Evaluation of two-stage weaning and trace mineral injection on receiving cattle growth performance and behavior

Rauch, Jordan C; Stokes, Rebecca S; Shike, Daniel W

There was only one instance of illness for the duration of this study. A 2MM calf was treated on day 18 for respiratory illness and was back to normal temperature the next day. This extremely low rate of morbidity may be due to several factors; sufficient vaccination program, herd health, mild weather at time of weaning, and a well-balanced ration. A greater rate of morbidity may have been expected if any of these mentioned factors were not in place or if there was more comingling from an increased number of sources. Roberts et al. (2016) found no difference in morbidity between calves, given ITM and calves receiving none when the incidence was low, similar to the results of the current study. In addition, Roberts et al. (2016) found that bovine viral diarrhea-specific antibody response to a respiratory vaccine was greater for ITM calves. The lack of treatment differences may be contributed to extremely low morbidity observed in this experiment.