Establishing calf health (managing high-risk calves and getting them back on track prior to feedlot entry)
Efficient calf growth at minimal cost
Reducing calf stress prior to feedlot entry
Common challenges
Bloat: Self-fed beef cattle can easily fall victim to bloat if proper precautions aren’t taken.
Respiratory disease: Commingling of large groups of animals increases the risk of a novel pathogen being introduced to the herd.
Tips for maximizing health and performance
Provide proper nutrition.
Make sure that the trace mineral requirements of animals are being met, especially since most backgrounding systems are forage-based with limited supplementation in order to keep costs down.
Minimize animal stress.
Utilize a transition period, which will spread the animals’ exposure to stressors out over a longer, more manageable period.
Establish gut health.
Provide supplementation through use of a mannan-oligosaccharide product like Bio-Mos® 2 as cattle transition from weaning to backgrounding.
Introduce grains slowly.
This will allow the rumen to adapt to a higher starch content.
Doing this also helps prevent bloat and ruminal acidosis.
