Director column

IBC director's monthly column featured in Cattleman Magazine. Archives
	September 2025 Weaning and feeder cattle placement is fast approaching. Weaned calf prices are expected to be high this fall and the financial risk of underperforming calves or loss of a calf is more costly than in the years past. Sitting through BQA discussions and ISU Feedlot Short Course this summer reminded me of the importance to continuously brush-up on production facts and skills. Below are 11 things that came to my mind and are within a feeder’s control to optimize performance and minimize animal loss as the feedlot is filled this fall. Cattle Health Protocols. Consult with a veterinarian ahead of cattle arrival to discuss health risk of in-coming cattle, vaccination protocols, and treatment plans to minimize performance loss and disease spread. Make sure the chute crew is up-to-date on BQA training and proper vaccination and parasite mitigation techniques. Implant Strategy. Guidelines regarding anabolic implants and re-implanting have changed in the recent years. Consult with the implant supplier or a beef field specialist to ensure guidelines are followed. Use sanitary implanting technique and proper implant timing relative to market date to realize a good return from the chosen implant strategy. Animal Nutrient Requirements. Nutrient requirements differ based on weight, gender, and breed of cattle entering the feedlot. The expected shortage of cattle placements this fall may bring groups of cattle that differ from those traditionally fed at your yard. Work with a nutritionist to adapt diets to the current animal group for optimal growth, feed conversion, and use of feed resources. Water. Check to make sure that waterers are functional prior to arrival of cattle. Naïve calves may struggle with automated waterers, so attention to make sure new arrivals are learning to drink is important. Adequate water capacity and space for the number of animals in the pen also is important. Shared waterers can be a point of disease transfer, so if shared waterers cannot be avoided, it is recommended waterers be cleaned regularly during the arrival period. Available Feeds - Nutrient Composition and Costs. Building a feed budget ahead of cattle arrival can minimize shortages during or excess at the end of a feeding period. Ingredient shortage during the feeding period results in the need for diet changes which disrupt feed intake and cattle growth. Depending on the leftover feed ingredient and the duration of time until the lot is filled again, this feed may go to waste or have significant shrink; adding to overall operational cost. Diet Formulation. Feed cost is estimated to account for over half of the cost of feeding cattle. Knowing the nutrient composition of available feed ingredients and the cost of each will help develop a diet that meets nutrient requirements in the most cost-effective means possible. Proper nutrition also can play a vital role in cattle response to other technologies such as vaccination, implant or use of a B-agonist. Adequate Roughage. Digestive issues including bloat and acidosis can result in lost performance, liver abscesses, and death in severe cases. While roughage is less energy dense than grain and therefore results in a lower dietary Net Energy of gain, its effects on rumen function and gut health are beneficial. Bunk Management and Expected Feed Intake. Daily records of feed calls, feed refusal, and adjustments for each pen are important to keeping cattle on feed and consistently gaining. Feed intake is a good barometer for the state of the animal. Significant feed refusals can indicate health issues, unavailable water, spoiled feed, mixing/delivery error, fecal contamination in the bunk, a weather event or something else. Regardless, the cause of significant feed refusal should be investigated because it is usually an indication that something is amiss. Feed Mixing / Weighing / Delivery. The ability to weigh ingredients, identify the proper sequence to add ingredients to your mixer and ideal mix time that yields a uniform blend that is not sorted at the bunk can be an art, but on-farm tools can be used to objectively assess diet consistency and adjust sequencing and(or) mix time. The goal is for the diet that was mixed and eaten by the cattle to be as similar as possible to that formulated by the nutritionist. Intake and Growth Tracking. In recent years, the ability for commercial operations to track intake on-farm and compare that with growth performance has improved. While not always perfect, it improves the ease of data capture that can be used to make data-driven decisions to move forward. Using this information to calculate cost of gain is a useful tool. Legal Regulations. The feed industry is regulated and it is important to read feed tags for commercial supplements. These tags have important mixing instructions and inclusion rates that ensure proper product usage and compliance with regulatory guidelines. Technologies such as ionophores, B-agonists, and antibiotics are valuable to efficient and sustainable beef production. Using them responsibly is important to achieving their intended goal. A number of the above topics are covered in greater detail and with hands-on activities at the ISU Feedlot Short Course. Future ISU Feedlot Short Courses will be shared through the Iowa Beef Center if you are interested in learning more. The IBC at Iowa State University serves as the university’s extension program to cattle producers. Our center comprises a team of faculty and staff from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. We work together to develop and deliver the latest in research-based information to improve the profitability and vitality of Iowa’s beef industry. If you’d like to be notified of updates on progress of research projects or programs that might be coming to your area, please subscribe to our “Growing Beef” newsletter by following the link on our website, www.iowabeefcenter.org. If you have a question, use our “Ask our Experts” link. Also, feel free to call us at 515-294-BEEF or email us at beefcenter@iastate.edu. You can follow @iowabeefcenter on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

IBC director's monthly column featured in Cattleman Magazine. Archives

September 2025

Weaning and feeder cattle placement is fast approaching. Weaned calf prices are expected to be high this fall and the financial risk of underperforming calves or loss of a calf is more costly than in the years past. Sitting through BQA discussions and ISU Feedlot Short Course this summer reminded me of the importance to continuously brush-up on production facts and skills. Below are 11 things that came to my mind and are within a feeder’s control to optimize performance and minimize animal loss as the feedlot is filled this fall.

Cattle Health Protocols. Consult with a veterinarian ahead of cattle arrival to discuss health risk of in-coming cattle, vaccination protocols, and treatment plans to minimize performance loss and disease spread. Make sure the chute crew is up-to-date on BQA training and proper vaccination and parasite mitigation techniques.
Implant Strategy. Guidelines regarding anabolic implants and re-implanting have changed in the recent years. Consult with the implant supplier or a beef field specialist to ensure guidelines are followed. Use sanitary implanting technique and proper implant timing relative to market date to realize a good return from the chosen implant strategy.
Animal Nutrient Requirements. Nutrient requirements differ based on weight, gender, and breed of cattle entering the feedlot. The expected shortage of cattle placements this fall may bring groups of cattle that differ from those traditionally fed at your yard. Work with a nutritionist to adapt diets to the current animal group for optimal growth, feed conversion, and use of feed resources.
Water. Check to make sure that waterers are functional prior to arrival of cattle. Naïve calves may struggle with automated waterers, so attention to make sure new arrivals are learning to drink is important. Adequate water capacity and space for the number of animals in the pen also is important. Shared waterers can be a point of disease transfer, so if shared waterers cannot be avoided, it is recommended waterers be cleaned regularly during the arrival period.
Available Feeds - Nutrient Composition and Costs. Building a feed budget ahead of cattle arrival can minimize shortages during or excess at the end of a feeding period. Ingredient shortage during the feeding period results in the need for diet changes which disrupt feed intake and cattle growth. Depending on the leftover feed ingredient and the duration of time until the lot is filled again, this feed may go to waste or have significant shrink; adding to overall operational cost.
Diet Formulation. Feed cost is estimated to account for over half of the cost of feeding cattle. Knowing the nutrient composition of available feed ingredients and the cost of each will help develop a diet that meets nutrient requirements in the most cost-effective means possible. Proper nutrition also can play a vital role in cattle response to other technologies such as vaccination, implant or use of a B-agonist.
Adequate Roughage. Digestive issues including bloat and acidosis can result in lost performance, liver abscesses, and death in severe cases. While roughage is less energy dense than grain and therefore results in a lower dietary Net Energy of gain, its effects on rumen function and gut health are beneficial.
Bunk Management and Expected Feed Intake. Daily records of feed calls, feed refusal, and adjustments for each pen are important to keeping cattle on feed and consistently gaining. Feed intake is a good barometer for the state of the animal. Significant feed refusals can indicate health issues, unavailable water, spoiled feed, mixing/delivery error, fecal contamination in the bunk, a weather event or something else. Regardless, the cause of significant feed refusal should be investigated because it is usually an indication that something is amiss.
Feed Mixing / Weighing / Delivery. The ability to weigh ingredients, identify the proper sequence to add ingredients to your mixer and ideal mix time that yields a uniform blend that is not sorted at the bunk can be an art, but on-farm tools can be used to objectively assess diet consistency and adjust sequencing and(or) mix time. The goal is for the diet that was mixed and eaten by the cattle to be as similar as possible to that formulated by the nutritionist.
Intake and Growth Tracking. In recent years, the ability for commercial operations to track intake on-farm and compare that with growth performance has improved. While not always perfect, it improves the ease of data capture that can be used to make data-driven decisions to move forward. Using this information to calculate cost of gain is a useful tool.
Legal Regulations. The feed industry is regulated and it is important to read feed tags for commercial supplements. These tags have important mixing instructions and inclusion rates that ensure proper product usage and compliance with regulatory guidelines. Technologies such as ionophores, B-agonists, and antibiotics are valuable to efficient and sustainable beef production. Using them responsibly is important to achieving their intended goal.

A number of the above topics are covered in greater detail and with hands-on activities at the ISU Feedlot Short Course. Future ISU Feedlot Short Courses will be shared through the Iowa Beef Center if you are interested in learning more.

The IBC at Iowa State University serves as the university’s extension program to cattle producers. Our center comprises a team of faculty and staff from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. We work together to develop and deliver the latest in research-based information to improve the profitability and vitality of Iowa’s beef industry. If you’d like to be notified of updates on progress of research projects or programs that might be coming to your area, please subscribe to our “Growing Beef” newsletter by following the link on our website, www.iowabeefcenter.org. If you have a question, use our “Ask our Experts” link. Also, feel free to call us at 515-294-BEEF or email us at beefcenter@iastate.edu. You can follow @iowabeefcenter on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.