Healthy Herd

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

• Identify key components of ruminant nutrition and explain how diverse pastures contribute to meeting cattle nutritional requirements.
• Describe at least two examples of infectious disease prevention and treatment.
• Explain potential management of at least two key pests, including tradeoffs in soil health for synthetic treatments.
• Define “genotype” and “phenotype.”
• Identify at least two desirable phenotypic traits for grazing cattle.

Overview

Grazing livestock often have fewer health issues than livestock in feedlots. While many health issues are reduced with well-managed grazing practices, maintaining a healthy herd still requires a mix of meeting the herd’s nutritional requirements, preventing and managing infectious diseases and pests, and selecting genetics that are well-suited for adaptive grazing.