Feedlot owners and backgrounders across this country always have one question for me: “Is there anything new out there to combat mycoplasma?” While there are a couple of vaccines licensed for cattle, they do require multiple shots. Vaccines help, but focusing on decreasing stress and other diseases can limit mycoplasma infection. Mycoplasma comes in many […] Read more
Lower stress, lower mycoplasma
Animal Health: The secondary respiratory and joint disease can be limited with prevention
More cattle tags being retained
Animal Health: Tag makers continue to improve reliability of tags against harsh conditions
The national livestock identification system has been around for a good while now, close to 25 years. Through the system’s growing pains, lots of lessons have been learned and the system is being fine-tuned. Producers are deriving more and more benefit from using farm management systems linked to readers linked to scales, all based on […] Read more
Who will carry on AFAC’s work in Alberta?
The organization provided valuable services, including emergency livestock trailers
It is with sadness I heard about Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) closing its doors in Alberta after 30 years, which I would say is after 30 years of extreme good. The great thing was that it was animal welfare-based through and through and had all the production animal groups on its board. They all […] Read more
How to manage in a veterinarian shortage
Hauling an animal to a clinic is one solution, as are larger clinics with satellite sites
There’s huge talk about the shortage of veterinarians — especially large-animal, but also small-animal and emergency animal care. There was a recent announcement that the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) will raise the number of training seats to 100 from the current 50, when an expansion is completed next year. I would […] Read more
Use an NSAID for the right reasons
Mitigating pain makes sense in many areas of cattle production
Pain medication may be accompanied by treatment with antibiotics, but sometimes this is unnecessary. If your veterinarian prescribes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for pain, he or she may choose one based on label claim, experience in the field, price per treatment, duration of activity, ease of administration, advice of associates or slaughter withdrawal. There are […] Read more
Vet product licensing process needs improvement
Canada can miss out on products that take too long or cost too much to register
Having been both a licensed veterinary practitioner and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for several years, I have seen a few things about how the product-licensing process affects the production animal industry in Canada. While every situation is unique, the process can indirectly affect cost of production in some cases, while in others access is […] Read more
Second year for scours vaccine shortage
Animal Health: Preventing disease is always a good place to start
We live in a world where vaccinology has been one of the mainstays of disease prevention in livestock in general — producers definitely rely on it. This year, one of the main scour vaccines has been absent in the marketplace for the second straight year. There are alternative products, but their use may mean tweaking […] Read more
Cattle producers need to support CCA on ‘a bad deal’
UK should be kept out of trade agreement until it accepts Canadian meat products
Editor’s note: Earlier this year it was announced that the Canadian government was considering a plan for the United Kingdom to join a major international trade agreement known as the Comprehensive Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The move has raised the ire of the Canadian meat industry, which has been angry for years over […] Read more
Banding can be used for more than castration
Properly applied, it’s a safe alternative to surgery, provided veterinary advice is followed
The Callicrate bander was developed for a safe, blood-free method of castrating larger bull calves in both the beef and dairy industries. It’s a procedure that producers and processing crews can be trained to do, but veterinarians in some clinics still do lots of castrations with the bander or by other surgical methods. We know […] Read more
The pros and cons of pasturing species together
Thoughts about running cattle, bison, sheep, horses et cetera on the same piece of land
It can be a challenge to weigh the benefits and risks of running species such as beef cattle, sheep, bison and horses together on the same pastures, especially if feed is short. The pros and cons can be difficult for you and your veterinarian to address. While usually it is not a problem, there can […] Read more
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