West Texas Producers Hear
About Value-Added Program

By Colleen Schreiber

SAN ANGELO — Producers from a seven-county area were on hand here recently at the West Texas Ranchers’ Conference to learn more about stocking rates, herd health, cattle handling, bull selection and value-added alternatives.

Extension Livestock specialist Dr. Ron Gill, Dallas, offered an overview of the TEX-VAC vaccination and weaning program. A calf management, health, preconditioning and backgrounding program, TEX-VAC is designed to enhance quality, efficiency and value of beef calves.

"It’s common-sense management," Gill said. "The only portion different perhaps from the norm are the post-weaning requirements."

Gill said there have been few changes to the TEX-VAC program since it was initiated in the early 1990s soon after the first ranch to rail program was completed. The reason — it works.

That said, the livestock specialist stressed to listeners that no one can upgrade a calf with a needle.

"If you don’t have a breeding program which allows you to produce the right kind of calves, that’s where I would start making changes long before I incorporate a Vac 45 program," he said. "Concentrate first on bull selection and producing quality calves that the industry and the market are asking for."

The program calls for calves to be worked at two to four months of age and vaccinated with at least a 4-way clostridial for blackleg, boosted at four to six months, preweaning or weaning.

"You have to get two clostridial vaccines in those calves to establish that baseline immunity," Gill noted.

The program recommends consulting a veterinarian for other vaccinations that might be needed in any particular area.

Additionally, bull calves should be castrated at this time.

"A lot of people, even the bigger ranches, have stopped castrating because they don’t think they’re taking a dock for it. It is weight-dependent," the livestock specialist admitted. "If you market early, the discount may not be quite as severe as if they’re marketed later, but you are docked."

Waiting until the calves are more than four months of age before castrating is too stressful on the calves and can cause other health problems. The same applies to dehorning.

The program guidelines also call for a growth implant. "If you don’t, you’re going to give up something in weaning weight. Don’t implant heifers you know you’re going to keep," he added.

Gill said that if necessary, deworming calves at branding is a good practice.

"We’ve shown more benefit from deworming calves at this time than we have deworming cows later on."

A good mineral supplementation program which includes adequate trace minerals has proven important at this stage as well.

"There is research that documents real significant immune responses on calves that are raised out of cows that are on a good mineral program. It’s more significant the farther west you go," Gill said.

Finally, creep feeding calves with a high protein supplement helps calves wean off more easily and go on feed more quickly.

Four to six weeks pre-weaning, Gill said, calves need to be vaccinated for the BRD complex (IBR-PI3-BDV-BRSV), with injectable chemically altered modified live (MLV) IBR and PI3, killed BVD and MLV BRSV.

This is the only stage where a specific vaccine is recommended, Gill told listeners.

"Cattlemaster 4 is the only product that we routinely recommend and the only place that we recommend it is in this vaccination."

Calves not given a clostridial 4-way or 7-way booster at working should be given this vaccination pre-weaning. Heifers should receive brucellosis vaccine at this time. "A lot of people like to wait until they decide if they are going to keep them, but lots of times that’s too late to do any good," Gill pointed out. "If the heifers are getting close to 10 months of age, don’t vaccinate them for brucellosis."

At weaning, the program calls for an injectable BRD re-vaccination with MLV for IBR and PI3 and killed or MLV for BVD and BRSV.

Use of the internasal IBR-PI3 was one of the modifications made to the program. Previously a pasturella vaccine was used, Gill said.

Once the calves are weaned and all the appropriate shots have been given, the next step is a 45-day backgrounding schedule. Calves can be fed a pelleted ration or an excellent quality hay or grazing along with a supplement.

The question is whether or not feeding the calves a pelleted ration pays in the end, Gill said.

"If you have good grass, then this program can be effective. If you do feed them for 45 days, there’s absolutely no reason to push those calves. You do want them to gain weight, but not necessarily at a high rate," Gill said.

But TEX-VAC isn’t for everyone, Gill conceded. He noted that the program was originally sold to the general public on the idea that it would attract buyers and premiums.

"Have any of you had anyone beating on your door asking for TEX-VAC prepared calves?" he asked. "Most times we have to go out and beat on the buyers’ door and ask them if they will pay a little more if we do this.

"The only way I would get into this program," he continued, "is if I had the ability to retain these calves or if I knew I had a market for the cattle before I started. There’s absolutely no reason to put another $20-25 per head in these calves if you can’t recoup it."

One of the positives of such a backgrounding program, Gill pointed out, is that calves which have gone through the program tend to shrink less than calves that go straight to market off the cows.

"Five-weight calves lots of times will shrink 10 to 12 percent by the time they leave your place and go through the sale ring," he said. "But calves that are weaned and know how to eat will only shrink two to three percent. You should be able to pay for your backgrounding program just in shrink management."

Jody Frey, Producers Livestock Auction, San Angelo, encouraged listeners to keep an open mind about all breeds of cattle but to raise only the better end of any breed.

Frey said producers who follow the proper vaccination and weaning program on the "front-end" type cattle will come closer to being paid a premium.

"Out here in West Texas we sometimes have the mindset that we don’t think our calves can get sick, but they can. They do need vaccination."

Frey told the group that from August on, the first thing a buyer asks is if the calves are weaned.

"Weaned doesn’t mean just pulled off the cows three days before and only the bawl out of them," Frey said. "They mean 30 to 90-day weaning period, preferably 45 to 60 days. And they don’t mean overfat calves. They mean medium fleshed calves that have had all their shots."

He discussed the stigma associated with spotted cattle versus blacks. Spotted cattle, Frey said, will be harder to sell during certain times of the year, as will Brahman crosses. But black cattle, particularly the upper end, will sell pretty consistently throughout the entire year.

"On these lightweight, four-weight calves, most of these feeders would just as soon have them all black, and they tend to pay a little more for them. But when those crossbred white cattle come off wheat in the spring, there won’t be two to four cents difference between them and the blacks," he said. "On yearling cattle the buyers tend to work more on an average, but they’ll get nitpicky on those four-weights."

Frey also told listeners not to give up what they worked hard to improve by waiting until the last minute to deliver a load of calves to the auction barn.

"Try to get some of that shrink back," he said. "We’ve got good water, good pens, but we need a little extra time to get those cattle grouped up. Let us know what’s coming and how long it might take. Tell the boys at check-in if you’re going to have more cattle coming in later and that you need a bigger pen."