Feedlot Processing and Arrival Cattle Management
Preface Managing Feeder Cattle Health t h e Fi r s t 3 0 D a y s o n F e e d
Daniel U. Thomson, DVM, PhD Brad J. White, DVM, MS Editors
Beef cattle health and well-being are important to providing a safe, wholesome beef product to the dinner table of the beef consumer. While feedlot cattle health can be influenced by many aspects outside the control of the farmer, rancher, and veterinarian, we must strive to develop practices that prevent disease occurrence and enhance cattle treatment outcomes. The two reasons cattle get sick are an overwhelming dose of a pathogen, a suppressed immune system, or a combination of the two. From the time the cattle step off the truck until they are moved onto the finish ration in their home pen, there are many health management practices that can be employed to minimize cattle stress and improve cattle health. This publication has brought feedlot experts across the United States and Canada together to discuss the management of feedlot cattle health. It is important to understand the difference cattle management prior to arrival can make on health outcomes and prearrival management related to tailoring animal health programs at the feedlot. Veterinarians need to consider the animals (age, prior management, commingling), management (labor, nutrition, pen space), weather or climate, animal behavior and outcomes (food safety, antibiotic residue avoidance, animal well-being), and much more when developing herd health and individual animal programs. A large focus of this publication discusses how to develop protocols and manage cattle through the feedlot production phase. The pendulum of food animal veterinary medicine continues to swing from population to individual animal solutions, and then back again. The population is representative of the collective individuals. However, the issues surrounding food animal production can be influenced by the geographical region to the farm to the pen to the individual animal. All levels are important factors in decision-making for a veterinarian. Nutrition and cattle comfort are managed in a group (pen) setting, but individual animals succumb to metabolic and environmental conditions.
Vet Clin Food Anim 31 (2015) xi–xii http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cvfa.2015.05.001 vetfood.theclinics.com 0749-0720/15/$ – see front matter Ó 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
xii
Preface
Keeping cattle healthy, providing a safe and secure beef supply, and sustaining our natural resources are important aspects to a sustainable beef production system. Beef cattle health and well-being are a cornerstone to all beef operations. We hope this issue of the Veterinary Clinics of North America: Food Animal Practice serves the beef cattle veterinarians, ranchers, and feedlot operators in their business. Daniel U. Thomson, DVM, PhD Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology College of Veterinary Medicine Kansas State University 1800 Denison Avenue Manhattan, KS 66506, USA Brad J. White, DVM, MS Department of Clinical Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine Kansas State University 1800 Denison Avenue Manhattan, KS 66506, USA E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D.U. Thomson) [email protected] (B.J. White)
Preface Managing Feeder Cattle Health t h e Fi r s t 3 0 D a y s o n F e e d
Daniel U. Thomson, DVM, PhD Brad J. White, DVM, MS Editors
Beef cattle health and well-being are important to providing a safe, wholesome beef product to the dinner table of the beef consumer. While feedlot cattle health can be influenced by many aspects outside the control of the farmer, rancher, and veterinarian, we must strive to develop practices that prevent disease occurrence and enhance cattle treatment outcomes. The two reasons cattle get sick are an overwhelming dose of a pathogen, a suppressed immune system, or a combination of the two. From the time the cattle step off the truck until they are moved onto the finish ration in their home pen, there are many health management practices that can be employed to minimize cattle stress and improve cattle health. This publication has brought feedlot experts across the United States and Canada together to discuss the management of feedlot cattle health. It is important to understand the difference cattle management prior to arrival can make on health outcomes and prearrival management related to tailoring animal health programs at the feedlot. Veterinarians need to consider the animals (age, prior management, commingling), management (labor, nutrition, pen space), weather or climate, animal behavior and outcomes (food safety, antibiotic residue avoidance, animal well-being), and much more when developing herd health and individual animal programs. A large focus of this publication discusses how to develop protocols and manage cattle through the feedlot production phase. The pendulum of food animal veterinary medicine continues to swing from population to individual animal solutions, and then back again. The population is representative of the collective individuals. However, the issues surrounding food animal production can be influenced by the geographical region to the farm to the pen to the individual animal. All levels are important factors in decision-making for a veterinarian. Nutrition and cattle comfort are managed in a group (pen) setting, but individual animals succumb to metabolic and environmental conditions.
Vet Clin Food Anim 31 (2015) xi–xii http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cvfa.2015.05.001 vetfood.theclinics.com 0749-0720/15/$ – see front matter Ó 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
xii
Preface
Keeping cattle healthy, providing a safe and secure beef supply, and sustaining our natural resources are important aspects to a sustainable beef production system. Beef cattle health and well-being are a cornerstone to all beef operations. We hope this issue of the Veterinary Clinics of North America: Food Animal Practice serves the beef cattle veterinarians, ranchers, and feedlot operators in their business. Daniel U. Thomson, DVM, PhD Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology College of Veterinary Medicine Kansas State University 1800 Denison Avenue Manhattan, KS 66506, USA Brad J. White, DVM, MS Department of Clinical Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine Kansas State University 1800 Denison Avenue Manhattan, KS 66506, USA E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D.U. Thomson) [email protected] (B.J. White)
