Health and Production Management Practices for Nursing Beef Calves Floron C. Faries, Jr., DVM, MS Professor and Extension Program Leader for Veterinary Medicine Texas AgriLife Extension Service Texas A&M System

Dehorning Why? To improve appearance To reduce injuries due to fighting To increase feeder or bunk space To improve value as a feeder animal Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Dehorning When? Preferably perform at birth at birth or before 3 months of age. Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Dehorning How? Chemical paste over horn button to destroy tissue Electrical or fire hot iron around horn button to destroy blood supply Cutting spoon or tube to scoop horn button or horn and ¼ inch ring of hair and skin Cutting scissor-like clipper (Barnes’) to scoop horn button or horn and ¼ inch ring of hair, skin, and skull Saw to remove tip of horn Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Ind. Hot Iron Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Ind. Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Ind. Barnes’ Dehorner

Castrating Why? Prevent mating and fighting To improve carcass quality To gentle Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Ind. Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Ind. Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Ind. Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Castrating When? Preferably perform at birth or before 3 months of age. Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Castrating How? Bloodless pincher (Burdizzo) to sever cord 2 inches above testicle Bloodless pliers (elastrator) used to stretch rubber band ring and place 2 inches above testicle to restrict blood flow Knife used to cut bottom half of scrotum to remove testicle by severing cord with knife, cutting/crushing pliers (emasculator) or pulling. Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Ind. Standard Surgical Castration Image: NSW Dept. of Primary Ind. Proper Restraint

Identifying Why? To claim ownership To conduct individual record keeping Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Identifying When? Ear methods, preferably performed at birth or before 4 months of age Branding methods, preferably between 3 to 4 months of age Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Identifying How? Fire hot iron or freeze cold iron to destroy hair or pigments cells of skin on hip, thigh or shank Pliers to insert tag or apply tattoo between ribs of ear and to cut notches along lower edge of ear Image: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Electric Cattle Branding and Ear Marking

Implanting Why? To increase feed efficiency To increase rate of weight gain Image: Iowa State Extension Service Implanting Chemical Pellet

Implanting When? Over 6 weeks of age, repeating every 100-200 days Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service Feed Lot Cattle Eating

Implanting How? Dispensing gun and needle to insert chemical pellets under the skin in middle 1/3 of top side of ear Dispensing Gun Image: Iowa State Extension Service Implanting Diagram

Vaccinating Why? To stimulate immunity for protection against infectious diseases To prevent sickness and death Image: Tumpline Stackyard Agriculture on the Web Vaccinating Cattle

Vaccinating When? Over 2 months of age, repeating 3 weeks before weaning Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Vaccinating How? Syringe and needle to administer the vaccine subcutaneously, intramuscularly, or intranasally Multi-dose Syringe Single-dose Syringe

Deworming Why? To reduce worm numbers To prevent tissue damage To prevent pasture contamination To break worms’ life cycles Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Deworming When? Over 2 months of age When infected Following 3 to 6 weeks of moderate temperature; rainfall and wet grass Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Deworming How? Syringe and needle to administer a drug subcutaneously; syringe drench gun, hook drench gun, balling gun, or paste gun to administer a drug orally, and liquid dispenser to administer a drug on back (pour-on) Drench Gun Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service Hook Gun Ball Gun

Degrubbing, Delicing, and Deflying Why? To reduce parasite numbers To prevent tissue damage and blood loss To prevent annoyance To break parasites’ life cycles Lice Hornflies Grubs

Degrubbing, Delicing, and Deflying When? Over 2 months of age When infested in summer (flies and grubs) When infested in winter (lice) Image: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Degrubbing, Delicing, and Deflying How? Syringe and needle to administer a chemical subcutaneously, dispenser to administer topically on back (dust, pour-on, spot-on; and pliers to insert chemical tag between ribs of ear Insecticide Dust Bags Insecticide Ear Tags