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