The Clinical Management of Respiratory Disease in Cow-Calf Operations

Abstract

Undifferentiated bovine respiratory disease (UBRD) in cow-calf operations, with the exception of pulmonary emphysema in newly weaned calves, is not considered to be as much of a problem as in feedlots. Usually it occurs in calves after weaning but may occasionally develop prior to weaning. When this happens it is usually associated with late weaning or the "artificial confinement" of range feeding and is often an inducement to weaning because of the difficulties of treating on the range. Clinical management of bovine respiratory disease on the ranch implies a minimum amount of arrivals or "add ons" to the original calves raised on the ranch, therefore minimizing the introduction of new initiators or complicators of respiratory disease. Inherent also is the principle that calves will be weaned and sold, back-grounded and sold, or wintered and grazed throughout the following summer to be sold as yearlings. All the variants of this system function in an "all in-all out" fashion, thereby minimizing the pathogens to those carried by the brood cow.