Heat stress killing cattle.
(www.dtnpf.com)
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Good info.
The picture looks like a feedlot. I wonder if a feedlot received the cattle that had been eating grass, and switched them to a high grain diet, and either it was not a good mix for these cattle, or the switch was too quick.
That, or from one type of grain mix to a different one that was supposed to fatten them up faster.
These look like black angus. Every breed handles these things differently, including the heat. Could be a dumb move by the feedlot, or could be foul play.
What's your take on that? You have experience that most of us around here do not.
No, if I were selling to a feedlot I'd have to get my calves used to eating feed, weaned, vaccinated, etc... Our sale barn even mandates preg checking at a certain age, because if the heifers are pregnant, they can't be on a feedlot.
If you want a good heat tolerant breed, pretty much anything we grow here in East Texas will do well.
It's actually more about where the calves were raised. If they come from the north to the south, they don't do so well in the heat, and I hear if they go north from the south, they don't do so well in the cold.
It's possible the feedlot owner messed up and didn't provide adequate shade or whatnot. It's possible he bought some calves from the north and brought them south. Maybe he was taking a gamble to try and eke out some more profit given the strange market conditions.