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A more apt description may be the American slang, “the grunts.”

“When I grew up, it was called the grunts. And the reason it was called the grunts was very obvious. Because when an animal is affected with this, they grunt and it is loud,” said veterinarian Dr. Van Mitchell, who grew up in Utah.

“You can hear it from one hundred yards away,” said Mitchell, who works for Metzger Veterinary Services in Ontario and Alberta.

Acute bovine pulmonary emphysema and edema are caused by toxins that damage the cells lining the air sacs in the lungs. This causes fluid to leak into the airways, making it difficult to breathe.

“The funny thing about fog fever is the name of fog fever really has nothing to do with fog, and the animals generally don’t have a fever. It’s a traditional name from England, I think, where the pastures are green and lush after a wet fog. There’s no fog in the desert where I’ve seen it.”

Mitchell has only seen fog fever in Western Canada after cattle come off dry pasture and are put on lush pasture. Cattle in Ontario generally don’t spend the summer on dry pastures, one of the prerequisites of the disease.

“The history is generally what really gives fog fever away as to what we’re looking at when we see an animal with these clinical signs,” he said.

The most common scenario, said Mitchell, is that cattle are moved after grazing dry pasture all summer to a field where they graze the remaining green grass around ditches, fences or irrigated corners of a field. The cattle get sick after a few days on the new pasture.

“They go from extremely dry feed to a wet, more lush-type feed, and the case really kicks off with the change in bacteria in the rumen.

“When they show the classic clinical signs, it is very easy to diagnose when you mention it with the history. Generally, if you have the history this consistent and the clinical signs, it’s pretty straightforward to say, ‘Yeah, this is fog fever.’”

The change in diet creates a shift in rumen bacteria. The rumen bacteria form toxins that damage the lungs. There is no known cure for the disease.

Instead, Mitchell said management is key to its prevention. He recommends feeding grass hay before turning the cattle onto the fresh grass so their rumens are full and they don’t gorge on the new grass.

Dr. Steve Hendrick, consulting veterinarian with Telus Agriculture, agrees that prevention and knowledge of what causes the disease are the keys to keeping fog fever away.

“It is simply recognizing that if you’ve utilized really dry pasture and then moving to something that is getting some regrowth, there is a potential risk. What causes it typically is the cow herd is moved from dry pasture to lush pasture, or if you get a dry summer and then get some late-season rains and a flush of green grass. It doesn’t happen every year. It depends on the weather and the location.”

Unlike bloat on fresh clover, which can happen overnight, fog fever can take anywhere from four to 10 days to appear, and it generally only happens to a few animals in the herd. Preventing cattle from gorging on green grass is the key to preventing the disease. Ideally, the cattle are turned onto the new grass with bellies full of dry hay, or their time on the new grass is limited to four or five hours for the first few days.

“That allows the rumen to adjust to changes. It’s really management. This is definitely a management disease,” said Mitchell.

“I don’t know of any medications or medicated feed additives or anything that is truly preventative.”

Because a change in rumen bacteria causes the disease, Mitchell recommends possibly adding a protein tub in the pasture before moving the cattle to the new grass to increase the protein and start the change of bacteria in the rumen.

Fog fever is not a common disease and is down the list of regular and routine diseases seen in the fall. Generally, it affects only a couple of animals in the herd and not every season.

“It is not really that common, but when it happens, it’s bad and it’s hard to treat. It affects them severely. I would say most of mine that I see die. That’s probably because I just see them when they’re bad. When the vet gets called, they’re the ones that we see grunting and foaming at the mouth and really heaving, trying to catch some air,” said Mitchell.

Hendrick said there is no one particular part of Western Canada that sees more of the disease than others, but it appears in pockets across the Prairies, depending on the weather and the flush of green grass.

Mitchell said it is a disease few veterinarians or farmers see. A diagnosis may come years later when people are talking about strange deaths. When they describe the grunts from an animal, the mystery is solved. c

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In late June, Lethbridge-area feedlots were buying feed barley in the range of $315-$320/tonne delivered while cattle operations in the Red Deer region were showing bids from $290-$310/tonne delivered. The barley market has remained firm late in the crop year due to historically low ending stocks for the 2024-25 crop year. For September and October, the southern Alberta barley market is quoted at $275-$290/tonne delivered. Western Canada’s malt barley market has been rather quiet throughout the spring and summer. Malting companies will likely be more aggressive with purchases at harvest.

In late June, imported U.S. corn was trading in the range of $305-$310/tonne in southern Alberta. U.S. corn imports into Western Canada have been lower than anticipated in the 2024-25 crop year. Corn was trading at a sharp discount to barley for July and August. Feed wheat was trading in the range of $315-$330/tonne delivered in central and southern Alberta. The average elevator bid in Alberta for No.1 and No.2 CWRS 13 per cent protein was $315/tonne. Farmers have been encouraged to sell milling wheat into domestic feed channels in the latter half of the 2024-25 crop year, limiting upside in feed barley prices.

The 2024-25 barley carryout is projected to drop to 500,000 tonnes. This is down from 2023-24 ending stocks of 1.2 million tonnes and down from the 10-year average of 1.1 million tonnes. This is the main factor for price strength in July and August. On-farm stocks as of July 31 are expected to be at bin-bottom levels.

Canadian farmers seeded 6.135 million acres of barley this spring, according to Statistics Canada. This compares to the 2024 planted area of 6.405 million acres and the 10-year average of 6.9 million acres. Using a traditional abandonment rate and a 10-year trend yield of 68.3 bu./ac., production has potential to finish near 8.4 million tonnes, up from the 2024 crop of 8.144 million tonnes but below the 10-year average of 8.745 million tonnes.

We’re expecting barley exports for the 2025-26 crop year to reach 2.2 million tonnes, similar to the 10-year average. China is the largest buyer of Canadian barley. Canadian barley exports to China largely depend on Australia’s barley crop. At this stage, the Australian barley crop for 2025-26 is projected to finish around 12-12.5 million tonnes, down from the 2024-25 output of 13.3 million tonnes. Chinese buyers usually purchase much of their Canadian barley in late July or August.

Given export projection, domestic feed usage will be around 5.1 million tonnes, allowing for a 2025-26 carryout of 629,000 tonnes.

Canadian farmers will sell 1.0-1.1 million tonnes of barley during October and November. It’s important to know that cattle-on-feed inventories in Western Canada are at seasonal lows during September and October. Domestic feed demand during these two months is only about 350,000 tonnes. When supplies exceed demand, prices are lower. Therefore, feedlot operators need to buy as much barley as possible in the fall. Lower barley prices will support the feeder market during the fall and allow feedlots to lock in a competitive cost-per-pound gain.

U.S. farmers planted 83.5 million acres of corn this past spring. Using a traditional abandonment rate and a trend yield of 181 bu./ac., production has the potential to reach 399 million tonnes, up from the 2024 output of 378 million tonnes and up from the five-year average of 365 million tonnes. The U.S. farmer sells over half of the crop in the first three months of the crop year. This comes on the heels of a Brazilian harvest of 150 million tonnes, up from last year’s crop of 119 million tonnes.

We expect Western Canadian corn imports to reach 2.0-2.5 million tonnes in the 2025-26 crop year. Alberta barley prices in southern Alberta will likely be discounted to the value of imported U.S. corn during September and October. This winter and in the spring of 2026, Lethbridge barley prices will likely be premium to imported corn. The main takeaway from the acreage reports is that feed grain supplies will be plentiful in the 2025-26 crop year, supporting feeder cattle prices.

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It pops up on cow-calf operations, too. The Beef Cattle Research Council’s website notes that BRD is a leading cause of death, illness and antibiotic treatment in calves from three weeks of age to weaning on the ranch.

And there’s no eliminating the pathogens that cause this respiratory disease.

“One thing that’s really important to remember about BRD is that it’s out there. It’s ubiquitous. Cattle have it all the time,” said Dr. Trent Wennekamp during an interview. Wennekamp is a veterinarian and owner at the Lloydminster Animal Hospital in Lloydminster, Alta. Healthy, unstressed cattle generally don’t get sick, he explained, but as animals become more stressed and less healthy, “that allows those bugs to get going.”

It’s important to remember that, he said, because it’s not so much that cattle are exposed to the pathogens and then get sick. “It’s more the right conditions have to exist to allow it to become a problem.”

BRD basics

Broadly speaking, BRD is disease of the upper or lower respiratory tract, notes the Beef Cattle Research Council. Wennekamp said there are three main bacteria that cause the disease, although other pathogens can join, or even start, the party (more on that later).

• RELATED: Respiratory disease linked to the gut

In most cases, the most significant BRD bacteria is Mannheimia haemolytica, or what used to be called Pasteurella haemolytica. Pasteurella multocida and Histophulus somni (formerly known as Haemophilus somnus) also “cause a lot of issues,” said Wennekamp.

Viruses such as infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and bovine respiratory syncytial don’t necessarily cause a significant disease on their own, Wennekamp said, but sometimes they allow other pathogens to get a foothold.

Biosecurity and BRD

A few years ago, Wennekamp did a graduate degree looking at BRD, calf diarrhea and biosecurity on cow-calf operations, as well as antimicrobial resistance in feedlot calves. He surveyed producers on biosecurity practices through the Western College of Veterinary Medicine’s cow-calf surveillance network. About 80 people responded.

Wennekamp said they found three main points related to herds struggling with BRD and biosecurity. The first was that they tended to purchase more animals. Community pasture spread was the second factor. And finally, failure to vaccinate new animals was linked to more BRD, he added. Although BRD and calf diarrhea weren’t linked, prevalence of calf diarrhea was linked to the same three factors, he said.

While limiting the number of animals coming into the herd is “going to be positive,” a completely closed herd isn’t realistic. Wennekamp said people are going to need to buy bulls, and likely some replacement heifers. But there are things producers can do to slash the risk.

“If you know the disease status of the herd that they’re coming from, that’s going to be really helpful. If it’s similar to yours, and a fairly healthy herd, that’s definitely going to help.”

Bringing in cattle from a herd that’s well-vaccinated and doesn’t have many BRD issues is going to be less risky than buying cattle from an auction mart, possibly from a mix of herds. In that situation, he suggested being aware of the risk and doing whatever you can to reduce potential disease spread to the main herd. For example, keeping the new cattle separate for a while and vaccinating them are good practices.

Similarly, many producers use community pasture, and telling them to stop isn’t a practical solution. Vaccinating cattle before they’re shipped to community pasture is helpful, he said. Trying to reduce the number of herds your cattle are exposed to also cuts risk. It’s a good idea to know about the herds your cattle will be exposed to, and getting everyone following similar vaccination protocols.

“So there’s lots that can be done, even working within the current framework of how cattle are raised in Western Canada. And being aware of it and not ignoring it is probably the first step.”

Stress

While completing his graduate degree, Wennekamp also undertook a project comparing BRD and anti-microbial resistance in feedlot calves bought through an auction mart or ranch-direct.

“We would think of those as being two fairly different populations,” said Wennekamp. He said they found quite a few differences in the types of bacteria they found, though it wasn’t always things they could use practically. The auction mart calves seemed to have more of the Mannheimia haemolytica, “and a bit more actual (antibiotic) resistance in those calves.”

Wennekamp said they found a significant amount of antibiotic resistance. “And that is certainly concerning.”

Principally, the antibiotic resistance was to the oxytetracycline class (Bio-Mycin, Oxyvet, Liquamycin). The macrolide class (Draxxin, Micotil, Zuprevo) also had “a fair bit of resistance and increasing resistance over the feeding period, which is, of course a concern, and that is seen right across North America.” He added other studies have also found resistance to those two groups of antibiotics.

They also saw more Pasteurella multocida and Histophulus somni in the ranch-direct calves. The ranch-direct calves were relatively healthy, he added, but the study confirmed that even healthy cattle carry pathogens.

One takeaway, he said, was all the dynamics that trigger stress in calves seem to be more significant in causing disease than the actual pathogens. In the right situation, with a stressed calf, those pathogens develop into disease. On the other hand, “in a calf that doesn’t have those stresses, then the disease factors aren’t as significant.”

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