We Are Far From Experts.

 It often seems the more you learn about a topic the more realize how little you actually know. When faced with a problem we try to talk to someone who is more knowledgeable about the subject than us. By reaching out into our network of experts we can always come up with a solution to whatever issue we may be having. We hope by sharing our experience from just a few of our problems we can help someone else learn from them too. 

Holstein Calves.

In the beginning of our cattle feeding adventure, we would raise Holstein calves from about 200 pounds to 500 pounds. Initially, we were experiencing a 10% death loss, which is significantly higher than we wanted to be. We were just starting out and hadn't taken the time each day to walk pens and treat sick calves. Once we started dedicating an hour or two each day to cattle health we saw our death rate easily cut in half and often times we could keep even less from dying if they came from a good source.

Finishing Holsteins.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have our fat Holsteins. We've always strived to finish out Holsteins around 1450 pounds with them being shorter and thicker than your typical Holstein steer. This meant we needed to alter our rations and create a new one for Holsteins in the 500-800 pound range. We've also switched our implant program around a couple of times to figure out which ones performed the best for the money and worked well for us to give. By "test driving" a few different brands and analyzing the way the cattle look on each implant we have a series that works well for us and helps our cattle grow the way we want them to.

Incoming Beef Cattle.

This is the third year we've raised beef cattle on a large scale (for us anyway). We get the majority of our cattle from sale barns around the state. From Gaylord to Battle Creek our beef calves come from every corner of Michigan. This also means they bring in different pathogens from every corner of the state. Our arrival protocol has changed each year in an attempt to reduce the number of sick calves we treat. 

The first year we saw a massive outbreak of a very resistant strain of Mannheimia haemolytica. By talking extensively with our vet we devised a treatment and managed to get the disease back under control. It was sadly too late for a lot of calves and we had a death loss of double what we had planned for. The second year we changed our arrival protocol again and it seemed to work better. We had a death loss that was manageable but we ended up treating a lot more calves than we had hoped to.

This year we have an arrival protocol that we hoped is tailored to our precise needs. We vaccinate for diseases we see the most often and an antibiotic protocol ready for the first sick calf. We hope we've learned from our past two years and are able to have a treatment rate and a death rate that is lower than we've previously achieved. 

Learning From the Past.

Our goal is to always learn from our past experiences; we are always pushing ourselves to do better with the current group than we did with the past groups. Every year we are analyzing and second-guessing ourselves to come up with the best management practices we can use. We will know it's time to stop raising cattle when we stop learning new and better ways to work, treat, and manage our herd. By always learning we hope to improve each year and grow as cattle feeders in ways we can only currently imagine. Sometimes our problems are big, sometimes they are very small, but they always offer an opportunity for us to learn from.