Animal Welfare

All Animal Welfare Content

Outside of a veterinary clinic.

Veterinary Feed Directive: What You Can’t Do With a VFD

Livestock producers and veterinarians have been adjusting to the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) rules put into effect on January 1, 2017. With the onset of the rules, producers need to square their previous treatment methods with what a VFD can and can’t do.

Herd of young pigs inside a wean-to-finish facility.

Wean-To-Finish Production Systems Evolve for Healthy Pigs

An important foundation of the efficiency of modern pork production is the industry emphasis on biosecurity. Wean-to-finish barns may provide better biosecurity than separate nursery and grow-finish facilities.

An aerial view of a dairy operation.

Dealing With Heat Stress in Dairy Cows

Alleviating heat stress is critical to milk production. Heat stress from high environmental temperatures can be compounded by mistakes in managing and feeding cows. Water is your first concern during periods of high temperatures.

Small group of black angus cattle at pasture.

Springtime Vaccines: Tools For Healthy Summer Calves

Vaccines can be a valuable tool for cattle producers looking to help keep their calves healthy on summer pasture.

A mother cow with her calf in a field of tall grass.

Preparing the Beef Calf for Weaning

One fact on which cattlemen, veterinarians, and animal scientists can agree is that of all the events in most calves’ lives, weaning is the most stressful of them all. If a calf can weather this stress unscathed, they have cleared a major hurdle to a productive future in the feedlot or as a replacement in the breeding herd.

small herd of black angus calves in pen

Johne’s Disease Management: Preventing Manure Contact is Key

The key to decreasing Johne’s Disease transmission is preventing young stock from coming in contact with manure from potentially infected animals.

small group of mixed calves

Does Cold Weather Contribute to Pneumonia in Calves?

Prolonged winter cold has some fairly obvious effects on cattle of all ages.

small group of cattle resting near feed bunk

Liver Abscesses: The Unseen Profit Thief

Liver abscesses are a great example of an important value robber in feedlot cattle that’s not immediately apparent.

ranchers in pickup truck herding a small group of mixed cattle at pasture

Managing Stress to Reduce Early Embryonic Loss in Beef Cattle

With the majority of pregnancy losses occurring in the embryonic period, it is critical to mitigate losses in livestock by managing stress and avoiding transportation when the embryo is most susceptible to mortality.

A large swine barn at the edge of a field.

Pork Producers and the One Health Movement: Actions at the State Level

The term “One Health” has been coined to describe the concept that the health of people, animals and their environment are inextricably linked. The most commonly considered examples of One Health in practice are zoonotic diseases. For pork producers, influenza strains that originate in pigs, but pass to people are a pertinent example.