A cow with her newborn calf. People often consider fetal abnormalities as “accidents of gestation,” but failing to identify heritable defects when they occur can see further distribution of mutated genetics.

Skeletal deformities of beef calves

Vet Advice with Dr. Ron Clarke

Much is written about genetic mutations in beef calves: why it happens, pathological descriptions and how to manage the deformities. Pathologists love to describe structural abnormalities of organ systems and what else has been discovered. The literature on genetic mutations goes far beyond what can be covered in one column, so I will only address […] Read more

Chicory on a farm near Turtle Lake, Sask, which was part of the Saskatchewan Forage Council’s 2023 summer tour. Plants such as chicory can be part of a parasite control strategy.

Managing parasite resistance to livestock dewormers

There’s no easy way to extinguish resistance to dewormers, but producers can manage it and control parasites

The debate is over on whether internal parasites are developing resistance to dewormers in Canadian cow herds, as far as the research is concerned. But while researchers can offer some general principles, ranchers will need to get a little creative to figure out how to manage it on their own operations. Dr. John Gilleard is […] Read more



Tips for monitoring newborn beef calves

Tips for monitoring newborn beef calves

Whether the calf was pulled or born without intervention, this resource can help you decide what to do next

Halley Adams, Lynn Thiessen and Meaghan Nawrot have many things in common, but the most prevalent one is their passion for cattle. As students at the University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine, that is an important priority. It has brought them together from across the world to Calgary, Alta., to pursue this passion. Adams […] Read more


Surviving scours

Surviving scours

Prevention is the best medicine, but when you’re in the middle of an outbreak, it’s all about getting through it

Scours. It should be a four-lettered word, for all the misery it causes on cow-calf operations. Even with the best preventative practices, outbreaks can pop up in herds. And in the middle of an outbreak, the focus is on survival, for calves and humans alike. During an outbreak, producers are generally going to see a […] Read more

Dr. Anatoliy Trokhymchuk holding some of the equipment used to identify specific BRD-causing pathogens.

Tech for cattle disease diagnostics edges into the Star Trek age

Researchers are testing new, compact equipment to see if it can quickly and accurately diagnose specific pathogens that cause BRD in the field and feedlot

Remember the COVID rapid test? That was a point-of-need test designed to find a target and match it to a “binder” which then changes the colour if it’s positive or negative. The same principle is applied to the rapid lateral flow device test for anthrax, Dr. Anatoliy Trokhymchuk explains, which was developed by the U.S. […] Read more


Urolithiasis results in significant economic loss to the feedlot industry and stands as the fifth-most prevalent cause of feedlot deaths.

Urolithiasis: a pasture and feedlot conundrum

Vet Advice with Dr. Ron Clarke

Bladder stones, or obstructive urolithiasis, are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in male ruminants, especially steers. Uroliths form from protein and mineral components of the diet. Protein components may include cells produced during vitamin A deficiency, sutures, tissue debris, blood clots, excess protein or bacteria in the urine. Typically, stones develop in the […] Read more

A calf undergoing band castration, tagging and vaccination. Researchers are developing a “grimace scale” to evaluate pain and stress in calves. Photo: Canadian Cattlemen file

AUDIO: Researchers create ‘grimace scale’ for pain and stress in cattle

Dr. Maria Camila Ceballos has been researching animal welfare her entire career. Now, she’s a beef cattle welfare assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Along with her PhD student Mostafa Farghal, Ceballos is researching animal welfare by identifying and measuring pain in Angus beef calves. Ceballos says currently, the way to identify pain in […] Read more


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

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