For these stocker operations, adding immunity increases value, lessens risk
Straightening out southeastern calves is a specialty for Rob Rackley of Camilla, Georgia, and Eldon Fry of Quitman, Arkansas. These stocker operators are different but alike in a lot of ways: they increase value by improving immune and health status of customer-owned calves.
Worthwhile investments
Weaning and vaccinating calves often isn’t considered a priority for many southeastern cattle operations. Most Georgia calves head west, out of state, with the exception of a few people like Rob Rackley who keep calves local until they’re ready for the next segment.
Rackley, of Rackley Livestock, has been order buying, preconditioning, and selling cattle in load-lots for 30 years in southwestern Georgia. “In our area, cattle are worth a lot more in uniform load-lots than they are one at a time, and if they’ve had all of their value-added vaccinations,” he explains.
Midwestern feedlots desire “safe cattle” that will hold their health, meaning they are weaned, have had all vaccinations, including respiratory, are bunk-broke, and in uniform load lots. This is where Rackley comes in; he’s adding value to cattle that are being transported any distance.
Cattle are primarily purchased at southwest Georgia and southern Alabama sale barns. He fully preconditions some of the cattle he buys for customers, while others are given preliminary vaccinations and sent on. Heavier cattle go out to Midwest feeders, while lighter cattle are sent in load lots to farmer-customers within a 100-mile radius. They grow the calves and Rackley helps with the resale.
He buys and preconditions around 3,000 head each year, mostly all heifer calves weighing from 250 to 600 pounds (lbs.). In doing so, he knows what health protocols and products work in the field, and uses a number of AgriLabs products, including RESPOND™ Cattle Drench and Titanium®.
On their first round, calves at Rackley Livestock receive a dose of RESPOND, Titanium 5, a 7-way blackleg, an antibiotic, and are dewormed and poured.
They’ll be brought back in as they start breaking, usually at 8 to 10 days, and revaccinated with Titanium 5 and given AgriLabs’ Twin-Pen®long-lasting penicillin. Rackley explains that it’s very humid in southern Georgia which is tough on calves.
The penicillin and the second vaccine are to cover the calves at a time when they may be at risk to break with disease. “Normally they straighten right up,” he says, adding, “We medicate through the chute, not in feed or water.
”They know right away if their program, which is meant to prevent and control disease, is working or not. “One thing we’re never hard-headed about is when we’re sorting and pulling cattle. If one man says an animal doesn’t feel good, he’s pulled. There’s no argument because prevention is much cheaper than having sick cattle.”
Rackley confirms their preventative process works for them. “If something gets to where it doesn’t work, we change.
”Regarding pasteurella, he says, “Our theory is pasteurella is a secondary disease. If we can control IBR and BVD through proper vaccination, we don’t get it.”
To control respiratory viruses, Rackley finds modified-live-virus Titanium a smoother vaccine that isn’t as stressful on the cattle. He admits they’ve tried a number of different viral respiratory vaccines. “But they were just too harsh,” meaning stronger sweats and cattle that just looked challenged.
Of using RESPOND he says, “I think the RESPOND increases their appetite and makes them feel good.” He reports its price-point is substantially lower versus VitaCharge. “It perks them up and it’s about equal as far as the quick boost I get.” He says anything that helps make calves go to feed is a worthwhile investment.
Critiquing, comparing, changing
West of Georgia, in north central Arkansas, is Eldon Fry, a custom preconditioner who is a big believer in the benefits of a drench product so much that some five years ago he was making his own.
“I’ve always thought that calves needed something to kick the gut back in because of this stress. You can put medication into a receiving ration but if the calf’s not going to eat, it’s not going to do any good. So I like to put the drench in the calf when he comes through the chute the first time.”
Fry began custom preconditioning at his location just north of Little Rock in 1999 with calves all purchased directly from sale barns in the Southeast. Before this he managed two different large cow-calf operations for 22 years.
In Fry’s business, he annually deals with 8,000-10,000-head of high-risk calves whose immune systems haven’t been prepared for the 6- to 10-hour truck ride to Arkansas from southeastern states such as Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama.
He receives calves from the upper 3’s to the mid 5-weights, and grazes them for 45 to 50 days before
they go on to feedlots or stocker operations.
Newly received calves are rested for about 18-24 hours before they’re processed. A temperature is taken on each calf through the chute. “That’s one thing I do that a lot of people don’t,” Eldon comments. “Then we treat what’s sick; we don’t mass treat.
“We vaccinate with Titanium 5, use a pasteurella, drench with RESPOND, deworm, and I.D. the cattle.”
Fry explains he was using another drench product, but began using RESPOND after seeing its literature and contacting his AgriLabs sales representative.
“I’ve been using it quite a bit since last fall. It seems like it stays down the calf better than the other product – you don’t see the runback at the chute. It’s just an easier product to use with a lot less waste.”
He says that calves are going to feed and eating well. “From what I’ve seen, I like the way the product works. I think the Zymace™ is making the rumen kick back in on these stressed cattle, and getting them eating much quicker.”
He also likes the copper, manganese, and other micronutrients found in this product. “It seems like there is a copper deficiency in a lot of the cattle coming out of the East,” he comments. Plus he RESPONDs calves if they’re repulled and given antibiotics.
All calves are revaccinated anywhere from 10 to 18 days later, when showing signs they’re starting to break. “We let the calves dictate that,” Fry shares. “We temp everything again, revac and treat what needs to be treated.” Around day 30, calves are dehorned and re-evaluated.
His preconditioning system, Fry says, has been critiqued and changed over his 11 years in business. “I’m not one to stick with old things. I like new products; I like to change things if they need to be changed. I’m not stuck in one rut that I’m going to do no matter what.”
But he has stuck with Titanium for nearly 10 years. “To me, it is the safest and easiest IBR, PI3, BVD vaccine out there. I’ve tried the intranasals and several other new products that came out, and I didn’t see the results. I basically had some wrecks that I didn’t like and I switched back to Titanium.
”Given the large numbers Fry puts through the chute, he’s able to compare products on groups of different calves. He already vaccinates for pasteurella, and is thinking about trying PULMO-GUARD®, the vaccine line newest to the AgriLabs lineup.
His take on a pasteurella vaccine: “I think it’s just something that they need. A lot of people say they’ve already been exposed to it going through the sale barn, but I still think it works.”
Last year Fry had less than 1.5% death loss on five different customers’ calves. He says it was one of his best years yet, a credit to his management, health protocols, and product choices.