New to rasiing cattle lost half??????

[Choo-Choo Ranch]

ok I am on my first year of trying to raise cattle and it is not going good at all. last fall I bought 20 cattle ranging from bottle feeders to a couple 500lb witch are the biggest. This winter I have lost half. I have had a vet comeout and do autopsys and nothing wrong was found. The vet said sometimes it happens but this is just unacceptable to me at least. so my question for you guys is is this normal? some have said I bought too small of cattle to make it thru the winter? is this true? any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. I am located in southern illinois and we have had a harsh winter but not as bad as up north where i know people rasie cattle i am djust feeling so bad that all these cattle are dieng not to mention the losing moneyt aspect.

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

Need more info:

1. Any history on the cattle? Where did you get them? All from one source? One herd? Sale barn?
2. Vaccination protocols?
3. Feed source is....
4. Water source is...
5. Any supplements given...
6. Pasture conditions, area they are kept -- was there anything kept on the land previously where you have them now?
7. Deaths -- within the first few days/weeks, one here and there, symptoms with death, actions taken before death?
8. Vet advice -- other than the necropsy was inconclusive (which most often they are)

Please give us a little more to work with and let's see what we can guess with.

 

[Choo-Choo Ranch]

yes they were all bought a local sale barn and I have them given shots when I buy them. I am not sure exactly what they get but I told the vet I wanted everything he could give them. $15 a head is the cost I know they get wormer and draxin( i think) they get other stuff too but not sure what.

I am feeding them all the hay they can eat(good alfalfa hay $40 round bale) and corn approx 5lbs/head per day.

they drink just water from the faucet i keep it heated so it does not freeze

I give them mineral salt licks

the pasture is dead now no winter grass and there were horses kept here before.

I had the cattle approx. 2 months before any started dying. they are dying a couple a month. when they die they go down and 6-12 hrs later they are dead. I have tried giving them LA 200 when they go down with no luck.


the vet checked for worms and they did have them so we dewormed them with pour on ivermectin. He also said that having cattle die like this is somewhat common? I find that hard to believe but he knows more than me. he is a cattle vet and seemed like he knew his stuff.

let me know if you need any other info I will be happy to provide what I can. thanks so much.

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

When you have had deaths... has it been right after a weather change? warmer to cold particularly? or say when you have a wet storm that comes in over night? the wet combined with the cold could lead to what I'm thinking (for the little tykes in your bunch) is quick pneumonia which can kill within 12 hours... you may want to have your vet give you a few syringes filled with Draxxin (prescription antibiotic) to have on hand (if he's willing) - if it is quick pneumonia that may help if you catch it in time.

As far as death rate goes, we only lose 1 or 2 a year on average (some years as high as 5, some years 0 loss) -- BUT, they are cow/calf pairs not bottle calves or feeders.

Anything else come to your mind about any similarities to weather patterns or the animals on these? Did they show other signs of distress prior -- droopy ears, bloat, diarrhea, anything? We don't feed anything except hay in the winter so I can't comment on quantity of corn per head you're feeding to know if that's too much too little (but as a ratio I know you don't want to exceed 1% of body weight so a 500 pound calf could get 5#... but not a 200# calf).

What type of worms did they have? Pour-on ivermectic won't get liver flukes -- you would need an injectable for that.

 

[Beckett]

In the last 10 years ive raised over 100 bottle babies. Over half of them came from a sale barn. Ive lost 3 in the last ten years and i live in Northern Il. In my honest opinion ide say you death ratio is unacceptable. I would concentrate on the live ones and have the vet start drawing blood and checking them if he cant give you an answer on the dead ones. You have something going on there. Youve come to the right place. Theres alot of knowlege floating around here. More than i could ever tell you.

Good luck,
Beckett

 

[Howdyjabo]

Stick to buying one type and size calf-- put them in all at once
Or better yet buy them preconditioned already grouped
Get a thermometer
Get harder hitting meds
Get a new vet

 

[larryshoat]

Stick to buying one type and size calf-- put them in all at once
Or better yet buy them preconditioned already grouped
Get a thermometer
Get harder hitting meds
Get a new vet

This is my advice as well, with one exception. I'm willing to give the vet the benefit of the doubt until I here his side of the story.

Larry

 

[Choo-Choo Ranch]

thanks for the answers. thye have been going down anytime cold weather comes all thought I had on e go down today and it was warm? thanks

 

[rockridgecattle]

Did your vet test the live ones and the dead ones for BVD or IBR? Start there get them tested. Sounds like you got a bunch of PI calves.
Did you booster your animals when required? This is important as well.
Some vaccines that have say, homophilis (sp) really need to be boostered. They all do infact

Did you use a modified live or a killed vaccine?
A modified live (ML) has a tendancy to get a PI animal sicker and insight death quicker. If these calves are PI calves, the vaccine will not help because they are already sick.
If an animal is a PI (persistantly infected) animal, stresses can be weather changes, feed changes, mineral problems, handling stresses can exasperate the problem and they get sick and die.
The basics of a PI calf are:
The mother was infected with BVD sometime during gestation. The mother (dam) was not protected by being vaccinated. The disease passed through the placenta infecting the calf. The calf is born weak, and gets sick easier. Scours, pnemonia etc. Most PI calves have a short life span, and can die at a drop of a hat, get sick just by looking at them wrong...so to speak...you get my point.
Poorly timed an poor quality colostrum at birth can have a serious affect on this as well.

The problem with PI calves is they shed the virus all the time through every opening of their body. So this raises the virus threshold in the area the animals are kept. If a calf is stressed, and if the threshold is beyond what they can handle, you will see alot of sickness and deaths.

The trick to prevent things like this are
Buy preconditioned calves
Buy from reputatable farmers
Buy from farmers who vaccinate the cows and bulls a minimum of 3 weeks prior to breeding and are on a good herd health program

Start testing for BVD and IBR, homophilis, etc...dead and alive

 

[jerry27150]

you should never lose that many, ask your extension man to hook you up with someone from a state university or call the university yourself & see if they can send someone out or give you some advice. or find a better vet, i have never heard one say this would be normal.

 

[Choo-Choo Ranch]

thanks so much for the replys I really appreciate all of your time, My vet did not test for anything. This is the only vet I could get to come out where i live i believe he is the only vet in the area. the heifer that went down yesterday is now dead. I am going to call the vet and ask about the suggestions given. I really am at a loss for words I just cant believe this is happening. my uncle has been raising cattle for years and always buys from the sell barn has no vaccines given and doesnt ever loose any. he even buys sick cattle and they get better. one more question can I feed these cattle 100% corn? I really want to get them fat since they are loosing condition. thanks.

 

[dun]

Since you know where the salbarn is, the best thing you can do is load up the healthy ones and haul them to it.

 

[Anonymous]

Recent purchases from the salebarn on 100% corn? They may have been open field cattle that the rumen isn't setup for grain yet. Could be going down with bloat

 

[Howdyjabo]

can I feed these cattle 100% corn? I really want to get them fat since they are loosing condition. thanks.

That would definitely take care of all your problems- they would ALL be dead

If your Uncle knows cattle why isn't he helping you?

 

[BRYANT]

My vet did not test for anything. This is the only vet I could get to come out where i live i believe he is the only vet in the area.

Easy fix load them up and take to vet take to another " area " if you have to
This is about the third subject started in the last few days that are all about the same "someone buys a bunch of cows and they are all dieing with somkind of a sickness that no one can figure out what it is not even a Vet." well the last post I said this and made some people mad but here I go just get mad !!!
You need to load up all of your stock take to the first sale barn you can find then get someone to help you buy about 3 head to kind of get the feal of what you are doing for a couple years . Times must not be to hard if all these people has all this extra money laying around to go out and buy 20 or 30 head of cattle and not even know anything about cattle just does'nt make much sence to me but there again I think some of these post they are just pulling peoples leg and they are just a joke and "this just may be one of them!"