lost cow

[fellersbarnoneranch]

Question wasn't directed to me, but since this is in the open forum...

Vaccination is VERY important to the health of your herd along with worming. Talk to a local vet for your specifics. What you plan on doing with your cattle makes some diference as well. Are you selling calves or raising steers to butcher?

Here, the whole herd gets lepto, blcckleg, ibr, pinkeye and wormer in spring

Fall the calves get 2 rounds in 2 weeks of all the above and cows/bulls get wormed.

Also, we keep our heifers who get a bangs shot after weaning from the vet. We usually do the rest ourselves.

 

[Farminlund]

A cow will NOT eat chicken be nice when it has real food available.

Simply not true.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

A cow will NOT eat chicken be nice when it has real food available.

Simply not true.

You mean if I dumped a pile of litter in the pasture, the cows will quit grazing grass and go to the litter?

 

[Jena]

Jena,
Do you vaccinate the cows? I'm trying to mimic someone else's successful practice.

What all inputs do you have into your herd aside from hay and grain?

Thanks,
Andrew

Yes, I vaccinate.

I also feed corn silage, which we also grow.

Jena

 

[Farminlund]

You mean if I dumped a pile of litter in the pasture, the cows will quit grazing grass and go to the litter?

Given your cows were not raised on litter as all of mine have - I doubt that many would eat it hardily (some might pick at it though). Our calves are exposed to it from a fairly young age & develop a liking that then makes them avid eaters as cows. Given free choice hay or stockpile fesue as sources for fiber, they will always finish their daily allotment of litter. Some rush from the hay or pasture to meet the tractor while others only come up later. I think like any other non-grass feed, some just love it while others never really seem to embrace it (I've seem some cows that just didn't like corn; I think because I only used it occassionally, thus not giving them that early exposure which allows for taste devopment). I know how true this is with people, just try getting an adult to eat a raw oyster for the first time!

 

[D.R. Cattle]

I love oysters with crackers and buckets of beer. No thanks on the turd omelette.

 

[Farminlund]

I love oysters with crackers and buckets of beer.

At least we have one thing we can both agree on!

 

[dun]

I love oysters with crackers and buckets of beer.

At least we have one thing we can both agree on!

I tried eating raw oysters 4 times. Actaully it was the same one 4 times. Everytime it got about a third of the way down it came back up. The last time it brought lunch with it. Guess I hadn't had enough beer yet.

dun

 

[btfakralc]

farminlund, all, chicken litter contains unproccessed chicken feed ingredients, am i correct? it is still a common practice for chicken feed to contain rendered rumenant remains, correct? i read this information on a vegan site that is trying to make the public aware of this and other questionable practices. they claim and i cannot dispute that it is only a matter of time for madcow to spread though these practices. most people that i know refuse to believe these practices even occur. what would happen to the beef market if 20-20 were to air a piece on this topic? doesn't seem worth it to me. i raise my own on grass so it hasn't effected my buying habits. but it will hurt us all if we have an outbreak of madcow or other high profile epidemic

 

[Campground Cattle]

A cow patty doesn't stand much of a chance with all the birds down here. Other than that I just don't think anything likes to eat a turd other than a sorry old potlicker dog every now and then. Hogs and such really only eat it if the cows are grain fed, then they like to pick the unprocessed grains from the pile. A cow will NOT eat chicken be nice when it has real food available.

Read an article a while back dogs and coyotes eat cow flop because they are craving folic acid.

 

[Farminlund]

farminlund, all, chicken litter contains unproccessed chicken feed ingredients, am i correct? it is still a common practice for chicken feed to contain rendered rumenant remains, correct?

In July, the FDA published in the "Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 134 / Wednesday, July 14, 2004 / Proposed Rules" the following:

Accordingly, FDA has tentatively concluded that it should propose removing SRMs (specific risk material) from all animal feed to adequately control the risks associated with cross contamination throughout feed manufacture and distribution and with intentional or unintentional misfeeding on the farm. FDA is currently working on a proposal to accomplish this goal.

In short, no ruminant remains to be included in any animal feed. Later in the document it asks:

17. If FDA were to prohibit SRMs from being used in animal feed, would there be a need to prohibit the use of poultry litter in ruminant feed? If so, what would be the scientific basis for such a prohibition?

The document also addresses the butchering process & it seems those recommendations have already gone into effect, as I took in a lame heifer this week & was cautioned that it must get to the kill cage under it's own power, in addition, I was required to providing documentation that the age of the animal was less than 30 months (otherwise special processing was warranted & increased cost to the customer). I do not know definitively if the use of processed ruminants in chicken feed has been abolished, but given the fact that the butchering recommendations have been adopted, I would assume so. Also, my broker was working with chicken companies to eliminate it from their feed to insure the use of liter as a cattle food source into the future, primarily from environmental concerns (disposal issues of large quantities of litter).

 

[Medic24]

Hey Farminlund, now I admit, I can feel for you, here in the mountains of western NC, we have to purchase ALL of our feed, and often even our hay from outside of the area, as we don't really have any farms geographicly large enuff to grow any real amount of feed or hay for that matter.. A few acres of flat land are usually reserved for houses and barns.

But, I do buy grain feed, and hay, it is not cheap, But still, I think i would draw the line at chicken doop. Sorry. But i do understand. I just wonder if the beef from these cattle taste anything like chicken?

And as for banning chitlins, and chicken gizzards.........no way......us poor folk have to eat ya know!
Wish I could afford yummmy fresh raw oysters, would love the taste of a cold Coors to go along with those oysters too, but because this is a 'dry' county that aint happening either. Darn.

 

[jerry27150]

i may be wrong ( was once) , but i thought after the bse case it was banned. one guy in alabama was crying cause he couldn't use it anymore & had to buy hay.

 

[jerry27150]

also one guy i knew fed dead cows he could get to hogs to keep his costs down but he had to truck them a long ways to sell cause anyone that knew about it wouldn't buy them. same thing with the ones that live near chicken barns. they get free for hauling dead chickens for their hogs but most don't want to eat them either. all about the same to me.

 

[Farminlund]

i may be wrong ( was once) , but i thought after the bse case it was banned. one guy in alabama was crying cause he couldn't use it anymore & had to buy hay.

You are correct in that the FDA initially announced it was proposing a ban on the use of chicken litter as cattle feed (Jan 04). At that time, they also had no plans of changing the feed practices for other animals (ie ruminants could still be fed to non-ruminants). To control cross contamination, they proposed separate feed processing equipment or special cleaning procedures when changing from non-ruminant to ruminant feeds. They also continued to allow litter as fertilizer on cattle pastures. As time progressed & investigations continued, they decided the risk for accidental or intentional cross contamination was too great to continue allowing ruminants to be utilized in ANY animal feed (thus the quote from the July Federal Register). This was also the route that Canada had announced it would follow. Given the recommended restriction on the use of processed ruminants in any feed, the proposed ban on using litter as cattle feed did not take effect as originally announced.

I sure hope this doesn't start up a new round of comments, but I did want to answer your question.

 

[jerry27150]

thank you much for clearing that up.