Are you looking to wean healthy, high performing calves from the start like Howard Ranches in Oklahoma? You can get cattle to the bunk faster and keep calves on YOUR program with our Vita Charge® weaning program.
Products discussed in the show:
WEAN or TRANSITION with VITA CHARGE® CATTLE DRENCH
What is it?
A drench for cattle that supports digestive health and promotes feed and water intake during times of stress and recovery. Conveniently designed for processing large groups of ruminating cattle.
What's the benefit?
Within the first 48 hours of receiving or weaning calves, use the Vita Charge Cattle Drench to:
- Jump start feed and energy intake
- Stimulate the cattle's immune system
- Allows maximum effectiveness of weaning time vaccinations
Don Abarr
"Through the course of last summer and early fall, we ran Vita Charge® Drench at weaning and ran it through almost every calf. We only treated four calves (out of nearly 600) the entire fall season, and that really made me a believer. We deliberately didn’t give the Vita Charge Drench to a few calves to run our own experiment, and you can see the difference right away. The first 10 days after weaning, those calves go backwards, that’s a 30-pound differential and that translates into real dollars. We used Vita Charge to help with digestibility through that stressful time, when we put our bull calves in our bull development program, we target for them to gain 3.25 pounds per day. As we ran those trials into February, we weighed the bulls every 30 days. With the usage of the product and the fast start that they got, out of 170 bulls, I had six bulls not gain at least 3 pounds per day. The rest were 3.80, and we had a huge number of those calves that were up over 4 pounds."
START with VITA CHARGE® STRESS TUBS
What is it?
A cooked tub for beef cattle that supports digestive health and promotes feed and water intake during times of stress and recovery. Conveniently allows beef cattle to get their daily dose of Vita Charge® without additional handling.
What's the benefit?
During the first 7-21 days, use the Vita Charge stress tubs to:
- Promotes feed and water intake
- MOS to help trap bad bacteria, limiting their ability to do harm
- Increases digestibility to maximize the energy value of feed for more gains
Ree Ranches, MT
"It is a big part to have a healthy calf and not have pulls since we are selling our calves on an all-natural program. We’ve had really good success putting Vita Charge® Stress Tubs in front of the calves immediately at weaning. An ounce or two of stress tubs versus an ounce or two of medication is pretty reasonable, if you were able to compare it by ounce."
GROW with a GAIN SMART® MINERAL
What is it?
Gain Smart is a line of vitamin and mineral supplements for beef cattle with the Amaferm® advantage that promotes economically produced pounds by maximizing the natural energy and protein available in forage. VitaFerm and Gain Smart are recognized by Superior Livestock Auctions as the first-ever nutrition programs in their lineup of value-added programs.
What's the benefit?
When fed 45-100 days
- Promotes calf vigor and health
- Stimulates digestion and increases nutrient uptake for optimum gain
- Supports hoof health and immunity
- Accurately supplements minerals lacking in pastures and rectifies mineral imbalances.
Tom Carter"I believe in minerals. I believe the most problems you have with cattle is with mineral deficiency. I saw the VitaFerm® Gain Smart® Program on The American Rancher one night, and I thought I could use that. Since I started feeding Gain Smart, I’ve had less than 1% death loss. I have virtually no foot rot or pinkeye problems at all."