Confinement system for cow herd provides alternative housing opportunity

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The drylot confinement housing for cow/calf herds research project at the Orr Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center was initiated to answer cattlemen’s questions.

“Producers have been asking how to maintain or expand their cow herds,” said Travis Meteer, University of Illinois Extension beef cattle educator. “In the Midwest, land prices, land availability, drought and other issues influence producers 'decisions if they can maintain or expand cow numbers.”

The research project at the Orr Center is comparing a cow/calf herd housed in a drylot/confinement facility to a cow/calf herd on a pasture.

“Producers are using monoslopes, gable roof buildings or hoop structures for their herds,” Meteer said during the Cattlemen’s Education Series organized by the Illinois Beef Association. “At the Orr Center, we have a concrete drylot with a three-sided shed.”

In addition, the facility has a creep gate that allows the calves an escape area away from the cows and also provides the calves with their own shed, water and feed bunk.

“We feed corn stalks, co-products and corn delivered in a TMR,” Meteer said. “We limit feed the cows and feed the same TMR free choice to the calves.”

The trial is run from mid-May to mid-August. Researchers evaluate body condition scores on the cows, measure milk yield and observe behavior of the calves.

“The pasture cows tend to lose weight of 100 to 150 pounds, and the drylot cows maintained their weight,” Meteer said. “We did see numerical differences in foot issues with the drylot cows having more heel wart and foot rot. This is something we’re continuing to monitor and will gather more data.”

There was no statistical difference in the AI and pregnancy rates between the two groups, Meteer said, although there was a slight numerical advantage with the drylot cows for AI conception rates.

“The calves on pasture may be more independent and show less behavior stress at weaning than the drylot calves,” he said. “We were not expecting this, but those calves on pasture have the ability to venture further from mom and become more independent versus the drylot calves that are pretty close to mom.”

Immune System

Another U of I research project is evaluating the effects of injectable vitamin C at weaning of steer calves prior to transit.

“We wanted to investigate stress because not all stress is created equal,” said Josh McCann, U of I assistant professor. “If there is stress, it can increase susceptibility to disease and negatively impact growth performance.”

The experiment included two phases with 91 steers. For the first phase, half of the steers were give a control saline injection and the other half received a vitamin C injection.

The calves were early weaned at 65 days of age, weighing about 200 pounds and backgrounded for 45 days.

“For phase two, half of the control saline calves received a vitamin C injection and the other half a saline injection and we did the same thing with the vitamin C calves so that we ended up with four treatments,” McCann said. “The transit time was six hours and then we followed the calves for 56 days.”

The researchers found no effects on growth, feed efficiency or antibody titers at the end of phase one of the study and they did not see any effect on growth, feed intake or feed efficiency during phase two of the project.

“There is a lot we still need to learn in terms of opportunity for antioxidants to work, so we’re going to continue to research,” McCann said. “Some vitamins are very cost effective, so they could be used as a form of insurance if we understand the right ways to apply them.”

In The Blood

“Anaplasmosis is the most prevalent tick-borne disease of cattle worldwide,” said Yvette Johnson-Walker, a clinical instructor in the department of veterinary clinical medicine.

“The introduction of this disease into a naïve herd can result in almost a 4% reduction in the calf crop with an increase in cull rate of almost 30%.”

U of I researchers conducted a project to estimate the prevalence, distribution and economic impact of anaplasmosis on southern Illinois cattle herds.

“Anaplasmosis is controlled by culling any animals that are symptomatic,” Johnson-Walker said. “And with bio-safety procedures such as changing needles between animals when administering vaccines or antibiotics.”

There is a vaccine available for animals older than six months of age, Johnson-Walker said.

“The vaccine does not prevent infection; it reduces clinical signs,” she said. “Tetracycline can be added to the mineral mix, but it doesn’t prevent infection; it reduces clinical signs.”

Before testing the cattle, 73% of the producers indicated their herd had a previous history of anaplasmosis and they estimated losses of $4,500 per year from this disease.

The researchers collected blood samples from a random sample of 64 herds in 28 counties. A PCR test was used to test 1,193 animals.

“Of the animals sample, 61.3% were positive and 93% of the herds were positive,” Johnson-Walker said.

For more information about the Illinois Beef Association, go to: www.illinoisbeef.com.