Cattle producers continually adapt to both local and industry-wide competition for land, labor and feed resources, changes in costs, shifting customer desires, and rivalry among protein suppliers. 

To address optimization of health, welfare and productivity, it is important to recognize the causes of disease and production limitations are very complex. Adaptations and innovations can allow veterinarians, cattle producers and researchers to attack some of these causes to limit the extent or timing of negative effects and to capitalize on opportunities for greater efficiency and higher product-quality. 

Innovations often come as a direct result of observing cattle during an extended period of time, in many situations, to become familiar with the range of behaviors, growth and reproductive performance that are normal. Being able to identify optimal animal and management components provide a net-benefit. 

The “science” component of cattle husbandry builds on the art of observing well, but then it goes further. It carefully measures not only the outcome of interest, but also other potentially biasing or confounding inputs so important factors that change the risk of disease are not confused with other factors. 

Although cattle characteristics can change slowly over time, cattle producers can change management strategies relatively rapidly. Areas of changing landscape that may result in adaptations in the near future include improved diagnostic tests to identify infectious agents and toxins associated with diseases of cattle, and genetic tests to identify carriers of both desirable and undesirable traits associated with health and fertility. These potential adaptations are exciting and research to understand the situations where they may provide benefits is ongoing. 

A holistic view

However, no discussion of making changes would be complete without an acknowledgment that not all innovations will stand the test of time. Some reasons exciting innovations are introduced only to quickly fade away include: other factors playing a bigger role in disease or production than the one we are targeting with innovative technologies or management, microorganism adapting to the pressure of new technologies and becoming much less susceptible to a promising innovation, side-effects such as toxicities or unforeseen consequences outweighing the benefits of the innovation or changes in management (human behavior) that reduce existing problems while leading to emergence of new problems. 

Because costs and availability of resources needed to produce beef products desired by consumers are constantly shifting, producers must continually explore and identify ways to adapt their management to maintain optimization. Looking at the history of innovations in cattle health as a guide, if we maintain a holistic view to create and maintain a sanitary environment; balance nutrients as needed; reduce stress; and identify and remove disease reservoirs where possible, we have reason to be certain that producers and veterinarians can adapt to the changing landscape of cattle ranching and beef production. 

Editor’s note: Robert L. Larson is a professor of production medicine and executive director of Veterinary Medicine Continuing Education at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.