New Large Animal Newsletter Available!!

Included in this newsletter is the latest data from calving season, tips on getting ready for breeding season, information on our equine packages, and an article on udder scoring cattle. Just copy and paste the following link to your browser, or the title of this post to get the newsletter!!

http://www.twinforksclinic.com/newsletter/2009/march_319.pdf

Upcoming Bull Sales!!

These are some of the upcoming bull sales from our clients!

2/28/2009 Wilson Brothers Angus


4/2/2009 Kavli Cattle Company Angus

First Live Calf of 2009 at Twin Forks Clinic-Wray

The Doctors and Staff would like to congratulate Bruce Prentice on the fist live calf born at the Twin Forks Vet Clinic for 2009. Dr. Rodney Auffet delivered a Heifer calf on January 26, 2009 at 6:30 pm weighing in at 85#. Bruce received a cooler full of essentials for the calf and himself. A drenching bottle and Colostrum for the calf, cups for coffee, cap, vest, gloves to keep Bruce warm, Gatorade and trail mix to munch on during the long nights checking his cows.

Passive Immune Status within 24 Hours of Birth and Long-term Health and Performance of Calves

You have heard the warning: “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas!!!” Perhaps you have not heard: “What happens in the first 24 hours, impacts the rest of a calf’s life”! Veterinary scientists, while with the USDA experiment station at Clay Center, Nebraska monitored health events and growth performance in a population of range beef calves in order to identify associations of production factors with baby calf passive immune status.
Blood samples were collected at 24 hours after calving from 263 crossbred calves to determine the amount of passive maternal immunity that had been obtained from colostrum. Colostrum is the first milk produced by a cow upon giving birth. The baby calves were classified with “Inadequate” or “Adequate” Passive Immune status based on that blood sample at 24 hours of age. Growth performance and health events in the study population were monitored from birth to weaning, and after weaning throughout the feedlot phase.
The lowest levels of passive immunity were observed among calves that were sick or died prior to weaning. Calves with “inadequate” passive immunity had a 5.4 times greater risk of death prior to weaning, 6.4 times greater risk of being sick during the first 28 days of life, and 3.2 times greater risk of being sick any time prior to weaning when compared to calves with “adequate” passive transfer. Based on 24 hour proteins (most of which are antibodies or immunoglobulins) in the blood, the risk of being sick in the feedlot was also three times greater for “Inadequate” compared to “Adequate” calves. Passive immune status was also indirectly associated with growth rates through its effects on calf health. Sickness during the first 28 days of life was associated with a 35 pound lower expected weaning weight. Respiratory disease in the feedlot resulted in a .09 lb lower expected average daily gain.
Thus, passive immunity obtained from colostrum was an important factor determining the health of calves both pre- and post-weaning, and indirectly influenced calf growth rate during the same periods. Therefore, the cow calf producers can help themselves and the future owners of their calves, by properly growing replacement heifers, providing a good health program for cows and heifers, and providing natural or commercial colostrum replacers to calves that do not receive it in adequate quantities on their own. Remember that most of the transfer of antibodies from colostrum to the calf happens in the first 6 hours. The first day sets the stage for the rest of his life. (Source: Wittum and Perino. 1995. Amer. Jour. Of Vet. Research. 56:1149.)
January 25th, 2009
Dr. Glenn Selk, Professor-Animal Reproduction Specialist
Animal Science - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK

First Live Calf of 2009 at Twin Forks Clinic-Benkelman!!

For the last few years, the staff at Twin Forks Clinic in Benkelman has had a contest for the first live calf of the year. This year's winner was a bull calf owned by Joe and Mary Birge of Benkelman, out of a 7 year old black white face cow. Weighing 98 pounds, the winner was brought into the world on January 24th, with the assistance of Dr. Rod Auffet. The prize for the first born calf was a bucket containing necessary calving items such as a drench bottle, colostrum replacer, calving book, and of a course a coffee cup, Mountain Dew and a warm vest to help keep the calves caretakers warm and energized.

Change in Office Hours at TFC-Benkelman

Starting 2/7/2009, Twin Forks Clinic in Benkelman will be open on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. in preparation for calving season!! Our office hours will revert back to 8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on 4/25/2009

The December Large Animal Newsletter is Available!!

The latest Large Animal Newsletter is available online at:

http://www.twinforksclinic.com/newsletter/2008/December_31.pdf

Included in this newsletter is the preg check summary for 2008, 10 Ways to Save Money on Cow/Calf Nutrition, and an excellent article on preventing and controlling scours

Spring Trade Show

Twin Forks Clinic
Trade Show

Twin Forks Clinic will be hosting a Spring Veterinary Trade Show. It will give producers the opportunity to learn about new and existing products for the approaching calving and branding seasons. Drug company representatives will be available to discuss products. Twin Forks Veterinarians will be present to aid in matching products and plans to meet your needs. A booking program is available with savings for the producer.

This event will take place at: City of Wray Round House
245 4th Street
Wray, Colorado

Wednesday

January 21, 2009
12:00 PM until 4:00 PM MST
Lunch will be provided.

If you are unable to attend please call or stop by either of our clinics by January 31, 2009 to discuss your spring needs and take advantage of the booking discounts.

Your Sponsors will be:
Twin Forks Clinic

MWI
Ft. Dodge
SolidTech
Bayer
Pfizer
Intervet Schering-Plough
Boehringer Ingelheim
AgriLabs
Merial

Tri-State Cow/Calf Symposium

Be sure to stop at our booth at the Tri-State Cow/Calf Symposium, Saturday, January 3rd in the Kitzmiller Auditorium at the Wray High School in Wray Colorado! For more information on the Trade Show click on the link below:

http://www.csubeef.com/files/events/cow-calf_symposium_brochure.doc

Happy Holidays!!!

The Doctors and Staff at Twin Forks Clinic in Benkelman and Wray wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

Estimating the Amount of Grain Left in the Field

Estimating the Amount of Grain Left in the Field
Estimating the amount of corn down in a field helps producers determine a grazing strategy. An 8" ear of corn contains about .5 pound of corn grain, therefore 112, 8" ears would equal 1 bushel. By counting the number of ears the amount of corn left can be estimated. If the corn is planted in 30" rows, count the number of ears in three different 100 ft. furrow strips and divide by two to get an approximate number of bushels per acre. Small ears and broken ears should be counted as half ears, while very large ears would count as 1.5.

If the corn is planted in 36" rows, then count the number of ears in three different 100' furrows and divide by 1.66. Any amount beyond 8-10 bushels per acre will require a well planned grazing strategy to ensure that too much grain is not consumed.

Grazing Cornstalks with High Corn Droppage

Now that the corn has finally dried down and producers are able to get cattle to cornstalks, we have had a few questions on how to manage stalks that have had lots of corn droppage. According to Staff at UNL, there are several strategies you can use when grazing Cornstalk fields with excess grain. These include...

-graze yearling cattle or calves first then follow with older cows

-graze cull cows destined for slaughter first, the follow them with the main herd

-short term graze (only a few hours per day)

-increase the stocking rate to reduce grain intake per animal

-divide the field into strips with power fence using polywire and fiberglass posts, forcing cows to consume some husks and leaves along with the ears of corn, this will reduce founder potential.

You can also fill the cows up with hay or other forages before allowing them to graze cornstalks.

UNL has put together a very good publication on grazing crop residues, you can find it at http://www.twinforksclinic.com/kevin/ec278.pdf Just copy and paste the link in your browser or just click the headline for this post and you will be directed to that publication.

Calculating Grazing Time on Cornstalks

Now that the corn is finally drying down, most producerers are getting cattle out to stalks.Here is a method of calculating the number of grazing days on a field of cornstalks. According to Dr. Rick Rasby at UNL, crop residue is related to grain yield. With high producing hybrids, there should be about 16 pounds of dry leaf and husk per bushel corn yield per acre.
Therefore, if a field produces 160 bushel/acre, then there should be about 2560 pounds of dry leaf and husk residue per acre. Now some of that residue disappears due to trampling and other factors so figure about 50% utilization, which leaves us with about 1280 pounds of grazable residue per acre.
Now we can convert our pounds of grazable residue to AUMs. An AUM (Animal Unit Month) is the amount of forage that is required to maintain a 1000-pound cow or equivalent for one month. It has been determined, that a 1000-pound cow will consume about 680 pounds of dry matter monthly. Therefore, this particular field will provide 1.88 AUMs/acre. If this field is 125 acres, then there is a total of 235 AUMs available for grazing in this field.
Now let’s assume we are planning on grazing 100 head of gestating cows on this field, we need to calculate the number of days that they can graze this field. Let’s assume the average weight of these cows is 1360. That means that each one of these cows requires 1.36 AUMs per month. Therefore, a total of 136 AUMs is required to feed this herd for a month. This field has 235 AUMs available for grazing so it should last about 1.72 months or 52 days.
Keep in mind that this calculation is just a starting point and is in no way a substitute for actual observation of residue disappearance. This calculation also does not figure in loss in stalk quality due to deteriorating weather conditions or just simply the natural deterioration that occurs over time.
There is also an Excel spreadsheet available for download online at http://agmanagerstools.com. Not only does this spreadsheet calculate the available grazing days using the same equation, but it also takes into account, the cost of the stalks, the cost of transporting the cattle to stalks, and the costs involved with checking the cattle and water. Kevin L. Cawthra, Animal Scientist, Twin Forks Clinic INC

Latest Large Animal Newsletter Available

The latest Large Animal newsletter will not be mailed until Monday, but you can see it here at www.twinforksclinic.com/newsletter/2008/June_30.pdf

2008 Twin Forks Clinic Trade Show

Trade Show 2008
Mark your calendars now for Saturday, August 16th. Twin Forks Clinic will once again be having it's trade show. Producers will have the opportunity to talk to various drug reps and book the products that you will need for the weaning, preg checking and calving seasons in the months to come.

It will be held Saturday, August 16th, 2008 at the Benkelman
Community Building at 908 Huron Street from 10:00 A.M. till 2:00 P.M.
MT. Lunch will be served. Sponsors will be available to discuss products specifically. This trade show will be informative and offer you the ability to order some of your products for the fall at a cost savings.

Your sponsors will be:

Twin Forks Clinic
Pfizer
Intervet
Schering-Plough
Norvartis
Fort Dodge
Boehringer Ingelheim
Newport Labs
AgriLabs
Bayer Animal Health

Hope to see you there!!