Long-Term Cost of Respiratory Disease during Weaning and Backgrounding

Oct 27, 2022

Weekly, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Nutrition Specialist Paul Beck offers his expertise on the beef cattle industry. This is a part of the weekly series known as the "Cow-Calf Corner" published electronically by Beck. Today, he talks about the implications of respiratory disease.

Health of incoming cattle to backgrounders and feedlots continues to be a major issue. Today we have better vaccines, better antibiotics, and better genetics than ever before, but the health outcomes, sick pull rates and mortality, have not improved over the last 30 years. Many times, disease infections can occur in one segment of the industry but not present clinically until the cattle are stressed during transfer to a subsequent beef production segment in the supply chain.

An analysis of the performance and carcass quality costs of bovine respiratory disease during finishing conducted at Oklahoma State University showed that days on feed increased while slaughter weight, carcass weights, and carcass quality decreased when steers required BRD treatment once, twice, or three or more times during receiving. Hot carcass weights of cattle three or more times were 42 pounds lighter than carcasses from calves that did not require treatment. The percentage choice decreased from 70% for untreated calves to 36% for calves treated 3 or more times. Total cost of BRD (including labor, cost of antibiotic, reduced production and carcass quality, and increased days of feed) was $37/head, $166/head, and $230/head for cattle treated once, twice, and three or more times.

Costs in the stocker industry can be just as big. An analysis was conducted including 12 stocker receiving trials from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi where over 1,300 steers and bulls were received and followed through grazing on cool-season pastures. The average BRD morbidity was 57% with 25% requiring a second treatment and 9.5% pulled and treated three or more times. During receiving, untreated calves gained 2.3 pounds per day, daily gains decreased to 2.1, 1.6, and 1.5 pounds/day for calves treated once, twice, or three or more times. Daily gains on pasture were not affected for calves treated only once (2.2 lbs/day), yet pasture gains of calves treated 2 or more times decreased to 2.0 lbs/day. During the entire ownership period (Receiving + Grazing) daily gains were 2.3 pounds for untreated, 2.1 for those treated once, 1.8 for those treated twice, and 1.7 for those treated three or more times. These calves appeared healthy when placed on grass, chronics (any calves that appeared to be chronically morbid to BRD) were not included in this analysis. Even yet, calves that were treated for BRD two or more times were affected significantly during grazing and over the ownership period.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.