Chuck at 16 months old.

7/28/2009

Chuck recently developed a hunchback, so we had the vet come out to take a look at him. It turns out Chuck is recovering from a bout of mild pneumonia, and his feces showed high populations of coccidiosis. These are two separate conditions.

We have been increasing Chuck's corn intake over the last few months. He's up to about 10-15 pounds per day, though that is a rough estimate as he has always had bunk mates. At one point, he was up around 20-25, but he started to act sluggish, which we initially attributed to too much corn. With our most recent diagnosis, however, his depression could also be attributed to pneumonia, which can be brought on by a change in diet. Earlier this year, we had a stray heifer wander in to our herd. She ended up staying and sharing a pen with Chuck, since they are about the same size. Our theory is that, even though Chuck was vaccinated for BRD last year, he picked up the disease from the stray.

The vet wasn't too concerned with the pneumonia, but he did suggest feeding some Corid to take care of the coccidiosis problem. As you can see from the previous link, feeding Corid according to the label still qualifies beef as "natural," assuming we follow label directions.

We are thinking about two things now and need your input:

1) Should we feed Corid? We are estimating Chuck's weight to be a short 1,000 lbs (454 kg), probably around 950 (431 kg). He is now 16 months old, two months away from ideal slaughter age, so he would have to gain 250 pounds (113 kg) in 60 days, or 4 pounds (1.8 kg) a day, to reach ideal slaughter weight. If we feed Corid, we would gain some efficiency, though 4 lbs per day is pretty lofty.

2) Should we include a feed higher in protein? Chances are good that Chuck isn't getting anywhere near the amount of protein he needs to really convert those carbs into pounds. One potential remedy is to include dried distillers grains, or DDG, a by-product of making ethanol. It sounds like we'd need to feed about 4 pounds per day, with a 40 pound (18.1 kg) bag costing around $20. This would cost about $60/month. Bagged DDG is certainly not the cheapest source, but unless we buy it by the truck, our options are limited.

In the meantime, we separated Chuck from the stray heifer and put him in with three cows and their calves. We intend to put Chuck in a pen with only one other cow, about the same size, when a pen opens up. This should happen this weekend when our town cows head off to the rainbow barn.

Total cost of Chuck to date: $692.28 *

* A few words about the total cost of Chuck. One thing that becomes immediately clear is how difficult it is to keep track of expenses for one particular animal. Chuck has always had at least one bunk mate, so we don't know exactly how much he's eating.

The second thing that becomes clear is how difficult it is to raise just one beef steer. Everything costs more for one animal. The cost above does not include the last vet visit. It won't be astronomical, but we won't be able to spread the trip cost across several animals. If we end up feeding DDGs, we'll probably buy bags instead of bulk. When we truck Chuck to slaughter, all of the trucking cost will go to him instead of being spread out over several animals. We can't lump Chuck in with the other animals when it comes to feeding protein or spraying for flies. When you get right down to it, it's a lot like raising a 4-H animal. We're keeping our labor and management costs at the same level as the rest of the herd, but it certainly wouldn't be unfair to increase them.