“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Although Benjamin Franklin was referring to fire prevention when he wrote that phrase, the same phrase can have literal implications when it comes to saving pounds through scours prevention in calves.

Few seasons on the ranch inspire more optimism than calving time. With calf prices at historic highs, every live and healthy calf represents not just an animal, but a major financial asset.

Looking at optimizing the entire transition period may seem like a daunting task at first, but it gets easier when we break it down into three key time periods: 60 days pre-fresh, 30 days pre-fresh and 30 days post-fresh.

For cattle producers, feral swine aren’t just another wildlife species to be ignored or even tolerated. These wild pigs cut into profit margins, destroy land and threaten the livelihoods and buying power of landowners and consumers.

Hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) is a silent, confounding killer in dairy herds. It’s particularly stressful because the exact cause of HBS is unknown. There are few symptoms, it often impacts older high-producing cows, and it’s nearly always fatal. Often you don’t know a cow has HBS until it’s too late.

The challenge in controlling BRD is to identify and quantify the factors that account for the immunosuppression. This is easier said than done, since knowledge of biomarkers for quantification of stress is incomplete and chuteside implementation is not yet possible.

Many useful pharmaceutical products have been developed to treat BRD; however, effective implementation of a preventive strategy has been elusive. A further complication is the absence of an experimental model that replicates the most common clinical symptoms.

Cows crave consistency, and it’s imperative that we provide them with a consistent ration, using clean feed mixed properly and delivered at the same time every day.

A cutting-edge new feed additive from Quality Technology International is the only feed additive currently patented for inhibition of salmonella colonization in livestock and poultry.