Over the past decade, bovine congestive heart failure (BCHF) has emerged as one of the biggest threats to the health and productivity of cattle on feed.

Travis Lutz, with his wife, Pam; and father, Jim, has been working on his family farm and ranch for more than 40 years. He is a fourth-generation owner of the operation in Dundy County, Nebraska, tucked in the corner of the state near the Kansas and Colorado borders.

Heart failure has been emerging as an increasingly important disease in feedlot cattle. There are many causes of heart failure in cattle, including exposure to low oxygen levels at high elevations, bacterial infections of the heart muscle and toxins that affect cardiac function.