Working for Grass Turnout

It’s warming up and grass season is upon us. Producers are almost as eager as the cows themselves for the day of pasture turnout. A little work beforehand can pay big dividends in health, production, and profits during the coming months.

Fly Control

Flies are the most common external parasite in cattle on grass. Flies can cause significant irritation to cattle, causing them to spend more time swatting flies and standing in the pond and less time grazing and resting. Flies can also be a carrier for the bacteria that cause pinkeye.  There are many things you can do to help prevent excess flies bothering your cattle on grass such as cattle rubs, treating pastures, and dietary additives. Here we will focus on two easy additions to your spring working regimen: pour-on insecticide products and insecticide-impregnated ear tags.

Pour-On: There are multiple insecticide pour-on options to help control flies. Some treat internal and external parasites while some are specific to only external parasites. These products are great for moderate term fly control but will not last the duration of the summer, so should be reapplied or used in conjunction with other fly control methods.

Fly tags: Ear tags impregnated with insecticide are a great addition to a fly control program. These tags provide extended duration fly protection. It is important that you rotate the type of fly tag annually to prevent development of resistance in the fly population to specific insecticides. We can help you decide what product will work best for you this summer.

Dewormer

Internal parasites can cause economic losses to the whole cow herd. Deworming cows before grass turnout will reduce the parasite load that will be spread in the pasture. Selective deworming of the thinnest and youngest cows can be beneficial to reduce resistance of parasites to the dewormers being used. Depending on the age of calves at turnout, deworming is likely not necessary. If calves are only suckling mothers and not themselves grazing yet, exposure to parasites is minimal and deworming is unnecessary.

Vaccines

Clostridial: Clostridial diseases such as blackleg and tetanus are a risk in any class of cattle. Vaccines have good protection against disease and are extremely cost effective. All calves should receive a clostridial vaccine before grass turnout, and either yearly or every-other-year in adult cattle.

Respiratory: Vaccination against respiratory diseases prior to grass turnout can set calves up for a lifetime of success. These calves will be exposed to pathogens from within your herd and fence line neighboring animals during the summer. Come fall weaning time, you won’t regret vaccinating these calves in the spring. Visit with us about what vaccine is best for your calves.

Reproductive: A reproductive vaccine can be administered to cows before grass turnout. Modified live vaccines should be administered to open cows when being administered for the first time. Many of these vaccines are effective against respiratory and reproductive pathogens. We’d be happy to help you decide if a modified live or killed vaccine would be best for your breeding stock.

Pinkeye: Pinkeye vaccination should be considered if this is a disease that routinely affects your herd. Two doses of a pinkeye vaccine are critical to help prevent this disease. The freeze-dried pinkeye implant that we recommend has an immediately released dose and a delayed-release dose contained within one implant making it a convenient vaccine to use. This can be used in adults and calves alike to reduce pinkeye lesions.

Other Management Considerations

Breeding Soundness Exam (BSE): Every bull should receive a yearly BSE before turnout with cows. This is key for reproductive success- live calves on the ground in the spring starts with cows getting bred in the summer. Even if a bull was fertile last year or when breeding fall cows an insult between seasons could have reduced semen quality. Several factors can cause a bull to have reduced fertility including illness, lameness, temperature extremes, age, or even unknown issues.

Banding/Cutting: Spring working is an ideal time to castrate bull calves that aren’t potential breeders. This can be done through banding or knife cutting with relatively little stress on the calf compared to waiting until later in life. Research has shown that calves that are castrated as babies and implanted, grow equally as well as calves that are not castrated until weaning. In addition, they will not have the shrinkage like calves castrated at weaning.

Implanting: There are multiple implants labeled for use in suckling calves for increased growth and feed efficiency. If the ultimate destination of your calves is slaughter, choosing not to implant at grass turnout is leaving pounds (and money) on the table. Some can negatively affect future reproductive abilities in heifers and bulls alike, so this should predominantly be used in calves destined for feeder animals. Bull calves left intact to be castrated in the fall should not receive an implant as this can inhibit scrotal growth and make castration difficult.