A Healthy Rumen in Cattle Affects Overall Health and Profitability

The primary goal of a cow-calf producer is to have a live calf at weaning and as many as possible for your operation. Rumen health is a key factor in achieving and maintaining pregnancy, birthing a healthy live calf and passing along a good amount of colostrum to give that calf its best start.

“A live calf to wean is the single most important thing we have as a cow-calf producer; that’s our goal,” says James Davison, who owns and operates a preconditioning and backgrounding operation in south-central Texas. He grew up on a large cattle operation and has been starting high-risk calves since 1976.

Speaking at the Idaho Cattle Association Annual Convention in November, Davison shared the pathway to improving the numbers of calves weaned and the weight they achieve at weaning is to help the mother cow.

He encourages producers to be planners and record keepers when it comes to management practices. Analyzing past decisions can help producers understand climate impacts on animals and what to do to address those challenges.

With factors such as weather, environment and limited feed resources putting added stress on the cowherd, year-round supplementation with rumen health products is something for producers to consider.

While producers might initially question if they can afford the annual input cost, Davison says to do the math to see what it would actually mean to an individual operation, especially keeping in mind the end goal — more calves and more pounds to sell at weaning.