In beef cattle breeding, unlike dairy farming, the only product is a calf. Therefore, industry's competitiveness directly depends on annual retention from each cow and heifer calf, preservation of calves, high growth energy young animal throughout rearing period. These indicators are influenced by many factors, one which breeding technology. The colostrum period most critical; newborn calves th...


 Pre-weaned beef and dairy calves that fail to receive mater­nal antibodies are more susceptible disease. A systematic review meta-analysis were performed evaluate the as­sociation between failed transfer of passive immunity (FTPI) disease in pre-weaned calves. Three data­bases searched for relevant studies evaluated diagnosed with FTPI at ≤8 days age recorded incidence pre-weaning. Twent...

Improvement of USDA Select grade beef is essential for consumer acceptance of leaner beef. Seventy-two large- and medium-framed steer calves of mixed breeding were used in two experiments to evaluate feedlot performance, carcass composition, and beef palatability. Interactions of dietary energy level (corn concentrate or corn silage), breed type (Angus or Simmental), carcass electrical stimulat...

Previous research indicates that early weaning before shipment can reduce transportation-induced increases in acute-phase proteins (APP) and can increase feedlot performance in beef calves. These data suggest that the combination of weaning and transport stress may compromise the immune system of calves, thus hindering subsequent performance and health. Therefore, our objective was to determine...

Beef production is an important development area in animal breeding with meat quality being determined by both paratypic and genetic factors. In this regard evaluating genetic material for the presence of desirable allele combinations of genes associated with growth and development indicators, as well as meat qualities of animals have a certain scientific and practical significance. The aim of ...

An experiment was replicated over 2 yr to determine the effect of additional RUP and dietary fat from dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS; n = 2) or wet corn gluten feed (WCGF; n = 2) before breeding on primiparous cow reproduction and calf production. Over 2 yr, 134 postpartum, primiparous cows (429 ± 5 kg initial BW) were fed 1 of 2 isocaloric, approximately isonitrogenous diets in 1 ...

Reference genes are essential for studying mRNA expression with quantitative PCR (qPCR). We investigated 11 candidate whole-blood neutrophil reference genes (ACTB, B2M, G6PD, GAPDH, GYPC, HPRT, PGK1, RPL19, SDHA, TFRC, and YWHAZ) for beef calves, both males and females, with or without selenium supplementation. Initial screening was based on gene expression level (<28 Cq cycles), variability (S...

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is a common pathogen of cattle herds that causes economic losses due to reproductive disorders in breeding cattle and increased morbidity and mortality amongst infected calves. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of BVDV spread on the productivity of a beef cow-calf herd using a stochastic model in discrete time that accounted for (1) the difference in tr...

The protective effect of a combined rotavirus/enterotoxigenic E. coli K99 vac­ cine against naturally occurring neonatal diarrhoea was evaluated in two dairy and two beef herds. Before vaccination, frequency of diarrhoea in these herds was 46% up to 60% with losses of 7% to 20%. After vaccination of pregnant cows and heifers mild diarrhoea occurred in 14% to 20% of their calves, one out of 144 ...

Optimizing the use of distiller grain (DG) is becoming increasingly important as ethanol production increases. Dairy-beef production is a system that has the potential to use large amounts of DG. Threehundred and twenty Holstein steers (420.7 + 71.5 lbs initial wt.) were fed finishing diets at the University of Illinois Beef Research Unit. Forty pens were each randomly assigned to ten treatment...