PRINCIPLES OF RUMINANT

PRODUCTION AND HEALTH

HERD MANAGEMENT

JENNYLYN P. DONCILLO, DVM

 Beef Cattle Production

Scientific names:

➢ Bos indicus–Zebu/tropical or humped cattle

➢ Bos taurus–European/temperate or humpless cattle

Breeds and Selection

Selection criteria of beef cattle include:

a. Eye appraisal –judging as commonly seen in show ring

b. Pedigree -selection based on reputation of ancestors

c. Animal Performance -animals’ ability to perform efficiency and economically

1) Prolificacy in females
2) Masculinity, aggressiveness, good sperm count in males
3) Longer production
4) Efficient growth from birth to weaning to production

d. Production testing -includes reproductive efficiency

1) Reproductive efficiency
2) Mothering ability
3) Rate of gain economy of gain
4) Longevity
5) Carcass merit

Popular Breeds of Beef Cattle in the Philippines:

Philippine Native Cattle

• Small in size (280 –380 kg adult b.w.)
• Color patterns –mainly red to yellow, black or combination
• Produces only enough milk for its young
• Milk yield for 144 days of lactation –190 L
• Average birth weight –19.1 kg
• Daily gain –0.3 –0.7 kg

Foreign/Introduced Beef Breeds

• Angus, Beefalo, Beefmaster, Belmont Red, Braford, Brahman, Brangus,
Charbray, Charolois, Chianina, Chiricano, Devon, Droughtmaster, Galloway,
Gyr, Hereford, Indu-Brazil, Limousin, Mandalong Special, Maine-Anjou,
Marchigiana, Red Poll, Santa Gertrudis, Shorthorn, Simmbrah, Simmental,
Sussex.

Foreign/Introduced Draft Breeds

• Bhagnari, Hariana, Madura

Foreign/Introduced Dual-purpose Breeds

• Balinese –work and beef
 • Sahiwal–milk and beef
• Nellore or Ongole –work and milk
• Tharparkar –work and milk

Examples of Breeds:

1. Angus

Desirable Traits: cold tolerance, mothering and milking ability, early maturity,
little calving difficulty, high fertility,excellent-quality carcass
Undesirable Traits: lack of size, over-prominent shoulders

2. Hereford

Desirable Traits: Hardiness, grazing ability, rugged adaptability, reproductive

efficiency, good temperament and disposition, heavy bones and thick flesh
Undesirable Traits: low milk production, susceptibility to cancer eye and
pinkeye, prolapse of uterus.

3. Shorthorn

Desirable Traits: High milk production, efficient utilization of roughage, good

temperament, rapid rate of gain in feedlot
Undesirable Traits: Coarse, lower-quality carcass

4. Red Poll

Desirable Traits: Early maturity, good grazing, high milk production, good
quality carcass
Undesirable Traits: large barrel, lightly fleshed in the loin and in the
hindquarter

5. Brahman

Desirable Traits: thrives well under minimal management, heat tolerant,

excellent mothering ability, resistant to adverse conditions such as diseases
and parasites, good for crossing
Undesirable Traits: lack of cold tolerance, late maturity, low-fertility

6. Sta. Gertrudis( 5/8shorthorn,3/8 brahman)

Desirable Traits: excellent beef conformation, heavy hindquarter
development, excellent forging ability, efficient beef production on grass,
resistance to diseases and insects, heat tolerance, and efficient feed
conversion under feedlot conditions
Undesirable Traits: nervous, matures late, low reproductive efficiency,
pendulous sheaths in bulls

7. Beefmaster(1/2brahman,1/4 hereford,1/4 shorthorn)

 Desirable Traits: thick, beefy conformation, good growth rate, heat tolerance,
insect and diseases resistance, good mothering ability
Undesirable Traits: bad disposition, lack of thickness in hindquarters

8. Braford(5/8 hereford,3/8 brahman)

Desirable Traits: ability to thrive under little management, heat, insect and
disease tolerance, good mothering ability, efficient conversion of feed
Undesirable Traits: lack of cold tolerance

9. Charbray(13/16 charolais,3/16 brahman)

Desirable Traits: mothering ability, rapid rate of gain, resistance to external

parasites and insects, size
Undesirable Traits: long, shallow bodies, too much length in legs

10. Charolais

Desirable Traits: excellent muscling in the loin, round and hindquarters,

heavy bones, good mothering ability, rapid growth, high dressing percent, cold
and heat tolerance
Undesirable Traits: wide variations in the breed, difficulty in calving

11. Galloway

Desirable Traits: excellent cold tolerance, hardy breed, excellent quality

carcass
Undesirable Traits: lack of heat tolerance

12. Maine-Anjou

Desirable Traits: size and scale, lean carcass production, ability to adapt to
harsh conditions, heavy weaning weight, rapid growth rate, good milking and
mothering ability

13.Normande

Desirable Traits: good conformation, high milk yield, good mothering ability,
suitable for crossbreeding

14. Simmental

Desirable Traits: good milker, rapid gainer, long, heavily muscled body, large
in size at birth, weaning and maturity.

Housing and Equipment

 Fences
Specifications for construction:
• Wire–strong, economical
• Barbed wire –battens (droppers) do not slip
• High tensile (HT) –less elastic and stretchable
• Approximate lengths of wire per 45.5 kg weight:
• No. 8842 m
• 15.2 cm barbed 365 m
• 12.5 gauge HT1,205 m

Posts
Live. Examples
• Ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala)
• Madre de cacao (Gliricidia sepium)
• Katurai (Sesbania grandiflora)
• Malungai (Moringa oleifera)
• Kamachile (Pithecolobium dulce)
• Kapok (Ceiba pentandra)
• Dapdap (Erythrina orientalis)
• Treated (creosote treatment). Examples
• Acacia (Samanea saman)
• Almaciga (Agathis phileppensis)
• Apitong (Dipterocarpus sp.)
• Balete (Ficus baleta)
• Kapok (Ceiba pentandra)
• White lauan (Pentacme contorta)
• Untreated timber
• Steel wood (Mangkono) (Xanthostemon verdugonianus)

Concrete –expensive but durable. Recommended only as corner posts.

• Wire and post spacing and height specifications

• Posts –5 m apart, 1.2 m above the ground
• Top wire –1.1 m above ground
• Wire spacing downwards –40, 40 and 30 cm intervals

Corner posts

• Concrete or good solid timber not less than 20 x 20 cm

• Not less than 2.5 m long on clayey soil, 2.75 m on sandy soil
• Driven 1.25-1.5 m into ground

Handling and Feeding Facilities

• No single plan
 • Should afford facilities for branding, dehorning, loading, unloading, weighing,
dipping, parting and working cattle

Working Corral

• Center of ranch –to minimize movement of stock

• Loading chute –trucks and trailers could reach it at any time. The rest of the
corral can then be built around it.
• Fences should be 168-184 cm high
• Corral posts –183 cm apart, at least 75 cm deep

Feeding facilities
Factors to be considered:

• Labor efficiency
• Good drainage
• Protection of feed from bad weather
• Protection of animals from bad weather

Space allowances:

• 76 cm per dehorned animal

• 107 cm per horned animal
• 61 cm per calf
• Concrete slab 3-3.65 m wide –along full length of feeding trough –keeps cattle
out of mud and facilitates cleaning.

Barn or shed floor:

• Cows or steers 2 years or over –4-5 sq. m

• Yearlings –3-4 sq. m
• Calves 160-230 kg –2-3 sq. m
• Cows in maternity stall –10-15 sq. m
• Herd bulls –10-15 sq. m
• Water trough
• 30.5 cm (1 foot) of open water tank space per 10 cattle or
• 1 automatic watering bowl per 25 cattle
• Weighing scale –measure profitability; measure no. of a.u.
• Dipping Vat –for mass control of external parasites. If >200 a.u., more
economical than spraying because chemical can be used several times a year.
• Sprayer –if 50-100 head.
• Rain gauges –for rainfall pattern
Watering facilities

• Average of 45 l per head per day

Nutrition

Herbage –natural feed of cattle

Herbage production is greatly helped by the following factors:
• Adequate rainfall for most parts of the year
• Soil fertility
• Use of improved forage/pasture species
• Grazing management –avoid premature grazing, overgrazing or undergrazin
• Reseeding, fertilization, sub-soiling, other pasture renovation practices

Nutrients and their functions:

• Carbohydrates –chief source of calories or energy
• Fats –more concentrated source of energy (twice more than CHOs and
proteins). Energy reserve is expressed in terms of fat deposits
• Proteins –provide amino acids for the building and repair of protein tissues
• Minerals –essential for animal life and health
• Vitamins –play an important role in maintaining vigor, health and productivity
• Water –acts as solvent for chemical reactions, carrier of absorbed nutrients,
medium of excretion of wastes, regulate body temperature

Mature cattle –consume about 45 liters of water per head daily

“Air dry” –refers to the feed or ration having approximately 12-14% moisture content
under ordinary conditions
Roughage –feed which is relatively high in fiber and low in total digestible nutrients
(TDN)
Forages (pasture herbage, soilage or green chop, silage or hay)
Farm by-products (rice straw, corn stover, sugarcane tops, etc.)
Stocking Rate –usually measured in terms of animal unit (a.u.) per hectare
• Cow, bull, heifer (above 3 years old) = 1 a.u.
• Bull, heifer or steer (2-3 years old) = 0.75 a.u.
• Bull, heifer or steer (1-2 years old) = 0.5 a.u.
• Calf under 1 year of age = 0.25 a.u.

Rule of thumb:
• Native cogon pasture in the Philippines = 1 mature animal/ha/yr
• Majority of grasslands(undulating steep slopes, 3-6 months dry season) = 0.25-
0.5 a.u./ha more realistic
• Improved pasture(grass-legume) with fertilizer = 2 a.u./ha
Native forage species:
• Imperata cylindrica– Cogon
• Themeda triandra– Bagokbok
• Saccharum spontaneum- Talahib
• Chrysopogon aciculatus- Amorseco
• Capillepedium parviflorum- Misamis grass
• Themeda arundinacea– Malatanglad

Improved grasses:
• Andropogon gayanus (Gamba grass)
• Brachiaria brizantha (Brizantha),B. decumbens (Signal grass),B. humidicola
(Humidicola),B. mutica (Para grass), B. ruziziensis (Ruzi)
• Panicum maximum (Guinea grass)
• Paspalum atratum (Paspalum)
• Pennisetum purpureumand hybrids (Napier)
• Setaria sphacelata (Setaria)

Recommended legumes:
• Arachis pintoi
• Calliandra calothyrsus
• Centrosema macrocarpum, C. pubescens
• Desmanthus virgatus
• Desmodium cinerea (orD. rensonii)
• Gliricidia sepium (Kakawate, Madre de Cacao)
• Leucaena leucocephala (Ipil-ipil)
• Stylosanthes guianensis (Stylo)

Urea in Cattle Rations

Sources of non-protein nitrogen (NPN) for cattle feeding:

Other countries: urea, biuret, diammonium phosphate, ammonium chloride
Philippines: fertilizer grade of urea contains 45% nitrogen
Ammonium nitrate –not used because of danger of nitrate poisoning
Average protein –contains 16% nitrogen
Therefore, to convert nitrogen in urea to crude protein equivalent, multiply the
percentage of nitrogen in urea by 6.25.
This means that 1 kg of urea provides 2.81 kg of CP equivalent.

Guide in using urea:

• General practice: add urea at levels of approximately:
• 1% of the total air-dry ration, or
• 2-3% of the concentrate mixture, or
• to provide 25-30% of the total dietary nitrogen
• Cattle should be provided with adequate amounts of CHOs or energy, minerals
and vitamins –to properly efficiently utilize urea
• Water-urea-molasses mixture –at most 10% urea may be used as a lick. The
suggested liquid-urea mixture is: 2.5 kg urea, 4.5 kg molasses, 18 liters water
 • At equal CP content, that which contains urea should cost less than the
supplement without urea.

Precautions in feeding urea

• Mix thoroughly
• Do not feed young calf and sick animals
• Provide adequate energy feed
• Control intake of urea
• Provide an adaptation period

Silage Making
Advantages of silage over hay:
• More palatable than hay
• Weather requirements not as exacting as those for making good hay
• Can remain in storage for a long period with little loss of nutrients
• Not a fire hazard
• Occupies less space

Limitations (disadvantages) of silage-making:

• Higher investment –silos, equipment for chopping
• If not properly made, loss of nutrients is high

Requirements for making good silage:

• Exclusion of air –reduce cell respiration and enzyme activity
• Moisture content of wilting forage crops is 65-70%
• If no grains, add soluble CHO material (e.g., corn grains or molasses) –promote
acetic and lactic acid production and inhibit activity of butyric acid-producing
bacteria. Butyric acid-producing bacteria cause spoilage.
• If dried materials containing less than 60% moisture are used, add molasses to
increase the moisture content to 65%
• Speed is important. Plan operations properly.

Nutrient loss in making silage:

• Seepage losses –in the form of soluble CHO materials and silage acids = 10%
of the dry matter content of the forage crop used. These can be minimized by:
• Wilting the freshly cut forage to 65-70% moisture content
• Cut forage only after it has matured to contain 30-35% DM
• Add absorbent materials such as ground corn cobs
• Fermentation losses –5-10% of DM content
• Top and side spoilage losses –0-25% -depends on how fresh material is
packed, how fine forage is chopped, rain falling on surface, how much of the
exposed part is fed each day, use of covering material
• Field losses –due to dry leaves because of over maturity or excessive wilting

Chop size –1-2 cm

Types of silos:
• Tower silo –usually 9m high and 3.7-4.9 m in diameter
 • Trench silo –2 m depth
• Bunker silo
• Plastic covered stack silo –temporary or emergency storage of silo

Care and Herd Management

Goal –production of a crop of uniformly high-quality heavyweight calves.

General Management Practices
Cattle Identification:
• Denote ownership and for management purposes
• Branding –most common
• Brand –must be registered with livestock identification office of municipality
• Maximum 6.4 x 5 cm; 1 cm width; at least 65 cm long
• Owner’s brand –left foreleg
• Ear-notching –2nd
• Ear-tagging, ear tattooing, muzzle printing, palatine printing, DNA

Dehorning Advantages:
• Require less space in feedlots
• Less space in transit
• More uniform in appearance
• To lessen injury
• Recommended only in large-scale operations
• Debudding better

Castration:
• Few weeks old to 7 months of age
• Tends to decrease rate of liveweight gain by 15-20%

Record-Keeping:
• has little value unless intelligently used –selection, culling, management

Culling. Reasons:
• not give 2 calves every 3 years
• not produce or give enough milk and raise small calf
• lack vigor, size and strength
• do not settle after 3 or 4 repeated matings with a proven bull
• do not come in heat
• fail to meet standards of breeding herd
• undesirable hereditary defects

Herd Division
Importance:
• appropriate nutrition of the various age groups
 • prevent premature breeding
• less fighting

Herds:
• Pregnant herd –grouped with the breeding herd during the breeding season
• Breeding herd –dry cows and heifers ready for breeding
• Heifer herd –not yet ready for breeding. Heifer calves after weaning are
included.
• Steer, feeder or fattener herd –growing cattle and those fattened for market
• Bull herd –mature males for servicing

Management of Breeding Females

Lactating and Pregnant Cows:

• Once detected to be pregnant, they should be separated from the breeding herd
–prevents injury from fighting
• Grass paddock within 2 weeks before parturition –near cowboys’quarters –help
during parturition

Gestation period: average 283 days

Signs of pregnancy:
• cessation of estrus or heat
• enlargement of abdomen

Note: first-calf heifers usually exhibit development sooner than mature cows.
Open Cows (non-pregnant cows) and Replacement Heifers
• Require comparatively less attention unless overstocked or very dry weather
• Two weeks before breeding season –examined for reproductive disorders
• Culled after the clean-up breeding period

Management of Calves, Growers and Fatteners

Calves
• Should suckle colostrums within 3 hours after calving
• If weak or orphan –cow’s milk or replacers
• Creep feeding –generally not recommended under Philippine conditions –
grains are expensive
• For cow-calf operation in confinement
• Purebred animals –2 months before weaning

Growers
• weaning to fattening
• calves and yearlings not to be fattened immediately
• maintained in the pasture with very little attention

Fatteners
• short feeding period to slaughter weight
 • in feedlot, pasture or in both

Management of Bulls
• At least 2 years of age
• Given supplemental feeding 60-90 days before and after the breeding period
• Fertility test annually, 2 months before breeding season
Estimating age of Description of
cattleApproximate incisors
age
1 year 4 temporary
incisors erupted
1 1/2 -2 years Center incisors
permanent
2 -2 1/2 years Center and medial
incisors permanent
3 -3 1/2 years All incisors except
corners are
permanent
4 years All incisors are
permanent
4 -4 ½ Dental tables
already in wear
Breeding and Reproduction

Cattle Reproduction
• Sexual maturity –6 to 8 months for bull and heifer calves
• Heat cycle –18-24 days; average 21 days
• Duration of heat period:
✓ Indigenous and Zebu grades –10-12 hours
✓ Exotic breeds –14-18 hours
• Ovulation: 10 hours after the heat period

Insemination:

• As soon as it shows signs of being in heat

• Repeat 12 hours if the animal is still in heat

Signs of estrus:

• Mounting other animals in the herd

• Standing still when mounted by others. Refusal to be mounted signifies going
out or absence of heat.
• Bellowing and mooing
• Clear mucus discharge from the vagina
• Swelling of the vulva
• Restlessness and excitability
• Frequent urination
Note: The first 2 signs are the most reliable.
• Gestation period: 270-290 days; average 283 days (about 9 1/2 months)

Breeding age:

• Usually bred at 2 years of age, to calve at 3 years of age

• 18-20-month old –if well-developed
• Grades –should weigh 250-300 kg

Bull-to-cow Ratio:

• Bull –must not be less than 15 months of age

• Breeding season –usually 2-3 months
• 2 systems of mating:
• Hand mating –a cow in heat is brought to the bull or the bull is brought to the
cow in heat
• 3-4 services per week(or one service every other day during the breeding
season)
• 2-3 year old bull –20-30 cows
• Older bulls <9 years of age –40-50 cows
• Pasture mating–bull is brought in and goes with the herd of breeding heifers
and cows during the breeding season.
• 2-3 year old bull –10-15 cows
• Older bulls <9 years of age –20-25 cows
• Clean-up breeding period –3 months after the first
• Single-sire set-up –mature bull in good breeding condition may serve up to a
maximum of 35 cows on improved pasture in a breeding season.

Controlled Breeding
Definition: Keeping the bull with the cows for a specified period (e.g., 2-3 months),
then removing it completely for the rest of the year.

Advantages:

• Bulls are in good condition because they can recover

• Calving can be timed with the season –adequate feed for the nursing cow
• Cows will calve in short intervals –calves almost of the same age
• Shy breeders can be easily detected and culled
• Performance of the bull can easily be evaluated

Factors affecting choice of calving period:

• Animal –growth rate and reproductive performance

• Pasture –expected availability and quality of feed –analyze rainfall pattern of at
least 10 years
• Market to be supplied
• Management practices –stocking rate and supplementary feeding
 • Season of maximum fertility

If rainfall pattern is known, it would be easy to time the following activities:

• Fertility testing of bull –2 months before the breeding season

• Flushing period of the cows and bulls –one month before the breeding season
• Mating –start 60 days after calving
• Pregnancy diagnosis of breeding herd –3 months after the end of the breeding
season
• Culling of “empties” and poor breeders –after the clean-up breeding period
• Identification of calves
• Weaning of the calves –6-8 months after calving
• Branding and castration –1-3 months after weaning
• Growing the replacement stock
• Pasture improvement –6 months before calving
• Fulfilling feed conservation requirements
• Performance testing of weaned stock for rate of gain

Inbreeding: Traits most adversely are those of the greatest importance from an
economic standpoint, such as size and fertility.

Artificial Insemination

Factors influencing the success of AI:

• Health and nutritional level of the herd
Brucellosis, leptospirosis, vibriosis
Conception rate –depends on nutritional level of cow during the breeding
season
• Heat or estrus detection
- Cloudy to yellowish mucus –will be in estrus within 2-3 days
- Thin, clear mucus–will be soon in estrus or already in estrus
- Bright red blood discharge –often seen 24-48 h after ovulation

• Time of insemination

*Foreign breeds –not less than 6 h and not more than 24 h after ovulation
(4-22 h after the onset of heat)
*First heat in the morning up to 10:00 a.m. (onset is between 2:00 and
7:00 a.m.) –bred in the afternoon (4:00 p.m.)
*Heat later in the day –inseminated the next morning
Indigenous cattle and Zebu breeds –breed when heat is first observed,
then repeated 12 h later if the cow is still in heat.

• Optimum time for insemination after calving

- 26 days after calving –uterus returns to normal size at least 60 days

after calving –recommended

Breeding Systems
 • Inbreeding
• Crossbreeding
o Upgrading
o Systematic crossbreeding
1. Terminal crossing
• Single cross
• Three-way cross
• Backcrossing
2. Rotational crossing
• Crisscrossing (reciprocal backcrossing)
• Three-breed rotation

Herd Health Program

6 important aspects:
• Strict quarantine program
• Early diagnosis of a disease process
• Sanitation
• Good recording system
• Provision of facilities for isolation, examination and treatment
• Judicious use of drugs and biologics

Activity 1. Define some terms used in beef cattle production.

• Acaricide
• Anthelmintic
• Antiseptic
• Breeder stock
• Bull
• Calf
• Calf crop
• Calf drop
• Calving
• Castration
• Colostrum
• Concentrate
• Conception
• Cow
• Estrous cycle
• Estrus
• Feeder stock
• Feedlot
• Flushing
• Grassland
• Gestation
• Hand feeding
• Hay Heifer
• Herbage Herd
• Parturition
• Post-partum
• Proven sire
• Ration Replacement stock
• Roughage
• Silage
• Silo
• Soilage
• Stag
• Steer
• Tethering
• Upgrading
• Weaning
• Yearling