When fed aggressively, beef-on-dairy calves are hard to differentiate from native beef cattle by an untrained eye; however, these calves tend to be plagued with a fairly high incidence of liver abscesses, and this occurrence was the basis for our investigation.

I have a riddle for you: If you have too much or too little, you worry about it constantly, but if you have the right amount you don’t think about it at all. What is it?

A lot of producers still have questions about the efficacy of many feed additives, but these products could put extra dollars in your pocket when you market your cattle. 

Recent research suggests that beef-on-dairy steers fed a low-starch total mixed ration at a younger age will continue to increase in feed intake and growth longer than those receiving different diets. 

Ranchers are constantly striving to maximize the productivity of their native rangeland, as raising and selling heavy and healthy calves is key to profitability. Helping producers enhance calf weight gain while maintaining the optimum body condition of the cow herd is critical to keeping operations profitable.

Stress on cattle is inevitable, but producers know the goal is to manage and mitigate the stresses animals experience, including transportation, weaning, parturition, dietary and nutritional changes, predation, commingling, vaccination, diseases and infections. 

The benchmark reports are interesting and folks tend to value them in different ways, but they are a little more than just a means to compare yourself with your neighbors or fuel a competitive spirit.