The Beef Cattle Health and Nutrition Podcast

 Dr. Colin Palmer, one of our reproductive specialist veterinarians from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine here at the University of Saskatchewan  joins the podcast again this week to discuss the important topic of subfertility in beef bulls.  Today we focus on the parts of the breeding soundness exam that greatly impact fertility - scrotal circumference and semen morphology.  Dr. Palmer...

Dr. Colin Palmer, one of our reproductive specialist veterinarians from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine here at the University of Saskatchewan  joins the podcast to discuss the important topic of subfertility in beef bulls.  Why do we need to perform bull breeding soundness exams? What are the implications of various factors such as lameness and other physical problems on bull fertility...

This week, Dr. Nathan Erickson and Dr. John Ellis join me to discuss the emergence of Bovine influenza A virus in cattle.  We discuss what is currently known about this emerging disease issue at this point in time.  New information is being acquired about the impacts and spread of Bovine Influenza A virus and this podcast gives information on the disease as known around April 12, 2024.   Please re...

Dr. Chris Clark, an internal medicine specialist from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine joins the podcast to discuss how best to treat neonatal diarrhea in calves.  We discuss how to detect dehydration and acidosis in an affected calf and the best ways to utilize oral electrolytes.  We also discuss when a calf will need intravenous therapy and the limited value of antibiotic therapy.  Che...

The calf that presents with acute abdominal issues or colicky symptoms is not uncommon on cow-calf herds around calving time. In this episode,  Dr. Blake Balog from Cattle Health Management in Brooks, Alberta joins the podcast to discuss the causes of colic in young calves and how the producer should approach these cases when faced with them. 00:00 –Welcome and introductions 04:08 – How do calves...

This week my guest is Dr. Mariana Guerra-Maupome.  Mariana is a veterinarian with PhD training in bovine respiratory disease.  She works as a feedlot consultant for Telus Agriculture and Consumer Goods and as part of her job, helps to provide feedlot consultation services to feedlots across North America and farther abroad.  She joins me this week to discuss the challenges of designing health prot...

Dr. Roy Lewis joins the podcast again to discuss Remote Drug Delivery Devices (RDDD).  These are the dart guns, cross bows, and pole syringes that are sometimes used by producers to administer antimicrobials to cattle on pasture.   Dr. Lewis discusses their proper use and why they should be only used as the last resort if no other option is possible.  Here is a link to more information on the Beef...

Jenifer Heyden, a livestock extension specialist from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture joins me again on the podcast to discuss high nitrate levels in feeds and how to prevent nitrate toxicity in your cow herd.  We discuss the details on the clinical signs of nitrate toxicity and how to interpret a feed test for nitrate levels as well. 00:00 – Opportunity to participate in Cow-calf Health...

Dr. Greg Penner discusses some of his latest research findings on determining the optimum time to harvest cereal forages when feeding in bales or swath grazing. 00:00 - Intro 04:10 - Defining "Green-feed" 05:50 - Stages of cereal maturity 08:27 - Why do we need updated recommendations on harvesting cereal forages? 10:47 - Changes in barley forage nutrient compensation at different stages of maturi...

This week I'm pleased to welcome Dr. Vanessa Cowan to the podcast.  Vanessa is a veterinarian and a specialist in veterinary toxicology who has recently joined our faculty at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.  She joins me this week to talk about lead toxicity, one of the most common toxicities of beef cattle that also has important public health implications. Here are the links to some...

This week I'm presenting another case from the files of our Disease Investigation Unit.  This case has particular relevance to those producers that have been dealing with drought conditions over the last year.  The case focuses on a cow-calf herd that has calves affected with neurological signs and blindness at birth. 00 - Introduction 1:36 - Herd background and presenting complaint 3:43 - Post mo...

Dr. Andy Acton joins me this week in the podcast to discuss the impacts, treatment and prevention of coccidiosis in cow-calf herds.  Dr. Acton is a veterinarian and owner of a mixed practice in Ogema, Saskatchewan with lots of practical experience in working with cow-calf herds.  He is the 2022 recipient of the Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners Veterinarian of the Year Award.  A...

Dr. Zach Johnson joins me to discuss an infertility case that he investigated a few years ago.   Dr. Johnson is the current president of the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association and he is a veterinarian who owns a rural practice in Melville, Saskatchewan.  Zach has led  a number of these types of infertility investigations and we discuss the challenges with sorting out the cause of an infer...

Barry Yaremcio is a nutritionist from Camrose, Alberta who provides nutrition and management consulting to beef producers.  Barry spent years working as a nutritionist with Alberta Agriculture and has a wealth of practical experience.  He is joining the podcast to discuss the challenges associated with drought and to discuss the important things to focus on when trying to stretch your feed supplie...

Dr. Chris Clark is my guest this week.  Dr. Clark is an internal medicine clinician in large animals who also serves as the Associate Dean at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.  We have a short conversation on the agriculturally focused seats at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and then take a deep dive into some of the causes of sudden death in cattle.  We also discuss the impo...

Dr. Emily Snyder returns as a guest expert on the podcast to answer a listener question.  What are the best practices to follow when introducing animals to your herd?  It's an important aspect of biosecurity and Dr. Snyder gives us some of the diseases we worry about and what we can do to mitigate the risks. 00:00 – 1:54   Welcome and Introductions  2:01 – 3:13   What do we mean by the term biosec...

Jayce Fossen recently completed his Masters degree at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine focused on antimicrobial usage in Canadian cow-calf herds.  Jayce joins me to discuss his results as well as a pitch for recruiting new herds for the Canadian Cow-Calf Health and Productivity Enhancement Network. If you have a cow-calf herd that meets the criteria mentioned in the podcast, and are inte...

In this episode, I recorded a presentation by Dr. Anatoliy Trokhymchuk at the annual field day of the Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence at the University of Saskatchewan.  Anatoliy is a veterinarian and epidemiologist who serves as the Chief Scientific Officer at our local veterinary diagnostic laboratory (Prairie Diagnostic Services).  Anatoliy will describe some of the new technology tha...

Dr. Greg Penner from the Dept. of Animal and Poultry Science returns as my podcast guest this week.  Greg is discussing some of his latest research efforts on the effects of high sulphate water on cattle performance and how we can mitigate some of the subclinical effects such as copper deficiency in high sulphate water situations. 00:00 – 2:00   Welcome and Introductions  2:01 – 5:21   Where and w...

Dr. Diego Moya joins the podcast to discuss some of his research on pain control for calves during painful procedures such as castration.  Dr. Moya is an assistant professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and his research focuses on beef cattle welfare and behaviour.  In this episode he provides us with some summaries of what we know about pain associated with castration and how to...

This week Dr. Murray Jelinski returns to the podcast for a 2nd week in a row, to discuss a completely different topic.  He will summarize some of his recent research on the value of deworming yearling cattle in Western Canadian pastures.  We discuss the basics of the life cycle of the internal roundworms of cattle and the impact they can have on productivity. 00:00 - 00:45 Intro 00:45 - 02:51  Why...

Dr. Murray Jelinski joins the podcast to discuss the syndrome of abomasal ulcers in calves.   Dr. Jelinski holds the Alberta Beef Chair at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and is involved in a wide range of research projects from lameness to parasites and antibiotic resistance.  Although abomasal ulcers are not an exceptionally common problem, it is one of those syndromes that seems to a...

Dr. Gabriel Ribeiro from the Dept. of Animal and Poultry Science at the University of Saskatchewan is my guest this week.  He has been researching the impacts of ergot in feed sources on cattle performance and he will discuss the levels of ergot that are safe for cattle, their impacts on cattle health, welfare and performance as well as how to test for and deal with feeds that might be high in erg...

Dr. Bart Lardner is my return guest this week.  He joins the podcast to discuss the implications of water quality on beef cattle. 00:00 – 01:45   Introductions 01:46 – 2:53   Why is water considered one of the most important nutrients? 02:54 - 04:35   How do we assess water quality? 04:36 - 07:11 Sulphates in water 07:12 – 10:20 Total Dissolved Solids 10:21 – 12:45   High Bacteria counts 12:46 - 1...

This week I'm presenting a quick mini episode with a case from our disease investigation files.  This particular cow-calf herd had a disappointing pregnancy rate and we suspected a bacteria called Ureaplasma may have been responsible for the infertility.  Ureaplasma is a bit of a tricky organism as we can find this bacteria in completely normal animals and so it is difficult to determine when it i...