Boosting Cow Herd Efficiency with Ionophores with Frank White

Proper nutrition to support the development and continued health of breeding females can typically be found at the top of every producer’s list of concerns. But what if adding a supplement to your existing ration could potentially boost fertility and performance? 

Today’s host, Shauna Hermel, sat down with Elanco’s Frank White at CattleCon 2024 to discuss: 

• Rumensin and its applications
• The potential effect of ionophores on heifer maturity and cyclicity 
• How proper nutrition affects the overall productivity of your cow herd
• And more!

We thank Westway Feed for their support of this episode.

Find more information to make Angus work for you in the Angus Beef Bulletin and ABB EXTRA. Make sure you're subscribed! Sign up here to the print Angus Beef Bulletin and the digital Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. Have questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Contact our team at abbeditorial@angus.org.

Transcript

General:
Angus at Work, a podcast for the profit-minded cattleman, brought to you by the Angus Beef Bulletin. We have news and information on health, nutrition, marketing, genetics, and management. So, let's get to work, shall we? 

Lynsey McAnally:
Hello and welcome back to Angus At Work. Proper nutrition to support the development and continued health of breeding Females can typically be found at the top of every producer's list of concerns, but what if adding a supplement to your existing ration could potentially boost fertility and performance?
I'm Lynsey McAnally. And on today's episode, you'll hear more from Shauna Hermel and our guest, Dr. Frank White, about feed additives and their potential effect on heifer maturity, the fertility of your cow herd, overall nutrition, and more, so let's dive in.

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Today's episode of Angus at Work is brought to you by Westway Feed Products. Westway feed products, liquid feed supplements, increased forage utilization, delivering consistent nutrition to your herd, creating efficiency and sustainability for your beef operation. To learn more or to locate a dealer near you, call 800-800-7517 or go to westwayfeed.com.
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Dr. Frank White:
My job title is Beef Cattle Technical Consultant. And I guess I have two parts of my job. One is, I do some research, either with R&D or aftermarket research. And then, I do, the big majority of my job is to support our sales force, so that can be producer meetings, that can be troubleshooting issues, anything that they need, we're just there. I don't have sales responsibilities, but really just sales support for them.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
So, we're just a kind of a resource for our sales team.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay. Now, we're talking today about a program, some research that you've done on optimizing health and cattle and improving fertility, correct?

Dr. Frank White:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, fertility, it's a little different than that, but it affects reproduction, absolutely.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
So, University of Arkansas and Oklahoma State did a meta-analysis. And the goal was, monensin has been approved since the 70s, and they looked at all the research that's been done in beef cows and beef heifers and really wanted to look at what's consistent, across all the research. So, it's hard when you look at one study, and this study shows an effect, this study doesn't. But when you can look across all of the research and you see a significant effect, that's true in all of those studies, then, really, you can start to draw some conclusion, "What is monensin really doing in the beef cow and in the beef heifer?" and that's called a meta-analysis.

Shauna Hermel:
So, they did kind of a big white paper?

Dr. Frank White:
Yeah, exactly.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
Yep, that's what it meant. And those are really popular now. But, yeah.

Shauna Hermel:
So, what did they find, when they-

Dr. Frank White:
So, in beef cows, we'll start there and then we'll come back to beef heifers. So, let's take a step back. So, what monensin does is, number one, it controls coccidiosis. And then, number two, it provides more energy. And so, then, the question is, "What does a beef cow and the beef heifer do with extra energy?" So, monensin, it decreases... It changes... So, the rumen is a big fermentation vat, full of bacteria, right?

Shauna Hermel:
... Mm-hmm.

Dr. Frank White:
And those are gram-positive and gram-negative. When you feed monensin, you're just getting more gram-negative bacteria. And so, gram-negative bacteria are more efficient. They don't produce as much methane gas and carbon dioxide. Well, that carbon in those two gases are really energy. So, we're grabbing that carbon and not releasing it to the environment. We're going to use it for energy. And so, that's really how monensin works. And so, in the feed yard-

Shauna Hermel:
So, you are actually having that reduction in carbon footprint, that we want, or methane?

Dr. Frank White:
... Oh, absolutely.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And, I mean, there's no secret.

Shauna Hermel:
Yeah.

Dr. Frank White:
I believe, that's where we're heading with this. Absolutely.

Shauna Hermel:
Yep. Yep.

Dr. Frank White:
And so, and there's studies that have proven that as well.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
So, yeah, if we go back, and, then, it's, "What does those animals do with the extra energy?" So, the beef cow, what is she going to do with the extra energy? Well, number one, she's lactating, so it increased milk production-

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
... by almost a pound, per day. Number two, it decreases the postpartum and estrous interval, which your readers probably know what that is. A lot of commercial cow-calf guys don't. But the postpartum and estrous interval is the time from calving, to when they start cycling. So, a mare has a foal, she starts cycling immediately. A beef cow will take a time. And shortening that interval is important to having a calf every year. But, more importantly, 19% more cows were cycling, when we started breeding.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And that's the key. And that's all related to energy. And then, we also decreased dry matter intake, by 8%. So, we did all of that, decreased the postpartum and estrous interval, 19% more cycling, increased milk, and we did that on 8% less feed. And the reason that is, is most animals eat to meet their energy requirements, you get more energy, you eat less.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And, a matter of fact, there's a study, also, that was published, last year, in Agronomy, that one of my counterparts did, that showed that you can increase stocking rate by 9%, if you feed monensin.

Shauna Hermel:
Oh. Wow.

Dr. Frank White:
So, kind of the same thing. Those cows are eating less, so it increases... So, the numbers match up, perfectly.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
Yep. And the recommended dose for cows is 200 milligrams. The average dose for heifers, 200 milligrams also. So, the feed efficiency, I think, is hard for cow-calf guys to really wrap their mind around, but certainly a driver of profitability. So, for example, in those cows, if hay is $150.00 a ton, that's about a $30.00 return in feed savings, over a hundred days.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
So, that's cost down and controlled coccidiosis, so you get all of those benefits. And, now, it's hard to put an ROI on 19% more cycling, more increase in milk production, but both of those are going to increase weaning weights, right?

Shauna Hermel:
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Frank White:
Because if more of your cows breed early, they're all weaning the same day, those calves are going to be older.

Shauna Hermel:
So, now, with the coccidiosis shedding with cows, does that make it less likely for the calves to pick that up, if they're on monensin?

Dr. Frank White:
Yeah. So, that's kind of interesting. So, I get a lot of calls, when calves are one to two months age, "Hey, my calves are breaking with cocci, what's going on?" And so, there's some study, the original work was done out of Germany, that showed that cow's shed cocci, two weeks before calving, to two or three weeks after. And so-

Shauna Hermel:
Because that's when they're stressed?

Dr. Frank White:
... They're stressed. Yeah. So, they don't have full-blown cocci. They may be 60 [inaudible 00:06:47], per gram, but, still, that gets in the environment, these calves come along and eat, it takes about a month, and then you have cocci in the calves.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay. And you said two to four weeks after?

Dr. Frank White:
When I get calls?

Shauna Hermel:
No. Two weeks, before, to two to four weeks-

Dr. Frank White:
Oh. Two to three weeks. Two to three weeks.

Shauna Hermel:
... Oh. Two to three weeks?

Dr. Frank White:
Yeah. I mean, that's not a defined period.

Shauna Hermel:
Big thing? Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
It's just a few weeks before to a few weeks after, I think, is probably better.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And that's an area that probably needs to be studied more, to be honest with you.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
But I do believe that, actually, the lady that wrote that paper from Germany, now works at University of Wyoming.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And she literally wrote the book on Eimeria or cocci in beef cows. And, then, so she has some kind of, a little bit of data from their testing program, that backs that up in the US, but we really need more studies in the US. But, absolutely, I believe that's true, because it matches, perfectly, when these calves are getting cocci and breaking with cocci. So, and for, ever since I've been working in the field, we use the term, we use monensin to clean up our herd. You know?

Shauna Hermel:
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Frank White:
To get rid of cocci in our herd.

Shauna Hermel:
And moving on, to the heifers.

Dr. Frank White:
All right. Heifers. So, heifers are growing, right?

Shauna Hermel:
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Frank White:
So, what's a growing animal do with more energy? We saw a 5% increase in average daily gain. We saw a nine-day decrease in the time to first estrous. So, they reach estrous, so nine days sooner, is probably a better way to say that.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And then, I think, more importantly, just like the cows, 16% more recycling, at the beginning of the breeding season. And that's an important number for heifers, because if you look at Rick Funston's data, in Nebraska, or others, it's been repeated that the earlier those heifers get bred, the earlier they calve, the longer they're going to stay in your herd.

Shauna Hermel:
In the herd?

Dr. Frank White:
So, getting them bred early is really important. And so, we had 16% more cycling, at the beginning of the breeding season. So, yeah. And then, another really cool number on heifers is, in the feed yard, cattle, over 90% of the cattle in the feed yard are fed an ionophore or monensin.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
Okay? And they have a 5% improvement in feed efficiency.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
Okay? So, but these heifers had a 14% improvement in feed efficiency, so we're threefold of what you see in the feed yard, on these heifers.

Shauna Hermel:
So why do you think that was true?

Dr. Frank White:
A combination of an increase in average daily gain and a decrease in intake, just like the cows, like we talked about. And it's just a really big... They're increasing in gain and they're eating less to do it, it throws feed efficiency really high.

Shauna Hermel:
High?

Dr. Frank White:
I think it is, also, tied to roughage.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And there's more energy in roughage, that you can get out with something like monensin, than in the feed yard. Because when we feed them, we're feeding starch, we're kind of maximizing energy.

Shauna Hermel:
Yeah.

Dr. Frank White:
So, we still get a bump, but not as much as if you're on grass. So, I think there's two things that limit monensin's use in cows. And, number one, it's education. Our industry looks at monensin and as a feed yard product, but, really, because it just gives more energy, there's a place from the cradle to the grave.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
I think the other thing is, "How do I give it to them?" So, educating producers, which we're trying to. We've really, I think, really amped up our efforts to do that. And that's a lot of what I do. And then, "How do I get it in my cattle?" I mean, I think it depends on how you supplement your cows.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
So, a lot of times, where I work, out in the West, forage isn't limiting, so I would even recommend you don't feed monensin, until you start supplementing.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And, when you start supplementing, that's where that feed efficiency becomes important. So, in the summer or fall, whenever you start supplementing, that's when I would feed it. So, certainly, where I grew up, in the South, that we feed cake or cubes, it's just a no-brainer to put it in cake or cubes. I think if you're feeding a TMR, up in the North and to the West, I think, absolutely, that's a no-brainer as well. That's just like a feed yard diet. Almost all feed yard cattle get it, all cows should get it, because you're losing 8% efficiency, you're overfeeding by 8%, if you don't.
So, outside of that, there's some... I've worked with customers who've mixed it with distillers and they feed distillers every day. They mix it with grain. I mean, it just really depends on, "How am I supplementing my cows?" And I'd say, work with your nutritionist or your feed company, they can figure out how to make it happen.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
But that's a good point. That seems to be one of the limiting factors.

Shauna Hermel:
So, as far as just waiting, until you start providing supplement, maybe in the fall, or winter, or right before breeding? Or...

Dr. Frank White:
That's been my default.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
Now, when you go, because I work in big cow, big country, if you go to the East, where pastures are limited and if grass is limited, that recent study would say, "Hey, feed it and you can stock 9% more."

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
But I think, when you're out, if grass is not limiting you, absolutely, I wouldn't feed it, because, I mean, you're getting more improvement in feed, first, but you got tons of grass there.

Shauna Hermel:
Is there any need to try and make sure that you segregate your herd on your twos and threes, from your mature cows? Or...

Dr. Frank White:
Not to feed monensin. Monensin would benefit all of them. The body condition score drives everything.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
If you look at the commercial cow herd, there's a lot of cows that are too thin, so body condition score drives everything. I forgot where I was going with that. Oh. So, I'm a big believer in separating your thin cows or your two-year-olds from... Because your two-year-old, that's an interesting phenomenon there, because you have a calf that's growing still.

Shauna Hermel:
Uh-huh.

Dr. Frank White:
You've got a calf that's lactating, if that was a first-calf heifer. And then, you also have a... You want her to get bread. So, that's the three biggest nutritional stressors on one animal. It's also the most common time we cull our herd. So, yeah. So, absolutely, separating off your first calves, your heifers and your thin cows, pays dividends. Otherwise, those big, fat cows, you're just overfeeding them.

Shauna Hermel:
So, if we had producers that were questioning whether they wanted to try it and see if they got the benefit, would you suggest that they maybe use those 2 and 3-year-old cows, as a place-

Dr. Frank White:
Yeah. There's a study that was published in early 2000s, that they took more range cows.

Shauna Hermel:
... Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
So, lower body condition. And they increased pregnancy rates, by 11%, by feeding monensin. So, my point is, and I think that's due to energy too.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
But I really think it's those thin cows and those young cows will... You know? They're going to get your biggest bang for your buck in those, absolutely. And that's actually the hardest part. I've been doing this, for a long time. What drives people to monensin? Drought.

Shauna Hermel:
Yeah.

Dr. Frank White:
Because of that feed efficiency, they can cut down on feed cost, or I can run more cows on the same feed that I have. So, once you get them started, though, there's all of these other benefits that we talked about. And the controlling cocci, they usually stay on it.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And so, yeah, if they wanted to try it in young and thin cows, that makes sense.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay. So, let's talk about the climate angle of it.

Dr. Frank White:
Yeah.

Shauna Hermel:
And what is it doing there? How does that work again?

Dr. Frank White:
Yeah. So, I think that's where we're heading with monensin in cows.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
It does decrease methane and carbon dioxide, that's been proven. And so, now, I think that, as an industry, we're in the infancy stage of this, and, "How do we give credit to somebody who wants to feed monensin to their cows?" I mean, that's where we're working. And we work certainly with Athian, which is a carbon credit company.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And we're developing, they're called protocols. And, once those are approved... So, we're really at the beginning of this, but that certainly is a direction we want to go.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
And I think we'll help drive, actually, adoption into cow herds as well. But, to me, sustainability and all of this environmental stuff really is all about efficiency in those cows. I would rather use the term, "Efficiency," than, "Sustainability."

Shauna Hermel:
Right.

Dr. Frank White:
But, certainly, it's good for the cows. And if someone wants to give you money for doing something that already makes sense, then I have no problem with that.

Shauna Hermel:
A lot of those carbon credits are geared toward you, making us something to improve. Is it better to start now, or wait until you can get credit?

Dr. Frank White:
Yeah. I talked about Athian, as they make carbon. And creating a carbon market, will also let you measure and set your baseline for your methane production. And then, you can make changes in the future.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
So, I guess my point is, we hope that you can get carbon credit, even if you're feeding monensin now, but we don't know.

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
To answer your question.

Shauna Hermel:
All right.

Dr. Frank White:
But I think, for all the benefits we've talked about, the carbon credit won't come close to what you would get paid for doing that now.

Shauna Hermel:
Yeah. So, is there anything that we haven't covered, that you think that is important to our audience?

Dr. Frank White:
No. I think we did a good job of covering-

Shauna Hermel:
Okay.

Dr. Frank White:
... the effects of monensin for cows and heifers. I think the only thing would be, you could reach out to your Elanco technical consultant or Elanco sales rep, or you can reach out or look up [inaudible 00:15:15].

General: 
Listeners, for more information on making Angus work for you, check out the Angus Beef Bulletin and the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. You can subscribe to both publications, in the show notes. If you have questions or comments, let us know at abbeditorial@angus.org. And we would appreciate it, if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcast and share this episode with any other profit-minded cattlemen. Thanks for listening. This has been Angus at Work.