NAHMS 2021 Feedlot study

Abstract

 The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) con­ducts national studies on the health and health management of U.S. domestic livestock populations. In the NAHMS Feedlot 2021 study, for feedlots that placed cattle not born and raised on the operation slightly over half of cattle placed (51.1%) came direct­ly from a cow-calf operation or a stocker or backgrounder oper­ation, while 41.2% came from a sale barn. Of the cattle placed in 2020, 85.1% were placed with the intention of meeting no specif­ic marketing claims, 0.5% of cattle were placed to meet certified organic claims, 8.4% were placed to meet no or limited antibi­otic use claims, and 10.2% were placed to meet no hormone use claims. About three-fourths (73.1%) of feedlots used antibiotics in any form in 2020. Of these feedlots: 22.4% gave injectable an­tibiotics to cattle as a group; 67.6% gave injectable antibiotics to sick cattle; 42.8% gave antibiotics in feed; and 4.5% gave antibi­otics in water. Most feedlots (85.1%) used a veterinarian in 2020. About two-thirds of feedlots (64.2%) felt that on January 1, 2017, they had all the resources necessary to manage the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) rule change.