Livestock Management RANCHING
Watch for abrasive injuries to the feet that can lead to toe abscesses.
wrap, depending on the injury, to allow the animal time to heal. Good conformation in cattle, Wells stresses, starts
at the “ground level and works its way up.” Ranchers must choose cows and bulls with the cor-
rect set to their feet and legs. Wells says, “The anal- ogy I use is a car; with only 3 tires it won’t go very far down the road. A cow or bull that is lame on 1 leg is not going to produce well for you.” For proper structure, both toes of each of the ani-
mal’s hooves should be even in shape. “I don’t want to see a club-footed animal, which is basically an animal with a very small toe or one that’s squared off in the front,” Wells says. There should be a little bit of an angle to the fetlock
and pastern area. The knee or hock should be in line with the shoulder in the front and in line with the back edge of the rump in the back.
The hoof needs to be proportional in size to the
body. The hooves, he points out, are about 7 to 8 square inches and need to support a 1,200- to 1,300-pound cow, or a 2,000-pound bull. “There are a lot of pounds per square inch being placed on those hooves, so I want to make sure the hooves are not too large, but yet not too small,” Wells says. How much lack of conformation can you live with?
“If we’re talking about a commercial animal, I let the economics of the situation dictate the results,” Wells says. “It depends upon the cost of the treatment, the complexity of the treatment and the ability of the pro- ducer to follow the prescribed rehabilitation plan of the veterinarian.” In cases of animals born with abnormalities, Wells
says most producers have become more educated about how to deal with them. An animal that is buckled over at the knees or at the fetlock area can be splinted until the tendons strengthen and form correctly. But, he says, most deformities probably cannot be corrected economically at the commercial cow-calf level. “There are enough good quality animals out there,” he says. “It’s not worth spending the time, effort or expense to correct a genetically predisposed animal who will
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Ft. Worth, Texas • 817-831-3161 64 The Cattleman August 2014
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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