How we start cattle in the lot will affect how they perform for the remainder of the feeding period.

The objectives for starting cattle are to get the cattle eating well and to keep the cattle healthy. The driving force for keeping cattle healthy is nutrient intake that supports the immune system and relieves stress. The bottom line is that dry matter intake is the most important driving force for healthy, high performing cattle and the lowest cost of gain.

Here are some tips to follow to reach the goal of getting a great start:

1. Long stem hay. Feed alone for the first 12 hours. Grass hay is preferred.  Put it in the bunk, after the cattle arrive, to attract them to the bunk. After the first 12 hours, you can deliver some total mixed ration on top of the dry hay. Do not free choice hay in a round bale feeder, some cattle will eat too much hay and not enough starting ration resulting in poor health and performance.
2. Feed deliveries. Total mixed ration is the best method for feeding cattle. Target delivery is 1 % of their body weight as dry matter for the first TMR feeding, working up evenly 2.75% of body weight by day 14-21. New cattle should be fed twice a day so you would actually split that 1% - 2.75% over two feedings each day. Again, work the cattle up evenly and steadily. Underfeeding the cattle will result in poor performance and immune response. Overfeeding the cattle will result in acidosis; the result of this is that cattle think eating from a feed bunk causes a belly ache and this teaches calves not to eat.
3. Water intake drives feed intake: no water intake = no feed intake. Water should be clean and easily accessible. You should have one watering space for every 20 calves (if there are 100 calves, 5 should be able to drink at the same time). Calves that have only drank from streams or ponds will not recognize an automatic waterer. You should allow the waterer or tank to overflow to help calves find it. Placing the waterer along the fence will help circling calves find it. Ball waterers discourage water intake, avoid using them. Electrolytes added to the water can also be beneficial to stressed calves.
4. Limit wet or ensiled feeds to 10-20% of the diet. This would include feed such as corn silage, haylage, wet corn gluten feed and/or wet distiller grains.
5. Protein levels for the diet should be 13-14%.
6. Feed the starting supplement or feed at the full rate from day one to make sure calves get their full dose of protein, drug, vitamins and trace minerals.
7. Bovatec in the starting supplement will control coccidiosis when fed at the proper rate of 100 mg per 220 pounds of body weight. This means that a Receiving Supplement with 500 grams of Bovatec per ton should be fed at 1# to a 550# calf and at 1.2# to a 650# calf.
8. Aureomycin or Terramycin are approved to be fed at 1 gram per 100# of body weight for 3-5 days to prevent or treat respiratory disease. This means that 550# calves should get .55# of a 10 gram crumble for 3-5 days. This is best fed as a top-dress starting on Day 4 after arrival.
9. Complete starters. Stress Care and Strategic Care 1X products are excellent choices for high stress cattle. They are very palatable and nutrient dense. Since cattle will eat 1% of their body weight on day 1 they can get a full dose of the protein, Bovatec, trace minerals and vitamins with these complete pelleted products along with a good dose of energy. You can gradually increase the rest of the ration so that by day 14-21 the majority of the diet is regular ration and you can easily transition them off of the pellets.
10. Facilities – Starting cattle should be kept in a little tighter quarters to keep the feed bunk in front of them as much as possible. Be sure they are kept clean and dry. Bed them enough to keep them comfortable but not too much so that they eat the bedding.
11. Working facilities – be sure that working facilities don’t add stress to the calves or the producers. Stress for either one will mean that cattle don’t get treated promptly enough and have a greater chance for permanent damage or death. Texas A&M research shows about $100 hd loss on cattle that get sick and don’t respond promptly. Chutes that don’t properly restrain cattle will result in poorly placed implants and could cost the producer about $10 per head in lost performance.
12. Processing – process cattle right off of the truck if possible. Delaying process will simply mean two stress occasions instead of one. Cattle can be implanted and vaccinated a second time 14-21 days later.
13. Hospital pens – have a place where sick cattle can be segregated and treated with some TLC. This will control spread of the sickness and speed recovery of the sick calves. Don’t put the hospital pens in some dark damp barn, or they will become death pens.