Cattle handling – Arizona Beef Blog

Arizona cattle farmers and ranchers have many tools to keep the animals in their care healthy and safe, including nutrition programs, veterinary care, facilities that ensure comfort, and good management practices, such as low-stress handling, vaccines and antibiotics, when necessary. No matter the tool, when it comes to animal health, the practices are science-based, regulated and, above all, good for the animal and the consumer.

HOW DO RANCHERS KEEP CATTLE HEALTHY?

Arizona farmers and ranchers work diligently to manage their cattle for optimum health. It begins with proper nutrition. Whether out on grass or in a feedyard, cattlemen work with nutritionists to make sure the cattle are receiving the right balance of energy, protein, vitamins and minerals to keep them healthy. Cattlemen also work with their veterinarian to determine the disease risks their cattle may face and develop a “herd health plan” to minimize those risks.

LOW STRESS HANDLING METHODS CONTINUE TO EVOLVE

The Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program helps to ensure the consumer, the animal, the environment and the beef community are cared for within guidelines and regulation. BQA is a program that provides information to U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers along with beef consumers on how common sense husbandry techniques, like low stress animal handling, can be coupled with accepted scientific knowledge to raise cattle under the best management and environmental conditions.

HOW ARE ANTIBIOTICS USED IN THE CATTLE RAISING PROCESS?

There has been a great deal of discussion lately about how antibiotics are used in raising livestock. The reality is that farmers and ranchers take antibiotic use in livestock very seriously and continuously evaluate their use based on the best possible science.

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Let’s explore the role of the antibiotics in animal care.

Antibiotics are used in animal medicine to prevent, treat, or control disease, which is important to animal and human safety.
When an animal gets sick, farmers, ranchers and veterinarians carefully evaluate if, and when, to administer antibiotics.
Cattle farmers and ranchers believe not treating cattle that become sick is inhumane as part of their ongoing commitment to animal health and welfare. When administering antibiotics, they follow product label directions or the prescription provided by their veterinarian, meaning they adhere to usage guidelines to protect both animals and humans that have been rigorously tested and approved by the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

HOW ARE ANTIBIOTICS GIVEN TO CATTLE?

Depending on the circumstance, antibiotics may be given to cattle as individual injections or added to feed or water to treat a larger group that has been exposed to or to prevent illness.

ARE ANTIBIOTICS SAFE?

All antibiotics must go through rigorous government scrutiny before being approved for use in livestock.
Animal medicine goes through three layers of approval to determine if the medicine is safe for the animal, the environment and the humans who will consume the meat. All three areas must be evaluated before approval from the FDA.
Even after they’re approved, antibiotics are continuously monitored and must be re-evaluated annually. The antibiotics will only stay on the market if they continue to be proven safe.

HOW ARE RANCHERS WORKING TO USE ANTIBIOTICS RESPONSIBLY?

Farmers and ranchers must have authorization from a veterinarian to use antibiotics that are important to human medicine through feed and water and have invested in research and education programs designed to help improve how antibiotics are used.
Farmers and ranchers have no reason to overuse antibiotics but rather every reason to use them as selectively as possible. Most importantly, responsible use is the right thing to do but furthermore, antibiotics are a costly input for the small business men and women who raise cattle.
Farmers and ranchers worked with veterinarians and developed guidelines for the judicious use of antibiotics through the Beef Quality Assurance program decades ago. The commitment by cattlemen to responsible antibiotic use continues today with BQA educational resources like “Antibiotic Stewardship for Beef Producers” released in 2016.

ARE THERE RESIDUES FROM ANTIBIOTICS IN THE MEAT I EAT?

Beef farmers and ranchers, along with veterinarians, are committed to following guidelines to ensure no meat with antibiotic residue above the FDA tolerance level enters our food supply.

The FDA sets withdrawal times for all veterinary drugs, including antibiotics. Withdrawal time is the amount of time required for the drug to be fully processed by the animal’s body; the withdrawal time depends on the drug but typically ranges from zero to 60 days.

The USDA randomly tests and monitors beef before it gets to you. By law, no meat sold in the U.S. can contain antibiotic residues above the Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) set by the FDA to ensure safety.

Preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics is a cause for all of us. Even making sure to finish the full course of antibiotics prescribed to you or to your animals is essential to the fight against antibiotic resistance. To this end, the beef community is committed to further investing in research to better understand how to effectively and appropriately use antibiotics to best protect animal and public health.

For more information on this topic and many others visit www.BeefItsWhatsforDinner.com.

Stockmanship is how ranchers interact with their animals with a focus on keeping the stress meter low for both the handler and the animal. Most cattle start their life cycle on ranches in large pastures. Here in Arizona, most cows calve alone and don’t usually need human assistance, but ranchers do interact with their cattle regularly. To raise high-quality beef, cattle must be healthy, and ranchers can help their animals achieve that goal with a vaccination program. Vaccinating, along with branding and other activities, does require ranchers to work closely with their animals and good stockmanship can help make it easier on both the cows and the people.

Dr. Dean Fish of the Sante Fe Ranch Foundation and Anchor F Cattle Company is shown moving cattle on horseback which can be a low-stress method when used correctly.

Ranchers don’t put a leash on their cattle to move them like one might a dog. Rather, cattlemen and women use their bodies (and horses) positioned in certain ways to move cattle where we need them to go. To understand this concept better, we first must know a few things about cows. Cattle are prey animals, meaning they want to gather in herds because that gives them more protection from predators. They also have a flight or fight instinct and tend to run if they are frightened. Some breeds of cattle are more inclined to fight if put into a sticky situation, like if a predator tries to attack a cow’s calf. Secondly, they don’t often move in straight lines, but rather in circular patterns. Knowing these two instincts tells us how we can work with cattle to decrease stress on the animal and to increase productivity.

Cattle flight zones can vary greatly and depend primarily on breed, environmental factors, and the amount of exposure they’ve had to humans. Micaela McGibbon of the Santa Rita Ranch demonstrates a flight zone that is relatively small because these cattle are used to interactions with Micaela in this circumstance.

Think about a large invisible ring around a cow. This is her flight zone. Depending on breed and how much human interaction this cow has had, her flight zone might be small or large. Pressure can be applied by stepping into their circular flight zone, in a certain area to encourage her to move forwards, backwards, away, or even towards you. Also knowing how much pressure to apply, meaning how far and how fast you must walk into the flight zone, is critical. If an animal looks at you or maybe flicks an ear towards you but doesn’t move it probably means you have to step a little closer. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, if an animal jumps and runs away you might have walked too far into her flight zone or approached too quickly.

This graphic shows how the flight zone works. When you move towards the head of an animal they are going to turn away, while moving towards the back of the animal will move them forward. The point of balance, which is generally at their shoulder, is the point in which those movements change. Stepping into the flight zone will cause an animal to move while stepping out of the flight zone will cause it to stop moving because of the pressure you are putting on the animal. Image courtesy of the Beef Quality Assurance Program.

Working with these natural flight zones and movement patterns help to decrease stress on animals while increasing productivity. The less stress an animal experiences, the better, so they can put their energy toward making healthy beef. It also makes it safer for the human involved to utilize these skills as the animal is less likely to tap into their fight response.

Tag: Cattle handling

Animal Care and Antibiotic Use in Cattle

What is stockmanship?