According to the article “Hormones, here’s the beef” posted on Peason’s Science news online page “Each year, U.S. farmers send 30 million head of cattle to feedlots To enhance the animals' production of muscle—that is, meat—livestock producers treat 80 percent of all feedlot cattle with steroid hormones” 

Each dosage placed in an animals ear can cost anywhere from 90 cents to three dollars.  Bovine animals can be implanted more than once in their lifetime, so the dollar amount spent per animal for hormones can vary drastically. The products can add up quickly so it is very important that they are used correctly in order to reduce wasted cost and also so the animals are not harmed.

The video posted below is a short clip on how to properly put a growth promotant into the ear. The video was found on Youtube and was published by a company that produces the implants. The company is called Elanco. 

 

The following sentences are a little background on the company of Elanco. The company has been around since 1954 and their mission statement as stated on their website  "We provide those who raise and care for animals with a comprehensive set of animal health products and knowledge services that empower them to address the global challenges of a diverse and changing world." Elanco makes all types of antibiotics, and vaccines as well as countless other products used in the livestock industry. The blue highlighted link above will take you to Elanco's home page where more information can be found about the other services and products.

Elanco published this video to share the correct implanting techniques with farmers and ranchers.

It breaks down the video into multiple different steps, preparation, restrain the animal, clean the implant site, load the applicator, insert the needle, deposit the implant, close the wound, clean the needle, reload the applicator, and lastly clean up your working area. 

The video makes the implantation process very clear and short enough for farmers to sit down and watch the video even with their very demanding schedules. 

Can Young Calves Benefit from Growth Promotants too?

Besides using hormones in the feedlots hormones are implanted into young calves as well. A lot of research has been done and their are many studies showing positive benefits in many cow calf operations across the country. 

University of Georgia’s online data base states “Implanting nursing calves with a growth stimulant is one of the most economically justifiable practices available in the beef industry. Implants have been shown to increase weaning weights of nursing calves in hundreds of research trials. Stocker and feedlot calves exhibit even greater responses than nursing calves. Implanting returns more revenue per dollar invested than any other management practice.” It isn’t a difficult practice to learn and implement on your own farm. Calves can be implanted when an ID tag is put in the ear. It has been recommended to wait to implant calves until they are 45 days of age as hormone production in these animals has not yet started until they reach 45 days of age.

Along with the type of implant the environment in which the calf is in also can have a big effect of the response rate to the implant. Cattle must have adequate nutrition before implants can positively influence feed efficiency and gain. 

This chart demonstrates the increase of dollars that a producer can gain  

Virgina State University’s Newletter states the following “For cow-calf producers, there are basically three implants to choose from -- Ralgro, Synovex-C and Component-C. All of these can be used on calves still nursing their dams. Ralgro can be given at birth whereas you need to wait until calves are at least 45 days old to use Synovex-C or Component-C." 

These implants last about 90 days, so calves implanted  around 45 days of age should

 be re-implanted at mid-summer for maximum results.

Click here to read more about implants in calves.

http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=B1302

http://www.sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/livestock/aps-99_04/aps-0046.html