Category: Beef Cattle Nutrition

Heat stress impacts cattle performance and costs millions of dollars in annual economic losses. Animal responses to heat stress include reduced dry matter intake, decreased average daily gain, decreased milk yield, decreased fertility and poor reproduction.

As Figure 1 reflects, the severity of heat stress is commonly estimated by temperature-humidity indexes (THI).

Some have hypothesized that it is not just the extent of heat stress alone that affects animals, but also the duration of the heat stress. This is supported by anecdotal evidence from the field, where it is commonly observed that adequate night cooling reduces the impact of heat stress during multiple-day periods of elevated temperature and humidity.

It is also presumed that the minimum threshold where animals begin experiencing heat stress is a function of the production level of the animal. For example, in growing steers the threshold is considered to be a THI of 84, whereas in a high producing lactating dairy cow the threshold will be considerably lower, starting at a THI of 70. At the same ambient temperature, a higher-producing dairy cow will have to dissipate more heat to the environment than a lower-producing cow of the same size.

In addition to reduced performance, physiological responses to heat stress include increased respiration rates and body temperatures elevated above 39°C (102.2°F). Body temperature rises when cows are no longer able to dissipate body heat to the environment, and is a very sensitive indicator of heat stress. Cows may exhibit panting and drooling as behavioral and physical responses to heat stress.

Feeding Amaferm^® during heat stress has multiple benefits including improved digestibility, increased energy availability, improved rumen function and decreased loss of performance. The improved digestibility observed with Amaferm provides more energy to the animal during heat stress when intake is reduced. Amaferm has been shown to improve milk yield performance with lactating cows under heat stress (Figure 2) and help maintain body condition (Chiou et al., 2002). The benefits of Amaferm in dairy cattle production can also be translated to beef brood cow and feedlot performance. In summary, feeding Amaferm during heat stress can:

• Increase digestibility.
• Increase energy availability.
• Improve microbial protein yields.
• Help stabilize rumen function and pH due to stress disrupting feeding patterns, which can lead to consumption of unusually large meal size.
• Improve milk yields and help maintain body condition.
• Improve overall performance.

If you have questions about heat stress in cattle, please email support@biozymeinc.com and we’ll put you in touch with one of our nutritionists. Also, be sure to check out our mineral products, VitaFerm^® HEAT and VitaFerm HEAT CTC 3G, specifically designed to help you combat summer heat stress and the effects of fescue pastures.

Calving season is here for many producers and right around the corner for others. It is time to begin thinking about health protocols for newborn calves. Those first few weeks of life are a stressful period in young calves’ lives, but by ensuring they receive the proper nutrition, vitamins and minerals, producers can make sure calves achieve a strong start.

Healthy calves start with healthy mother cows. At this stage of the cow’s life, it is important that she receives a nutrient-rich diet with the appropriate amount of protein. By working with your BioZyme Area Sales Manager or one of the nutritionists, they can assist with forage testing and ration balancing to get cows on the right track.

We recommend a high-quality breeding mineral like Concept•Aid^® be fed a minimum of 30 days prior to calving through breeding season. Concept•Aid is high in vitamin E and selenium, which are important for colostrum quality. Colostrum production begins as early as 4-5 weeks prior to calving, so you want to make sure that the cow is ready. Once the calf is born, it is important that it receives colostrum within the first 24 hours. However, for maximum immunity, receiving colostrum within six hours is best.

Encouraging your customers to give a dose of Vita Charge^® gel or a Vita Charge bolus at birth and/or tagging will help calves more successfully deal with stress. Vita Charge gives the calf a boost of B-vitamins to encourage intake. Vita Charge also contains Amaferm^®, a prebiotic that multiplies the good bacteria in the calf’s stomach. At this point in the calf’s life, it doesn’t make sense to give a probiotic as the calf is a functional monogastric, and therefore, probiotics won’t help the rumen.

As calves begin to mature, putting a Vita Charge Stress Tub in an area where the cows can’t get to it, such as a calf hutch or bedded shed, can provide additional health benefits. In addition to vitamins, minerals and Amaferm, the Vita Charge Stress Tub contains MOS that can greatly help with scour issues and promote overall health.

It is best for your customers to contact their local veterinarian about vaccinations. Recommended vaccinations can vary greatly by geographic region, and a local veterinarian will be able to give the best advice.

An early start is the key to a successful horn fly control program. It is estimated that horn flies cost North American cattle producers more than $1 billion each year. Fortunately, BioZyme offers a variety of products that contain Altosid^® IGR Feed-Thru. This additive disrupts the life cycle of horn fly larvae in manure.

Horn flies can cause “blind quarters” and reduce milk intake by beef calves because horn flies may carry S. aureus, a major cause of mastitis. Research at Louisiana State University and the University of Georgia indicates that 75 percent of all heifers have mastitis before they have a calf.

The irritation and reduced milk intake from horn fly infestation can cause 20-25 pounds lower weaning weights as compared to cows treated with Altosid^®. With calf prices at $200/cwt. the lost weight can dramatically decrease the income of cow/calf producers.

There is also an impact on these weaned calves as they grow. Horn flies can reduce gains on yearlings grazed on pasture by 30-35 pounds per season. With feeder cattle prices in the $170/cwt. range, reducing horn flies in 2016 can result in an extra $50 to $60 per head while the additional cost of feeding an IGR VitaFerm^® mineral with Altosid^® is only about $8 per head more than a general VitaFerm mineral.

Q. HOW CAN I TELL IF I HAVE A HORN FLY PROBLEM?

A. Horn flies are an ectoparasite and tend to stay on the backs and sides of animals throughout the day. Despite their name, horn flies do not congregate on the horn and head area. Horn flies are about half the size of the common housefly and lay eggs exclusively in fresh manure.

Q. WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO CONTROL HORN FLIES?

A. Most horn fly control strategies require you to either gather cattle on a regular basis for treatment or replenish the various systems that dispense products for horn fly control (dust bags, backrubbers, etc.). While these methods are labor-intensive, an insect growth regulator (IGR) allows you to provide horn fly control right in your feed or minerals, letting cattle do the work.

Q. WHEN SHOULD I BEGIN USING AN IGR PRODUCT, AND WHEN WILL I SEE RESULTS?

A. It depends on where you live, but 30 days prior to the last frost is the standard recommendation. You can start later, but you will definitely need to incorporate a knock down spray to kill adults that will be present if you choose to start later in the fly season. To effectively break the horn fly life cycle, a feed-through program utilizing Altosid^® IGR Feed-Thru requires three to four weeks for significant reduction in adult horn fly numbers.

Q. I USE THE PRODUCT BUT I STILL SEE A LOT OF FLIES. WHY?

A. What you may be seeing are fly species other than the horn fly. The horn fly will only lay its eggs in fresh manure patties. Other fly species such as the common house fly, face fly and stable fly will lay eggs in any damp, decaying material such as sewage, near stagnant water or in old silage. Another reason might be lack of (mineral) consumption. Don’t let your mineral feeders run out! It only takes a few days without Altosid^® for the level in the manure to drop below effective levels.

Q. HOW DOES ALTOSID^® IGR FEED-THRU WORK?

A. Horn flies lay eggs in manure. After the eggs hatch, larvae (maggots) must molt as they grow. During molting, insects produce biochemicals to aid in the growth process. As the final growth stage, the pupal stage, occurs, the IGR provides a jolt of extra biochemical that interrupts the growth process. As a result, adult flies never develop from the pupal stage.

Q. IF I’M USING ALTOSID^® BUT MY NEIGHBOR ISN’T, WILL I STILL GET  FLY CONTROL?

A. The horn fly will not migrate. The female only leaves the host animal to travel a very short distance to the fresh cow patty, lay her eggs, and immediately return to the animal. Therefore, there is little opportunity for your neighbor’s horn fly population to cross over to your herd. Obviously, if there is shared shade or water along the fence line, there will be some cross over, but not significant.

Q. CAN I USE AN IGR WITH OTHER HORN FLY CONTROL PRODUCTS?

A. Yes. A complete program should include face fly control, along with adulticide products, depending on the level of initial infestation.

Q. HOW DOES THE VETERINARY FEED DIRECTIVE AFFECT IGR?

A. Products that contain antibiotics such as CTC (Chlortetracycline) are regulated by the FDA. In January 2017 all products that contain an antibiotic will require a prescription under the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD). Since, many of our stock products contain CTC and IGR these products will require a VFD. Those products that do not contain an antibiotic, but do contain IGR will NOT fall under the VFD, but they will have to be registered with a state before product can be sold into that state. BioZyme is working on this process and will have more information in the coming months.

Q. WHAT STOCK PRODUCTS DOES BIOZYME OFFER WITH IGR?

A.   VitaFerm Cattlemen’s Blend IGR & CTC 1.4G
       VitaFerm Concept•Aid^® 5/S IGR & CTC 1.4G

A product must appeal to the senses to encourage one to eat it. Humans can be convinced verbally that something is good for them to eat even if it doesn’t taste so good. However, livestock can be very selective about what they decide to eat, and we can’t talk them into anything.

There are two potentially different perceptions of palatability, one being that of the producer or owner and the second being that of the animal. Owners tend to focus on smell and looks, while animals focus more on smell and taste.

Simply put, if the animal won’t eat the product, it doesn’t do the animal, the owner, the dealer or BioZyme^® any good. As a BioZyme dealer, you should feel confident that you are representing products that have been tested and evaluated on an on-going basis for palatability and consumption.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of BioZyme’s testing of product palatability and consumption occurs at the company’s research farm, Winding River. Since its purchase in 2012, we have been able to utilize our own cattle, horses, sheep, pigs and goats to test products. This allows us to see first-hand how animals react to our products before they go into the field.

This type of testing is going on right now with the Concept•Aid^® Goat mineral. After receiving some feedback about low consumption, our team reformulated the product. Simultaneously, the Farm purchased a small herd of goats. The new formulation is now being fed to each goat, and consumption is being tracked daily. After three weeks we will either know the new formulation’s consumption is on track, or we will need to reformulate and start the test over again. Either way, the product won’t go into the field until it passes the Farm test. While testing does take some time to accomplish, we believe it is time well spent.

The next way consumption and palatability are monitored comes straight from the field. All of our Area Sales Managers submit weekly call logs that report the details of each call they make. In these logs, product information is routinely reported back to us from dealers and producers. The nutrition team reads these reports each week looking for any palatability or consumption issues. We take these findings very seriously and follow all up with a phone call if there is any concern or education needed. In addition, a company database houses these call logs. This allows our nutritionist team to search for key words in the database like consumption, intake and palatability in a six-month period to look for any trends that might need to be addressed.

When it comes to making a palatable product, the company does have a few trade secrets. We reserve space in the product formulas for specie specific palatability. Sheep, goats and swine do not like dried distillers grains but cattle love DDGs. So, we use dried distillers grains for cattle formulas, and for sheep, we use soybean meal and extruded soy.

Salt is a dynamic ingredient for palatability in sheep, goats and cattle. We also use high-intensity sweeteners to change and mask bitter flavors. Licorice is a good example of a flavor that will entice the animal away from green grass and lead the animal to consume mineral. Swine and equine products are more commonly hand-fed so we might use fruit, berry and vanilla flavors to make the product more palatable for them.

The bottom line is that BioZyme focuses on palatability. No matter what, the animal still has to want to eat it or there’s no point in putting the product in the feeder. When you open a bag, jar or container you have to like the smell. The animal wants the same thing.