Traveling with Show Cattle: Tips for Safe, Stress-Free Transport
Then you get to the show. Your calf enters a new environment, gets stressed, and decides they absolutely will not eat or drink. BOOM! Everything that has gone well up until this point begins crashing down before your very eyes.
Further, a calf that doesn’t eat typically doesn’t drink, and vice versa. I’ve been in these situations more times than I care to admit. They can quickly turn what should be a fun show into a very stressful one.
I’m happy to share a few pointers that may help you in situations like this.
Keeping Your Show Calves Hydrated
Keeping your animals hydrated is extremely important. We rarely go to a show without our big blue barrel of water from home. As we all know, water tastes different everywhere you go. Bringing water from home can help keep cattle from being turned off by water that tastes different from what they’re used to.
If an animal comes off the trailer and won’t immediately drink, I like to tie them down and give them time to relax and get acquainted with their surroundings. Often, the first thing they’ll start munching on is hay. This is good for a couple of reasons.
First, it gets some forage in their gut and helps stimulate their appetite. Eating hay can also encourage the calf to start drinking water.
In addition, the 60-pound Opti-Ferm Lix Cattle Stress Relief tubs are designed for easier transport. We put them to good use when traveling with our cattle. Licking the tub increases salivation, which can also encourage your show calves to eat and drink more.
Keeping Your Show Calves on Feed
Once your calves are past the initial jitters, it’s time to fill them up for show day. That’s where Kalmbach® and Formula of Champions® products can really come into play.
No matter what complete feed you’re using, I like to incorporate Fill ‘Er Up® into the show day diet. Anywhere from 1–3 pounds of this supplement can do wonders for spring and fill. Fill ‘Er Up® is a high-fiber, dry mini-pellet. It expands several times its size once it reaches moisture in the gut.
Rumi-Fill Complete™ can provide similar results with your show cattle. You can feed it at higher rates since it’s a complete feed. I also like to take at least one high-fiber feed that the steer or heifer isn’t currently eating. This gives me a couple of options and can help increase show day consumption.
Fully Charged®, Heifer Developer, Guts & Glory®, and Show Calf Accelerator have all served that purpose for us. They’ve helped us get cattle fuller for the show ring.
Let’s not forget that Kalmbach Feeds® also distributes Green Meadows® Natural Fill™, a chopped haylage with oats and barley. When we use high-fiber products like these intermittently, we’re less likely to cause gut issues.
In most cases, the more feed your calves consume, the more water they drink. As much as we like them to look “2 buckets full” for the show ring, keeping our cattle hydrated and on feed while we’re on the road is most important.
Have questions about a feeding program for your show calves? We’re here to help!
Article Source: Kalmbach Feeds – Levi Richards -Regional Sales Manager and Program Director for the Formula of Champions brand