When used for flooring, skid steer tires provide traction without being overly abrasive.

The link between toe tip necrosis in cattle and flooring

Flooring that provides traction without scraping hooves minimizes the risk of white line separation in cattle

Toe tip necrosis syndrome is a hind-limb lameness of feedlot cattle that develops days to weeks after arrival at the feedlot. This disease is also known by many other names: toe abscess, toe ulcer, P3 necrosis, toe necrosis, apical white line disease, apicus necrotica, and the list goes on. The disease was first described in […] Read more

Zebu cattle at Old Oyo National Park in Nigeria. Livestock producers travelling to countries with foot-and-mouth disease can minimize the risk of bringing it home.

Keeping foot-and-mouth disease out of Canada

Travelling to a country with cases of foot-and-mouth? Here’s what you need to know before you come home

What foreign animal diseases are we most concerned about entering Canada? You’ve probably heard a lot about African swine fever lately. Before 2022, highly pathogenic avian influenza was high on the list. African swine fever has the potential to decimate the Canadian pork industry and avian influenza has already wreaked havoc on the poultry industry. […] Read more


Nancy and Tyler Haraga.

One Health strategies help farm family navigate outbreak

The Haraga family calls in the troops to deal with a nasty zoonotic disease

This article was originally published at beefresearch.ca. It is reprinted here with the permission of the Beef Cattle Research Council. For Tyler and Nancy Haraga, March 10, 2018, will forever stand out in their minds. “It was forty below with four to five feet of snow,” says Tyler. It had been a brutal winter, with […] Read more

Researchers see some promising uses for mRNA cattle vaccines, but they are unlikely to replace existing vaccines for common cattle diseases, partly due to practical limitations.

mRNA vaccines unlikely to replace common cattle vaccines, but could help contain foot-and-mouth disease in future

Vaccines have been a valuable tool to protect cattle health in North America, ever since the first blackleg vaccine was developed over a century ago. Ensuring the health of Canadian cattle is critical to maintaining consumer confidence, access to global livestock and beef markets and producer profitability. Vaccines help prevent infection and disease caused by […] Read more


Stress matters as it depresses a calf’s immune system and increases the risks of disease.

Keeping calves healthy

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

Cow-calf margins get tighter each time you feed a pregnant cow through the winter, only to have her calf die before weaning. Three leading causes of pre-weaning death loss are diarrhea, navel ill and bovine respiratory disease (BRD). Not all calf illness and death can be prevented, especially when the weather gets bad, but remembering […] Read more

Parasite control in the feedlot

Parasite control in the feedlot

Strategic deworming methods to maximize product efficacy and cattle productivity

If there was a tool available for Canadian cattle feeders to improve both weight gain and disease resistance, what would it be worth to implement? What if that tool was as simple as deworming cattle on arrival?  As simple as deworming is, not every feedyard opts to do it. Whether the perception is that feedlot […] Read more


A steer panting excessively due to heat stress.

Warmer weather boosts ergot risk in cattle

Researchers found symptoms ranging from decreased weight gain to heat stress even though ergot levels in feed didn’t breach CFIA limits

New research has found that feedlot cattle can develop problems when fed ergot even within allowable limits. Ergot is a fungus that can grow on certain grasses and grain plants when moisture conditions are just right. It becomes a problem mainly after a wet growing season. The fungus replaces the seed head with a dark […] Read more

The veterinary term for feedlot dust pneumonia is acute interstitial pneumonia.

Dust a risk factor in calf pneumonia

Vet Advice with Dr. Ron Clarke

When drought and the Great Depression introduced the 1930s, the wheat market collapsed. Oceans of wheat had replaced the sea of prairie grass that anchored the topsoil into place. Once the wheat dried up, the land was defenseless against the winds that buffeted the Plains. The term “dust pneumonia” originated during the Great Depression when […] Read more


It’s important to keep in mind that animals don’t have to be completely parasite-free to be healthy and productive.

Managing resistance to internal parasites in cattle

Producers need to tailor parasite control to align with their herds and management systems

Managing internal parasite resistance starts with asking the right questions and understanding the principles of antiparasitic resistance and the range of control products. From there, a producer needs to develop a deworming strategy and pin it to the spring and summer grazing calendar. A veterinarian can help. Antiparasitic resistance is typically defined as the genetic […] Read more