordable results. The breed associations know that their respective members achieve international sales on an ongoing basis and unless an animal is transferred, they have no record of the transaction. The breed associations are interested in compiling sales information in order to paint a more accurate picture of purebred genetic sales outside of Canada. If you sold embryos, semen or animals outside of Canada in 2010, it would be appreciated if you would share that information with your breed association. Your help is crucial in accessing future funding to promote beef genetics abroad. ◆ Dr. Jim Mailer passed away at age 61 years on July 20, 2011 at the Stettler Hospital. Jim was born August 15, 1949 in Provost, Alta., the eldest son of Peter and Mary Mailer (nee Fossen). He attended school from Grades 1 to 9 in Cadogan, Alta. and went to high school in Provost. He completed his veterinarian degree in 1977, and settled in the town of Stettler, where he began his work with the Stettler Veterinary Clinic. He became a prominent member of the community with his involvement in the Rotary Club, Heartland Youth Centre and 4-H Clubs. Jim became

president of the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association in 1994. He had a key role in the development of the Western Drug Distribution Centre and newly released Cattle Vantage Software. In 2010, he was honoured with the WCABP Veterinarian of the Year Award, which was a great accomplishment as he ended his career.

◆ The Canadian Limousin Associa-

tion annual general meeting took place on August 20 in Orangeville, Ont. To receive an annual report booklet containing activity reports, financial reports, provincial association reports, breeders should contact the CLA office. Three new directors were elected to the board: Terry Hepper (Sask.), Kelly Yorga (Sask.) and Jim Richmond (Alta.). Returning directors are Bill Campbell (Man.), Darby Cochrane (Man.), Lynn Combest (Alta.), Brian Lee (Ont.), Stan Skeels (Alta.) and Dale Turner (Sask.). Bill Campbell was elected as the new president for 2011-12. Lynn Combest is vice-president and Darby Cochrane is the treasurer. Mary Hertz is no longer on the board but will remain on the executive as past president. Mary Hertz, Rob Swaan and Mike Geddes have completed two terms of three years therefore they were not eligible to return to the board of directors. The association posted excess revenue of $49,607 over expenses for the past year.

A letter from the Ontario Limousin Association requesting that all Angus animals in Lim-Flex pedigrees be tested for Arthrogryposis multiplex, informally referred to as Curly Calf Syndrome was addressed at the meeting. The CLA board felt that the Angus policy regarding this syndrome protects the Limousin registry against including carrier animals. Since all Angus genetics in Lim-Flex animals are registered or recorded, therefore the pedigrees of these cattle are known.

◆ The Canadian Junior Limou-

sin Association also announced its new board: Dillon Hunter, president; Jayden Payne, vice-president; Melanie Gollinger, secretary; Dana Carpenter, treasurer; Brandon Hertz, press reporter and Cassidy Matthews, Katelynn Tedford, Bailey McConnell, directors at large. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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◆ Mario and Dany Simard of Ste-

Sophie de Levrard hosted about 100 guests at the Quebec Limousin field day in August. Bull calves destined for the bull test stations were on display in the barn along with their dams, and the family’s main herd sire: BLB Titanium 95T.

data collected. Over the course of the project, several more groups will be fed out. If you have any sourceverified cattle that meet this criteria, or know of any, the CSA is asking that you contact Bruce Holmquist (bholmquist@simmental.ca) or Sean McGrath ( sean@ranchingsystems. com). Over the course of the project the CSA is going to require additional carcass and ultrasound data from members and their commercial customers. Producers with DNA available on older SM sires are also being asked to contact Sean.

◆ The Canadian Simmental Association (CSA) is looking for Simmental and Simmental-influenced feeder cattle for its Genomic Innovations research trials. The project examines sustained fertility, feed efficiency and carcass quality of these cattle. They will have Cdn_Shorthorn_Assn 12/6/07 Page 1 Charolais AssociaDNA collected before the test at a11:09 ◆ AMCanadian net feed intake facility in Guelph and tion members will be able to take complete carcass and meat quality advantage of the updated registry system this fall following a complete STAMPEDE

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Cattlemen / October 2011 45

Page

Continued from page 45

revamp of the hardware and related software running the breed’s registry in early September. The system was shut down from Sept. 7 to 12. The upgrade was necessitated by a variety of online and system issues with the old equipment.

◆ At the Southern Alberta Yearling

Classic Sale, Aug. 5, Angus-influence commercial cattle dominated the sale. With 16,000 head on offer, predominantly yearlings available for fall delivery in large lots, the bidding was competitive and prices were strong. The sale was held at Chain Lakes Provincial Park in the M.D. of Ranchland building, west of Nanton, Alta. All cattle were sold with a “Contract for Purchase of Livestock” defining the sellers’ and buyers’ responsibilities and obligations.

Many of the larger lots featured 400 to 1,100 head per lot. All cattle were shown on video at the sale and described by southern Alberta

Livestock Exchange staff. The sale wound up after three hours, and was followed by a steak barbecue.

◆ The Canadian Hereford Association has information on its website about the World Hereford Conference that will be held in Alberta next

Answer our survey — and have a go at winning one of our caps

We have a goal to be the best beef cattle magazine in the business. But we need your help. If you could just fill in this survey and return it to me, you would be helping us set the future editorial direction for Canadian Cattlemen. All you have to do is tell me

We’d appreciate it if you could tell us a little about yourself. It makes it easier for us to keep your main interests in focus  I’m ranching or farming Enterprise Total beef cattle Yearlings on feed/pasture Registered cows Fed cattle (sold yearly) Commercial cows Horses Calves on feed/pasture Other livestock

# of head

 I no longer take an active part in farming If not an owner/operator of a farm, are you:

 In agribusiness (bank, elevator, ag supplies, etc.)  Other (please specify) ____________________ My approximate age is:  a) Under 35  b) 36 to 44  d) 55 to 64  e) 65 or over

 c) 45 to 54

46 Cattlemen / October 2011

what you like about the magazine, and what you don’t like. There’s also some space for you to tell us what you would like to see in future issues.

ClIp And enClose your mAIlIng lABel. each month, we will draw one name from all the surveys sent in and send that person a Cattlemen cap.

It could be you!

What do you think of: On a scale of 1 to 5, how do you and your family like these features?

5 – I always watch for it; let’s see more of it 4 – I regularly read it and like it 3 – I usually read it 2 – There are things I’d rather read 1 – I don’t want it; get rid of it Regular Columns 5 4 3

summer, July 13-18. The tentative schedule is on the Canadian Hereford Association’s website. The cattle shows including the World Hereford Conference Junior Bonanza will be held at Olds. It is anticipated that 17 member countries will be represented.

They expect 500 head of quality Hereford cattle will be shown. Contact the Hereford association toll free at (888) 836-7242 for sponsorship opportunities.

Dr. Jay Cross is the 2012 World Hereford Conference chairman. Jay and his wife Lucy own and operate Bar Pipe Hereford Ranch at Okotoks, Alberta. The Cross family has been breeding Herefords since 1953.

Jay’s father, grandfather and greatgrandfather are all past presidents of the Calgary Stampede. His greatgrandfather, A.E. Cross, was one of the original founders of the worldfamous stampede starting in 1912.

Dr. Cross is currently the associate dean of research and graduate education for veterinary medicine at the University of Calgary.

C

Regular Columns News Roundup Purely Purebred The Markets

5

4

3

2

1

Market Talk Sales and Events

2 1 Nutrition Comment Research Special features 5 4 3 2 1 Newsmakers Letters Calving Issue (Jan.) CCA Reports Custom Feedlot Guide (Sep.) Prime Cuts Stock Buyers’ Guide (Aug.) Straight From The Hip Animal Health Special (Sep.) Holistic Ranching Beef Watch (May & Nov.) What would you like to see? __________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ How much time do you and your family spend reading 1666 Dublin Avenue Canadian Cattlemen?  Under 2 hours  Over 2 hours Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

The markets

Market Summary debbie mcmillin Fed Cattle Fed cattle prices to mid-September were pressured lower as smaller weekly kills allowed packers to go long on inventory and increase their purchasing power. While U.S. prices rallied in the past few weeks, local prices struggled and lost ground, widening the basis to -14.73, the widest it’s been since spring 2009. Early September fed steers averaged $101.71, off $5.50 from three weeks earlier but $12.33 higher than last year.

Slower fed cattle movement in recent weeks coupled with good feeding conditions increased yearover-year carcass weights. By early September steer carcasses averaged 870 pounds, up 17 pounds from 2010 and 22 pounds over 2009. Fed slaughter in 2011 to the start of September totalled 994,390 head, down 10 per cent from last year while heifer slaughter is down 12 per cent at 638,065 head. Exports of fed cattle

Deb’s Outlook Fed Cattle Lower Canadian prices and wider basis increased interest from U.S. buyers, which will help support the fed market. As will tightening supplies towards the end of 2011, and seasonal increases in beef consumption and the movement of higher-priced cuts. Basis should narrow seasonally as we move through the fourth quarter. As always we need to keep an eye on the economy and its effect on consumer spending.

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

to date are down 39 per cent however weekly shipments have picked up in recent weeks.

Growing on feed numbers in the U.S. are drought-related placements of young calves that would typically remain on wheat pastures and backgrounding lots through the next few months. This will swell the volumes of market-ready cattle in early 2012 but carve a hole in the numbers normally placed in late 2011 and early 2012.

Feeder Cattle The 2011 fall run got underway with strong prices for yearlings and calves for current and delayed delivery. Volumes will increase over the next month as producers finish up their fall field work, however the calf volumes will likely be spread throughout the fall as good grass conditions hold calves out on pasture. The trend to later calving also has more calves being weaned later in the fall. Today’s strong feeder prices are a result of good fed prices in 2011, the smaller North American beef herd and strong live cattle futures for spring and early summer 2012. Early September 550 steers in central Alberta averaged $151, almost $24 better than the same week in 2010. Yearlings were up $17.88 over 2010 averaging $127.20 by the second week of September. The feeder basis started SepAny renewed strength in the dollar will take some profit out of the fed market.

Feeder Cattle Tighter calf supplies coupled with excess feedlot capacity will continue to fuel feeder prices through the fall run. Volumes will pick up as producers wrap up harvest and focus on weaning in the coming month.

Negatives include rising feed grain prices brought on by tighter supplies, any gain in the dollar and negative economic news that may pressure the deferred live cattle futures.

tember at -2.21, the narrowest it has been this year, and widened slightly by mid-month to -5.15 per cwt. Year to date the 850 feeder basis has averaged more than 6.00, tighter than the same weeks in 2010. Feeder exports are down 63 per cent.

Non-Fed Cattle Following a long run with prices holding within a narrow trading range of $70-$71, D1,2 cow prices dipped to $67.33 in early September.

Drought-driven volumes of southern U.S. cows filled supply lines to compete with the opens normally culled off grass. Volumes here are expected to pick up in the coming weeks as producers make culling decisions.

Cow slaughter to date is off by 16 per cent, but started to pick up last month with 8,146 coming to market in the first week of September, seven per cent more than the week before.

Slaughter cow exports are down 28 per cent year to date. Bull prices also slipped, averaging $79.12 in early September. Domestic bull slaughter to date in 2011 is down 14 per cent while exports at 27,379 are down 27 per cent on the year.

— Debbie McMillin

Debbie McMillin is a market analyst who ranches at Hanna, Alta.

More markets➤ Non-Fed Outlook Normally rising cow numbers pressure prices as cattle move off summer pastures. This year will be no different. The dollar is higher than a year ago which limits exports. However, strong demand for grinding and trim product should lend support. The seasonal low is usually seen in November before the cull cow market picks up again in December. Last year saw a seasonal decrease of 14 per cent or just over $8 per cwt from August to November.

Cattlemen / october 2011 47

Break-even Prices on A-Grade Steers 115

ALBERTA

150

105 95 85 75

Market Prices

160

140 130

western Market Summary

120 110

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

135

100

Steer Calves (500-600 lb.)

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

85

ONTARIO

125

75

115

65

105

55

95

45

85 75 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2011

Canfax weighted average price on A-Grade steers

35

D1,2 Cows Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Ontario 2010 Market Ontario prices based on a 50/50 east/west mix Summary O ntario

2011

2010

A lberta

Break-even price

2011

for steers on date sold

2012

2011

Kevin Grier2010

Market Summary (to September 10)

September 2011 prices* Alber ta Yearling steers (850 lb.)............... $127.36/cwt Barley................................................. 4.29/bu.

Barley silage..................................... 53.63/ton Cost of gain (feed)........................... 57.63/cwt Cost of gain (all costs)..................... 81.91/cwt Fed steers...................................... 104.41/cwt Break-even (January 2012)............ 111.07/cwt Ontario Yearling steers (850 lb.)............... $125.25/cwt Corn silage....................................... 67.04/ton Grain corn........................................... 8.13/bu.

Cost of gain (feed)......................... 119.11/cwt Cost of gain (all costs)................... 144.49/cwt Fed steers...................................... 107.99/cwt Break-even (March 2012).............. 133.21/cwt *Mid-month to mid-month prices Breakevens East: end wt 1,450, 183 days West end wt 1,325 lb., 125 days

48 Cattlemen / october 2011

2011 Total Canadian federally inspected slaughter............. 2,002,540 Average steer carcass weight............................................ 842 lb.

Total U.S. slaughter.................................................... 23,980,000

2010 2,265,670 844 lb.

24,014,000

Trade Summary EXPORTS 2011 Fed cattle to U.S. (to Sept. 3)........................................ 270,901 Feeder cattle and calves to U.S. (to Sept. 3)................... 61,966 Dressed beef to U.S. (to July)............................... 317.10 mil.lbs Total dressed beef (to July)................................... 426.92 mil.lbs

2010 443,596 167,258 423.44 mil.lbs 549.80 mil.lbs

IMPORTS 2011 Slaughter cattle from U.S. (to July) ........................................... 0 *Dressed beef from U.S. (to July)......................... 207.17 mil.lbs *Dressed beef from Australia (to July)..................... 10.01 mil.lbs *Dressed beef from New Zealand (to July)................. 39.85 mil.lbs *Dressed beef from Uruguay (to July)...................... 9.01 mil.lbs

2010 0 154.47 mil.lbs 12.36 mil.lbs 34.87 mil.lbs 24.47 mil.lbs

Canadian Grades (to September 10, 2011) % of A grades AAA AA A Prime Total

EAST WEST

+59% 19.8 30.3 2.8 0.2 53.1 Total graded 391,980 1,419,300

Yield –53% Total 9.9 51.8 2.3 43.0 0.0 2.9 0.5 1.1 12.7 Total A grade 98.8% Total ungraded % carcass basis 104,707 62.5% 73,063 76.7%

54-58% 22.1 10.4 0.1 0.4 33.0

Only federally inspected plants

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

market talk with Gerald Klassen

Barley outlook for 2011-12

B

arley values in the major feeding regions of Western Canada have been percolating higher over the past month. Producer deliveries were quite high during August and early September but have now slowed resulting in a firmer tone to the cash trade. Cattle-on-feed numbers are slowly increasing and export demand appears to be stronger than earlier anticipated. I’ve received many inquiries regarding the price outlook for feed grains so now that harvest is finished, I felt this would be a good time to go over the fundamental structure and the price outlook for the 2011-12 crop year.

Statistics Canada estimated average barley yields at 63.3 bushels per acre resulting in production of 8.3 million mt.

Despite the larger production, total beginning supplies will be down from year ago levels due to the smaller carry in from 2010-11. Total barley supplies estimated at 9.8 million mt, down from 10.2 million mt last year. After excessive moisture during the spring period, growing conditions during the summer months were very favourable resulting in higher yields and above-normal quality. Therefore, a larger percentage of the crop will move into malting channels this year.

Canadian feed barley exports will be down from last year due to larger supplies from the Black Sea region. However, at the time of writing this article, offshore bids were very competitive with the domestic cash market in non major feeding areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan. While Middle Eastern demand quieted during the Muslim festival of Ramadan, there is a risk that exports may increase from current projections.

Domestic feed usage is estimated at 6.5 million mt, which is down nearly two million mt from the 10-year average. It is important to note that wheat crop will be higher quality in comparison to last year limiting the amount of supplies moving into the domestic market. Therefore, if we add up total feed usage of all grains, Western Canada will need to import

about one million mt of U.S. corn or DDGS. Barley prices in southern Alberta and Manitoba need to trade at a premium to U.S. feed grains to encourage imports. The Red River Valley is in a sharp feed grain deficit this year due to the unseeded acres in the eastern part of the Prairies. Cattle feeders in Manitoba will compete with Alberta for supplies in the central regions of Saskatchewan. Barley prices in Morden are trading at a $15 to $20 premium over Lethbridge and this could increase to $30 to $40 over the winter. I’m projecting a barley carryout for 2011-12 at 1.3 million mt, which is down from the 10 year average of 2.4 million mt and viewed as historically tight.

The U.S. corn situation is extremely snug due to lower production. Average yields were estimated at 148.1 bushels per acre by the USDA which is the lowest in six years. Production will now be very similar to last year but overall beginning stocks will be down due to the lower carry in. Corn needs to ration demand away from exports and domestic feeding. We may even see a year over year decrease in U.S. ethanol production.

The corn market needs to discourage soft red winter wheat acreage this fall and encourage corn acres next spring.

In the short term, there will be harvest pressure as farmers take advantage of higher prices during the fall and sell their crop. Once the U.S. harvest is finished, the corn market will likely move back up to the higher levels until the South American production is more certain around the March timeframe. Traders will then start to focus on U.S. acreage for 2012 and we will likely see a three- to four-million acre surge pressuring new crop prices and pulling down old crop values. Keep in mind, once half of the U.S. corn demand is satisfied, the upward momentum will shift and the bulls will no longer be in the driver seat.

In conclusion, barley prices have potential to strengthen through fall and winter. Canadian domestic barley demand peaks in late March and then starts to decline; prices are expected to follow this seasonal pattern. Be careful over the next six months because when a market rations Supply and disposition of Canadian barley (’000 tonnes) demand, prices are extremely volatile. Longer term, 10-year Estimated 09/10 average 10/11 11/12 06/07 07/08 08/09 larger corn and barley acres next year will weigh on old Acres seeded 9,118 10,865 9,357 8,663 11,067 6,911 6,694 crop prices and pressure the market into the fall of 2012.

Acres harvested 8,053 9,879 8,521 7,209 9,381 5,899 6,007 One caveat on this outlook is that the feedgrains comYield (bu./ac.)

54.60 51.10 62.50 60.60 55 59.21 63.30 plex cannot afford a crop problem in South America or SUPPLY we could see new historical highs. Readers should stay Opening stocks Aug. 1 3,286 1,494 1,626 2,844 2,368 2,583 1,441 close to our feed grain update in winter because we will Production have a good idea of Southern Hemisphere production 9,573 10,984 11,781 9,517 11,141 7,605 8,279 and a better idea of upcoming Northern Hemisphere Imports 43 58 42 42 76 42 40 feed grain acreage.

TOTAL SUPPLY 12,902 12,536 13,449 12,403 13,585 10,230 9,759 I’ll go out on a limb but if all goes well, I wouldn’t USE be surprised to see corn move under $4 per bushel in Exports 1,144 2,924 1,495 1,301 1,538 1,272 700 October of 2012. This could be extremely bullish lonSeed 383 331 309 256 372 233 280 ger term for feeder cattle prices which I’ll cover in the Human food/ 992 1,051 1,015 954 981 890 1,020 industrial/1 next issue.

Feed-waste-dockage TOTAL USE TOTAL CARRY-OVER

8,889 11,408 1,494

6,604 10,910 1,626

7,731 10,550 2,899

7,309 9,820 2,583

1/includes barley processed domestically and then exported as malt

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

8,346 11,237 2348

6,394 8,789 1,441

6,500 8,500 1,259

Gerald Klassen analyzes markets in Winnipeg and also maintains an interest in the family feedlot in southern Alberta. He can be reached at jkci@mymts.net or 204-287-8268.

Cattlemen / October 2011 49

SALES AND EVENTS EVENTS October

7-9—National Shorthorn Show, Victoriaville, Que. 8—Quebec Classic, Victoriaville, Que. 13-15—Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Fall Forum, Calgary, Alta.

17-18—Summit for Agriculture-Feeding a Hungry World Farm Care Foundation, Summit Host — www.farmcarefoundation. ca, Delta Ottawa Center, Ottawa, Ont.

AD INDEX Page Agroplow Canada 41 Alberta Agriculture & Rural Development 40 Alberta Beef Producers 21 Boehringer Ingelheim 9 Canadian Angus Assoc.

IFC Canadian Charolais Assoc.

OBC Canadian Gelbvieh Assoc.

45 Canadian Hereford Assoc.

45 Canadian Limousin Assoc.

45 Canadian Red Angus Promotion Society 7 Canadian Shorthorn Assoc.

45 Canadian Simmental Assoc.

45 Canadian Welsh Black Society 45 Canadian Wheat Board 18 Direct Livestock Marketing 18 Elanco Animal Health 17 Greener Pastures 40 International Stock Foods 45 Jaylor Fabricating Inc. 5 Lakeland Group/Northstar 10 a-p LLB Angus 39 Merck Animal Health 33, IBC Merial 13 Northwest Consolidated Beef 45 Real Industries 39 Red Brand Fence 29 Ridge Road Welding 37 Ridley Block Ops/Crystalyx 24 Scotiabank 23 Southern Scale Company Inc. 41 Tru-Test Inc. 37 Waygu Canada Inc. 45

19-20—Livestock Gentec AGM Conference, Delta Edmonton South, Edmonton, Alta.

28-29—21st Annual Edam Fall Fair, Edam Community Centre, Edam, Sask.

30-Nov. 2—Antimicrobial Stewardship in Canadian Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Marriott Toronto Airport Hotel, Toronto, Ont.

November

3-5—Lloydminster Stockade Roundup Show, Exhibition Grounds, Lloydminster, Alta.

3-6—Canadian Limousin National Show and Sale, Royal Winter Fair, Toronto, Ont. 3-6—Manitoba Livestock Expo, Keystone Centre, Brandon, Man. 4-13—Royal Winter Fair, Exhibition Place, Toronto. Ont. 4-13—Farmfair International, Northlands, Edmonton, Alta.

5—Canadian National Red and Black Angus Shows, Manitoba Livestock Expo, Brandon, Man. 9-12—Agri-Trade 2011, Westerner Park, Red Deer, Alta.

9-12—Saskatoon Fall Fair, Prairieland Park, Saskatoon, Sask.

9-13—Canadian Finals Rodeo, Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alta.

10—National Simmental Show, Northlands, Edmonton, Alta.

11—Canadian Simmental Association Annual General Meeting and Garth Sweet Simmental Foundation Auction, Northlands, Edmonton, Alta.

21-26—Canadian Western Agribition, Evraz Place, Regina, Sask.

25—Canadian National Hereford Show, Agribition, Regina, Sask.

December

eral Meeting, Sheraton Cavalier, Calgary, Alta.

January 2012

18-20—Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference, Saskatoon Inn, Saskatoon, Sask.

20-21—Canadian Bull Congress, Camrose Exhibition, Camrose, Alta.

21—Beef Symposium and FarmSmart, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont.

February 2012

15-17—Alberta Beef Industry Conference, Capri Conference Centre, Red Deer, Alta.

July 2012 8-25—2012 World Hereford Conference, Olds Ag Society, Olds, Alta.

SALES October

21-22—Red Roundup Show and Sale, Westerner Grounds, Red Deer, Alta.

22—All Star Classic Shorthorn Sale hosted by Alberta Shorthorn Association, Lacombe Research Station, Lacombe, Alta.

December

2—Silvertop Simmentals (Glenn Olson) Total Dispersal, Rimbey Auction Mart, Rimbey, Alta.

10—MC Quantock “Canada’s Cow” Sale, Vermilion, Alta.

February 2012

4—Hill 70 Quantock Ranch “Barn Burnin Sale” at the ranch, Lloydminster, Alta., www.hill70quantock.com, 1-800-665-7253

5-6—Manitoba Grazing School and Forage Symposium, Victoria Inn, Winnipeg, Man. 7-8—Farm Animal Council of Saskatchewan Conference, Saskatoon Inn, Saskatoon, Sask., www.facs.sk.ca 12-14—Alberta Beef Producers Annual Gen-

 Event listings are a free service to industry.  Sale listings are for our advertisers.

Your contact is Deborah Wilson at 403-325-1695 or deb.wilson@fbcpublishing.com

In print, online, ag news all the time.

We do our best to keep you up to date on farm news with our family of print publications, but if you’d like to know what’s happening more often, it’s just a few clicks away at www.agcanada.com.

It features the latest farm news, updated through the day, as well as three-times daily futures market commentary. AGCanada.com also links you to our publication websites, where, if you’re a subscriber, you can read online, or search back issues. You can also sign up to have news highlights delivered by email daily.

So, if it’s in print or online you’ll find it at AGCanada.com

www.agcanada.com | Life and Livelihood.

50 CATTLEMEN / OCTOBER 2011

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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