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Dr. Joe is all alone today as Brad and Emily are at World Dairy Expo. Left to his own devices, Dr. Joe goes all-in on a beef topic. Listen to hear the top 10 things to check on your feedlot when things aren't going as expected.
Hosted by members of the University of Minnesota Extension Beef and Dairy Teams, The Moos Room discusses relevant topics to help beef and dairy producers be more successful. The information is evidence-based and presented as an informal conversation between the hosts and guests.
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Dr. Joe Armstrong: What is up, everybody? This is Dr. Joe Armstrong and you're listening to The Moos Room. It's just me today. Brad and Emily aren't going to be able to make it. They are at World Dairy Expo, having a good time learning all sorts of things. Hopefully, some things they're going to bring back to the podcast that we can pass on to you. Since I'm by myself and hopefully we're going to have some dairy content coming back from World Dairy Expo, we're going to be beef today and specifically feedlots.
We're going to try a new format. We're going to talk about a top 10 list. For me, this is my top 10 list of things you should be checking on your feedlot if things aren't going as you expected.
Number 10. First up on the list at number 10 is money. You could do a lot right with cattle and still lose money. Taking care of cattle and making money are definitely connected. Keeping cattle healthy and comfortable, definitely connected, but not always mutually exclusive. If you pay too much in the beginning, chances are that no matter how well you take care of those cattle, how quickly you get them to grow, your margin is going to be too small or non-existent. That really comes down to knowing your system, having realistic expectations, setting a break-even, mitigating your risk when possible. All those things are things that you need to be aware of if things aren't going as well as you expect in your feedlot operation.
Number 9. After that, I can't leave out a vaccine protocol. I don't have vaccine protocol high on the list, and I have it here down at number 9 because I really do think there's so many other things that are more important. Vaccines are important, don't get me wrong. We definitely need them, but they're not as important as a lot of other things that are going to be on this list. Most importantly is to keep in mind that vaccines are not a silver bullet. Any vaccine can be overwhelmed just by stress or overwhelming amount of the disease.
In addition to that, you got to work with your veterinarian to make sure your protocol is on point because vaccines do cause stress. They take energy away from those cattle to feed that immune system so they can respond and the act of running them through the shoot itself is stressful. Really, you got to be able to tailor your protocol to the cattle coming in, where they're coming from, how high risk they are, the ability that you can do to lower stress in your feedlot. All that needs to be tailored to your specific system and that's where your veterinarian comes in.
Number 8. At number 8, we're talking ventilation. Ventilation has a huge effect on cattle health and definitely we see big impacts when we have poor ventilation, and we see that hinder the ability of the immune system and some of the mechanical things in the cow that help move unwanted pathogens out of the airway. Proper ventilation helps cool our cows in the summer, but more importantly, it keeps fresh air in front of that animal and makes sure that we are not overriding our vaccine protocol by breaking down that first line of defense in the airway, either in the upper airway or in the trachea itself.
Especially in naturally ventilated barns, I see a lot of issues when people in the winter really want to shut things down to keep things warm, but fresh air has to come in somewhere or you're not going to be able to properly ventilate that building. It doesn't matter what kind of system you have if it's mechanical or natural, fresh air has to come in and that's why I'm a huge proponent of never shutting your curtains all the way ever. There should always be an opening. I don't care how cold it is outside.
Number 7. At number 7 we have a big soapbox issue of mine. Water. We often forget about water. We often forget it's the most important nutrient in the whole playbook. Water drives that dry matter intake and dry matter intake is what keeps cattle healthy and keeps them growing. If I had the ideal setup and I had my choice, I would always see at least one inch of linear water space per head in every pen. That's really hard to do.
In addition to that, we need to think about refill rates. Cattle like to drink big amounts all at once, usually at the same time of the day as everybody else. If that water is not refilling adequately or quickly enough for those cattle to really drink when they want to, you get really, really limited feed intake. That affects your gains. Everything goes downhill from there. It affects the immune system as well. You get more sick cattle. Water cannot be forgotten. You got to remember it.
Number 6. I know this is a basic, but it's the source of a lot of our problems on feedlots. When I go out and I look and see what's going on with a group, why are they breaking, why are they sick, why are they not gaining right. That's basic, basic husbandry. I know that's a broad topic, but a lot of times when I'm talking about husbandry, I'm talking about bedding because we're already talking about water and nutrition in separate sections of this and bedding is a huge piece of this.
We need clean dry cattle. Most of the time when I'm looking for bedding and how bedding has been going on a farm, anybody can put fresh bedding down right before I show up. I know that happens sometimes if there's time but I can look at the cattle and I know how the bedding's been. If there's tag on those cattle, which is this manure that's stuck to the hair, I know that there's not enough bedding, and the amount of tag is directly related to how well an operation is doing with their bedding. It's the one of the big things I look for when I step out.
It's easy to assess, are the cattle clean and dry or are they not? Clean dry cattle are high-performing cattle and that's what you want to see.
Number 5. All right, we're already up to number 5 on this top 10 list of things that I look for when a feedlot is not performing like they expect and we're at nutrition. This is probably one of the things that I am always talking about, sourcing out to someone who knows more than I do. We could talk about this for days, but you have to have a nutritionist involved to really, really get this nailed down and make sure that you're doing everything as efficiently as possible and getting to the goals that you want to hit in your operation.
I focus mostly on the things that happen off-paper. Off-paper nutrition, whatever you want to call it. Things that don't happen in the ration formulation stage. I'm looking for things like timing, consistency, and then how you make adjustments. We want feed to be delivered at the same time every day and we want what is delivered to be consistent. Consistently mixed and consistent to the day before. We want a uniform delivery along that bunk so that everyone who has a chance to eat at the same time gets the same nutrition, gets that same mouthful every single bite.
I really love seeing bunks that are called daily so that we can manage that and that we can track and see a group's intake, make sure that we're not getting ahead of that group. Like I said, working with a nutritionist is a huge piece of this. Getting it right from incoming protocols on the nutrition side to then stepping everything up to where you want to be on the finishing ration. That is all something that that nutritionist is specifically educated to do and you really, really, really should consider working with one. It doesn't really matter how many cattle you have, a nutritionist is worth their weight in gold.
Number 4. We're up to number 4 on this list. Pen space is the next thing on there. With pen space, there's all sorts of different types of buildings and operations, whether you're inside, outside, slatted barns or not. There's all sorts of different recommendations out there. It's something you should check in with your veterinarian to see what is best for your operation. I'm going to make some generalizations here.
With slatted barns, those are very, very tricky to get right. Make sure that cattle have enough room to get around. Also, have enough room to get to the bunk, have enough time to lay down, but don't have enough room to hurt themselves and get real rowdy. Talk with your veterinarian about that one. That is going to change and be very specific to each operation, each barn style.
In general, if we're talking inside, non-slatted barn, we're talking 40 square feet per head. That's what I love to see. That's what keeps the stress low, allows everyone to have their space and that's where I see the least amount of problems. Outside, completely different game. When we're talking outside space, we're usually talking somewhere between 200 and 250 square feet per animal. When we're talking dry lot space outside.
There's definitely buildings that have combinations of both, and I like to maintain those numbers in between both sides. At times, especially when the weather's difficult, those cattle are going to be in the barn together and all in there at the same time. I like to maintain that 40 square feet per head inside and then maintain that 200 to 250 square feet per head outside as well. Those animals are going to need to utilize both spaces, all as a giant group. They're not always going to spread out and use both the indoor and outdoor portions of that facility.
Number 3. Top 3 on my top 10 things that you should check on your feedlot when things aren't going as you expect. Number 3 for me, I check this constantly. I think it's one of the things that I fight people on the most and rightly so because it's expensive to get done and to do right. It is expensive, but the benefits are there. Bunk space is what we're talking about at number 3.
When we're talking newly received cattle, we usually are talking about hopefully having 18 inches of bunk space per head. That seems like a lot, and I know it seems like a lot, but you really, really need everyone to have enough space to get to the bunk without any pressure, get to eating right, so they can really take off running because usually when we're talking high stress, we just can't add a negative energy balance to that. Or we have to limit it as much as possible to make sure that those cattle don't break. If you don't have enough bunk space, you got to consider trying to add more or reducing numbers in that pen.
A lot of times, it tends to correct itself which is unfortunate. I think a lot of times people would be very surprised if they tried to get that bunk space to where it's supposed to be by either making more somehow in an efficient way or reducing cattle numbers until it's at the correct number. They might find that that actually makes them more money. By having less cattle in that pen, you're actually going to make more money because of the reduction in disease and the reduction in stress that we associate with having the correct amount of bunk space.
With receiving cattle at like 18 inches per head of bunk space, if we can maintain that through finish, I would be ecstatic. Now, is that always possible? Not really. I really, really don't like to see less than 12 inches of bunk space per head even when we step it up to a finisher. We need to have everyone eat at the same time. That keeps that group uniform and consistent across the board.
Their body conditions stay the same. They finish more consistently. A lot of times they can go to the town at the same time. It's just a great choice overall and one of the biggest impacts you can make especially on receiving cattle to just have enough bunk space so that everyone can get to the bunk at the same time.
Number 2. This one is a little hard to make sure and there's a little bit of a leg which is frustrating, but we're talking about source and sourcing cattle. Buying cattle that are incredibly high risk is just that high risk and it really depends on your ability to do the rest of this list very, very, very well.
The better you are at basic husbandry nutrition, having the correct pen space, bunk space, and water, the better off you are and the better able you are to take care of those high-stress, high-risk cattle. A lot of this comes down to labor and time and what you have time to get done. I think part of this is realizing your ability and how much time you have to do the rest of the things on this list really, really well. If you feel like you have the time to do all these things extremely well, then high-risk cattle might be right for you because then you can have that margin built in, really take care of those cattle, and hopefully not see them break.
If you don't feel like you can do all these things really, really well or you know that bunk space is short or you know that you don't have enough water or you're just short time and you can't be as consistent feeding as you want to be, then maybe it's time to consider looking at low-risk cattle. Cattle that are from one source have been together for more than 45 days. They've been vaccinated more than three weeks ago. They had a short travel distance, clean health records, and that is what you're looking for if you just don't have the time to do everything really, really well on this list. You want bulletproof cattle if you don't have extra time or extra labor or you're short on one of these areas and you know it.
On the other hand, high-risk cattle can be very, very profitable if you can do all these other things really, really well and you have the time to really baby these cattle and get them set up correctly. High-risk cattle are just the opposite of what I said for low-risk. We're talking about multiple sources that got put together and they were co-mingled recently. They may be variable in size and weight, unvaccinated, long travel distances. Those are the things that make cattle high risk. If you can do everything excellent on this list, then high-risk cattle might be right for you.
If you can't, then you need to be looking for low-risk cattle that are bulletproof that can handle a little bit of stress because you know your system isn't perfect and that's fine. You just have to match the cattle to the system and how it works for you.
Number 1. Finally to number 1 on this list, and this is something that I think is most important when we're talking about the top 10 things that you can check when things aren't going as expected on your feedlot. For me, the number one thing to check is expectations. Sometimes the only problem is that the cattle that you bought and how you expected them to perform does not match reality.
If you buy cattle that had to travel a long distance, didn't have any vaccines, were co-mingled really recently, you put together a group, you've got high-risk cattle. But if you approach those high-risk cattle with low-risk cattle expectations, then you have a mismatch that doesn't work very well for your system and it can cause a lot of frustration and a lot of angst on that feedlot. No one wants to lose cattle. That's clear. We want everything to live. We want everything to do well, have a nice, comfortable, happy life, but that's not always possible.
Part of having cattle is that you're going to lose some of them and having realistic expectations about the performance of that group in terms of mortality, morbidity, gain, feed efficiency, those are all things that you have to keep in mind before that group comes in because if those things don't match what your system is capable of doing with those cattle, you're going to be frustrated. There's going to be no way around it. Each group should really be treated differently based on their history, in my opinion.
You have to set the expectations for that group based on the history of those cattle, the risk level and your own system, and how you know it functions with certain types of cattle. That can all be influenced by nutrition and all these other things on this list can all weigh into your expectations of this group.
Now, the big thing for me with expectations and getting this piece right is records. Keeping records of how cattle perform based on what source they came from, what type of cattle they are, how high risk they are, those kind of things make sure that you know what to expect and that helps you on the financial side as well because it allows you to predict and know what you're going to do to make sure you hit that break even. That comes all the way back full circle to the money side when we started talking about can you buy them at the right price.
Well, you don't know how to buy them at the right price if you don't keep records and you don't know how they're going to perform in your system. Making sure that your expectations match reality and knowing what's going to happen in your system is really, really important. When you're first starting out, that's really difficult and that's why I really like when new guys to the industry when they're coming in, maybe from the dairy side into the feedlot world, is to try to buy low-risk cattle and create a baseline for how cattle are going to perform in your system when you know they're really set up correctly and you're doing everything right that you possibly can.
From there, you can start to experiment with what kind of cattle you bring in and make sure that you're keeping track of what's going on in your system so you know what cattle fit your system best. We've covered a ton in this episode already in the top 10 things to check on your feedlot to improve performance when you think something's wrong.
Now, the last step in all of this is to call your veterinarian, get some help, get your nutritionist out there as well. Bring the team together to try to solve any issues that you see happening. Most of what we talked about today is revolving around reducing stress. Like I said, vaccine protocols are super important. They're just not the most important thing on the list.
Similar to that, treating cattle, super important. Having those protocols in place and working with your veterinarian to know what to do with cattle when they get sick is super important. It's just not the most important thing on the list because we really should be trying to identify those root causes of why these cattle are getting sick in the first place. Most of that has to do with prevention, getting the things right on this list, making sure your expectations match reality and match how historically your system performs with certain types of cattle. With that, we're going to wrap it up, everybody.
If you have comments, questions, scathing rebuttal to this episode, please send those to themoosroom@umn.edu. That's T-H-E-M-O-O-S R-O-O-M @umn.edu. You can find us on Twitter at @UMNmoosroom and @UMNFarmSafety. With that, no more plugs. Catch you guys next week. Thank you for listening.
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