Farm & Ranch
The Dr. McDonald Column – Throwing your weight around
By Steve McDonald, DVM
My son was a career Army soldier and was stationed in Germany where he met and married a German girl. One summer we visited them in Germany, meeting the young lady’s family and getting the lay of the land. I won’t bore you with the details, safe to say that the German people are extremely polite, and we had a very good time.
While there, we went to many places frequented by tourists, and I must say that just about all the obese folks I saw were Americans. It’s the sort of observation that a person makes and then forgets about until something reinforces the initial observation.
Yesterday a new client brought in a few heifers to be brucellosis-vaccinated and a couple of others to be pregnancy tested. The cattle were grossly overweight, as were the owners. We have all observed that overweight people tend to have overweight pets, but in this case the problem extended to the livestock.
As is often the case, the cattle, gentle though they were from a lifetime of easy living on the largesse of their owners, had arrived at the clinic in a trailer that was somewhat undersized to accommodate their considerable cumulative bulk.
To read more pick up a copy of the December 2017 NTFR issue.
By Tressa Lawrence
Babies are tucked away in every nook and cranny. Many ranchers across Wyoming have baby animals popping up all over this time of year.
By Lindsey Monk
Another load of grain in to keep feeding the calves until the green grass can really start popping.
By Rayford Pullen | [email protected]
Spring has sprung and hopefully the rains will continue where our country will heal from the previous droughts and our grasses will thrive. We are especially hopeful for the Panhandle of Texas where our neighbors and friends have been dealt a deadly blow to homes, ranges, livestock, and people. Keep them in your prayers as they will not be able to return to normal for many years if at all. Having lost their ability to benefit from this great cattle market is a double whammy for all of them.
Now is the time of year when we need to take care of business as it relates to our new calves that have been hitting the ground this spring. First and foremost is vaccinating for Blackleg followed by deworming with a white wormer and the IBR complex. Blackleg is a soil-born disease and with pastures extremely short this spring our calves have been grazing the green grass as soon as it shows itself, making them even more vulnerable to picking contaminates from the soil.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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