The trucks are starting to roll, with more and more calves
being weaned from their mothers and shipped off to greener pastures. Some of these calves will head to Kansas and
Oklahoma where they will graze winter wheat pastures, while others will head to
Nebraska and Iowa where they will graze corn stalks this winter, before being
finished. With shipping on the forefront
for many ranchers, today I’ll share a few tips for managing shrink at shipping
time.
“Shrink”
is weight loss that occurs when cattle are gathered, transported, processed, or
off feed or water. The greater the
weight loss, the lower the pay weight on the cattle. There are two types of shrink – fill shrink
and tissue shrink. Fill shrink is the
loss of rumen fill, manure, and urine that occurs when cattle don’t eat or
drink. This type of shrink is recovered
relatively quickly after they begin eating and drinking again. Tissue shrink, however, is a decrease in the
weight of the carcass and body tissues, it’s the loss of extra-cellular and
intra-cellular fluid loss, and is associated with long periods without feed and
water. Fill shrink occurs first, and as
time goes on, tissue shrink accounts for increasingly more of the weight loss.
The
amount that cattle shrink is affected by the type of feed they are consuming,
the gathering and sorting process, if they are weaned or not, the length and
conditions of the haul, and any unusual conditions such as weather that may add
additional stress.
Cattle
on highly digestible, lush, green grass shrink more than if they are on a less
digestible, dried grass or hay. A
Montana study showed that cattle off dry pasture shrank 3.5% after a two-hour
haul, compared to cattle that had been on lush, green forage that shrank
5.3%. If you will be feeding hay prior
to shipping, feed a forage type that cattle are used to. Otherwise, a change in diet (such as from
native grass to alfalfa hay) can cause digestive upsets and alfalfa hay also
results in greater shrink.
Cattle
that are handled quietly and efficiently shrink less than cattle that go
through an extensive gathering, sorting, and hauling process. Take time now, before shipping day, to make
sure your facilities are in good order so that you can quickly and efficiently
sort and ship cattle. If you can take
the time to sort steers from heifers, sort out any calves that won’t be going
on the truck on shipping day, pick replacement heifers, etc. ahead of time,
that will allow the rest of the calves to get to the scale that much faster, with
less shrink and a greater payweight. For
every 30 minutes that a group of cattle are moved around in a corral, expect an
additional 0.5% weight loss. So, if you
spend extra time on shipping day repairing corrals, sorting out replacement
heifers, or even taking 20 minutes for a coffee and a donut, realize that
shrink that is increasing with each of those activities.
Newly
weaned calves can shrink as much as 8% if they are forced to stand in the yard
for several hours or overnight. On a 650
pound steer, an 8% shrink is over 50 pounds lost. Weaning prior to shipping minimizes these
losses.
The
length of haul and conditions of haul greatly impact shrink as well. Cattle will shrink about 2% more during
shipping than if they were drylotted for the same number of hours. Just loading and hauling cattle a short
distance results in a typical 3% shrink.
Making sure to not overload the truck and that there is good footing in
the truck helps minimize shrink during transport.
May you
have a safe and successful fall shipping season! This has been Kari Lewis with the MSU
Extension Minute from Glacier County, have a great week!
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