Lowering Calf and Equipment Operator Stress from CattleCon25

Innovations and technological advancements are two things the agricultural industry has a wealth of. Staying up to date on opportunities to adopt new tech or check out new products? Now, that can be easier said than done. 

On this episode, we're bringing you two more interesting interviews from CattleCon 2025 thanks to our very own Shauna Hermel. First up is Kaylene Ballesteros, Go-to-Market Manager, Hay & Forage for John Deere, to discuss available automation and insights including John Deere’s Precision Essentials Kit – a bundle of core equipment scalable to different size operations that gives you the option to choose the precision tools you need, when you need them.

Next up, we're joined by Steve Schram and Doug Shane from Solvet to discuss LidoBand, a latex rubber band designed to deliver lidocaine as a local anesthetic during castration of calves up to 250 pounds (lb.) and lambs under 50 lb.

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

Lynsey McAnally (00:04):

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?

Hello and welcome back to Angus at Work. Innovations and Technological advancements are two things the agricultural industry has a wealth of. Staying up-to-date on opportunities to adopt new tech or check out new products? Now, that can be easier said than done. 

I'm Lynsey McAnally and, on today's episode, we're bringing you two more interesting interviews from CattleCon 2025 thanks to our very own Shauna Hermel. First up is Kaylene Ballesteros, Go-to-Market Manager, Hay and Forage for John Deere, to discuss available automation and insights including John Deere's Precision Essentials Kit — a bundle of core equipment scalable to different size operations that gives you the option to choose the precision tools you need when you need them.

Shauna Hermel (01:28):

Good afternoon! This is Shauna Hermel and I'm editor with the Angus Beef Bulletin. We want to welcome you to this edition of Angus at Work. We are here today talking with a representative from our favorite green company, John Deere! Kaylene, I will not pronounce your name right so I'm going to let you pronounce it.

Kaylene Ballesteros (01:49):

That's all right! Yeah. So my name is Kaylene Ballesteros and I am the Go-to-Market manager for our Hay and Forage segment products here at John Deere.

Shauna Hermel (01:59):

Could you tell a little bit about yourself and your role there at John Deere?

Kaylene Ballesteros (02:05):

Sure, sure! So I grew up on a small cow-calf operation. My dad's side of the family were ranchers from Texas. My mom's side of the family are horse ranchers. My grandpa, my mother and my uncle all have a sizable breeding horse breeding facility. Breeding training and showing. So I grew up in high school going to school half of the week, Then Wednesdays through Sundays traveling to horse shows to show and market our horses. So really the hay and forage area is my focus. Although I do love row crop! I love the farming side. This is really my bread and butter, and so I love that.

Shauna Hermel (02:51):

How did you transition to John Deere from growing up?

Kaylene Ballesteros (02:55):

What was your career path?

Kaylene Ballesteros (02:56):

My mother was involved in the PRCA and the pro rodeo area in marketing. She then eventually created her own marketing company after that and so, after many years of child labor, I told myself, ‘I'm never doing marketing and I'm never doing agriculture! Get me out of here. I'm going to go do something else.’ Thought I was going to do non-profit, went to college, did do Marketing, and then promptly started working for John Deere. So, it's never say never, right? And I've not looked back. It's been 13 years at John Deere. They've allowed me to grow and learn, but also impart my wisdom and what I know into the company which is why I'm here.

Shauna Hermel (03:45):

That's a big group or big area for our audience. We find that they are looking for hay and forage equipment as much as anything else. Except for maybe a pickup truck.

Kaylene Ballesteros (03:57):

Right? Sure.

Shauna Hermel (03:59):

You all gave a presentation last night that was really interesting. You were part of a group that talked about hay and forage and some of the automation and the precision essentials that you talked out. I wanted to talk to you a little bit in person about those today. So can you go through the Precision Essentials Kit and kind of tell us what that is?

Kaylene Ballesteros (04:25):

Yeah, so our Precision Essentials Kit is a grouping of hardware and licenses that we offer at John Deere for some of our most beneficial technology that we really have. Now, the hardware such as the modem, the display, our GPS unit, the dome — the infamous yellow dome on the top of our equipment — they're not new. What this is is really an expanded lineup of the kit with a different sized display as well as a few additional licenses that go with that. And why did we do that? We did that because we really wanted to make sure that what we are providing our ranchers and our farmers is enough that if you are a small operation and you're wanting to start off just basic and simple and get that underneath you versus very advanced, we have that full lineup now that really is serving all customers and segments.

Shauna Hermel (05:27):

Tell me about that modem and what does having that do for you besides just driving that old 4020 around the pasture like we talked about.

Kaylene Ballesteros (05:35):

Yes, yes. Well, guess what? The modem can go on older equipment as well as new. So hey, maybe we could try it out on that 4020. You never know! This technology has been in our other segments for many years for whether you're a row crop farmer, etc. We have lots of value for them, but the hay and forage is really where we've got quite a bit of new technology, features and offerings. You can start with the modem as basic as focusing on machine health. The maintenance plan, ordering parts if you're an operator or you are on self-owned, just running your equipment, weekend farm type of thing. The modem is perfect for you. You can focus completely on your machine health. Now, if you're interested in more of the data and analysis, you can take a step up, get the display and then you can start documenting those passes. You can look at things like your bale count, you can look at moisture by bale. You can look at your moisture and your yield field by field as well with our bale documentation. So we really have something at every level that is providing value all through our Precision Essentials Kit.

Shauna Hermel (07:05):

So how does it collect all that information? Is that something that a producer has to plug in or is it just an automated system?

Kaylene Ballesteros (07:14):

We have a free JD Link Connectivity is what it is. It is a form of connectivity. Now, the display itself is what does the documenting as you're going through the field. Once you have that documented, now you need to send that to your ops center. If you have that downloaded on your phone or using it on your desktop, you need to send that wirelessly. That's where your modem really comes in handy. And your modem also collects machine data as well, so you understand some of those performance metrics too.

Shauna Hermel (07:47):

So it's like syncing your program on your iPhone with that program on your desktop computer?

Kaylene Ballesteros (07:54):

Yes, yes. You need to send it from the tractor to whatever device you're using.

Shauna Hermel (08:00):

Okay. Okay. And what type of return can producers find with this automation? Are they going to with the bale count and the bale moisture? What do you find?

Kaylene Ballesteros (08:11):

Yeah, it really varies, but what I like to think of is, one, it's peace of mind. Two, it's managing some of your equipment yourself so you can keep up with time. Less downtime from a machine health standpoint by being able to buy your own parts right there, go pick them up at the dealership. Or hey, your dealer can actually connect in with you and look at your tractor, for example, and look at some of the codes that possibly are being thrown and help you right then and there. That in itself, you can't put a number on time just in general. And then you have certain elements such as the analyzing in your field. Do we think that putting fertilizer on our field helps with yield? Yes. But by how much? And you can start to put a number to it. If you can see I put this on Field A, did something different on Field B, now I have confidence in what I'm using from an input standpoint. I can make sure that I am putting that where I need to, saving where I maybe don't need to use it and investing in those right areas of my operation.

Shauna Hermel (09:21):

So does it track that in the field from year to year?

Kaylene Ballesteros (09:24):

Yes, year over year, field by field. As long as you have your boundaries set up in your field, you can document every pass and you can keep that and it's all your own data. Of course you can share it with trusted stakeholders, agronomists, nutritionists, your dealer, but that's all something you would opt in yourself. But it is all your data to decide what to do with.

Shauna Hermel (09:50):

Is there anything else that you have on the Precision Essentials that we haven't really covered that you think that we ought to tell producers?

Kaylene Ballesteros (09:58):

Talk to your dealer. We have so many options, and the Precision Essentials Kit is at very variable prices. We want to make sure it's affordable and adaptable to every customer and every farm type. So if you think there isn't something for you, chances are now that we have this, there is something for you. Please reach out to your dealer for more on that.

Shauna Hermel (10:19):

And that's just going to your local dealer and asking the question, which everybody likes to go get coffee, right? 

Kaylene Ballesteros (10:25):

Exactly. Why not?

Shauna Hermel (10:26):

Now, one of the things that you talked about yesterday that really intrigues me is this automated weave on the baler. I mean, looking at maybe not being the steadiest hand out in the field when baling, not sure my brother would let me on the baler. I get to rake.

Kaylene Ballesteros (10:44):

Hey, that's okay! That's okay.

Shauna Hermel (10:47):

Can you describe a little bit of that new technology?

Kaylene Ballesteros (10:50):

Sure. So automation, it might be new to some other of our competitors, but it's not new to John Deere in the baling space. We have had forms of bailing automation for many years now. We have what we call our baler automation. Now what this does is you select the size of bale that you want, your tractor will go the correct speed stop and eject that bale all on its own. So whether that means you can maybe just take …

Shauna Hermel (11:19):

I might be able to bale!

Kaylene Ballesteros (11:19):

Right? You can take a load off, you can think about something else. It’s just less operator error possibly for some of us that would like some of that leniency. The new automation that we have to add on top of that is this weave automation you mentioned. So I'm going to take everybody a step back in time and think of bailing for your parents or even yourself and really trying to get the art of weaving over the windrows to make sure you have a very consistently shaped squared up bale.

Shauna Hermel (11:54):

Not a hump in the middle.

Kaylene Ballesteros (11:55):

Right, exactly. Without completely driving over the windrow. Right. There's an art to it, and a lot of people have done it enough, they can do it in their sleep. But this new automation allows for the baler itself to do that weaving at the hitch for you.

Shauna Hermel (12:12):

I was going to say, how does it do that?

Kaylene Ballesteros (12:13):

Yes. We use some of our very well-known technology from our auto track sensors. So auto track's been out for many years. I know that's something we're all very comfortable with at this point. We're basing it off of those sensors and using that technology to unlock this on the bailing side. And so all you have to do is drive right through that windrow wheels on each side and it will sense where you're at and you set the width to your bale so you know how wide of a windrow you have, and then it will do the weaving for you. So hey, if you need to make a phone call or think about something else, that's just one less thing to have to do in the cab on top of it. Easier operation. But if you think about just the fact of the little bit of driving into the windrows you do and the debris that it does introduce into the windrow, you have much less opportunity for debris and that type of dirt to be in the windrow.

Shauna Hermel (13:19):

So do you have to have a flat surface for it to be able to work?

Kaylene Ballesteros (13:22):

No, it actually works really great, even in hilly conditions. And it does have a little bit of a feature where when you do eject the bale, it will leave your baler at a little bit of an angle. So when it ejects it, you don't have to worry about that bale rolling down the hill and possibly into a creek or a pond. I would know nothing about that.

Shauna Hermel (13:46):

It sounds like you have experience?

Kaylene Ballesteros (13:48):

Maybe.

Shauna Hermel (13:52):

Alright, anything else? Does it take a certain type of tractor or horsepower wise?

Kaylene Ballesteros (13:58):

Yeah, so right now it’s on our 6R series tractors. We are hoping to introduce also the 6M series with that compatibility as well. We do have a few different options that we need to select, but really overall it's a factory installed option at this point. So something that you can order when you order your new bailer.

Shauna Hermel (14:18):

How about the equipment market these days? I mean, do you find that when calf prices are up people are looking for a way to maybe put that into hay harvesting equipment?

Kaylene Ballesteros (14:30):

Yeah, so I would say from a market perspective, the good thing that we have at Deere is we have something for everybody. And if somebody comes in the door and is looking for something that’s maybe a little more cost effective for them at that point, we have that for them. So no matter where they are at from a readiness perspective or a pocketbook perspective, we want to make sure that we are giving them what they can to unlock profitability at every level.

Shauna Hermel (14:59):

Do you have opportunities to lease the Weave equipment to see if you like it before you purchase it?

Kaylene Ballesteros (15:06):

Sure. So when we do have our ordering opening up, which will be this fall, there will be opportunities to reach out to your local dealer and ask for demos.

Shauna Hermel (15:16):

Well, for the sake of the podcast, a lot of times we like to wrap up with people on a high note. Just with a personal experience or business experience really positive in the last year. Can you share maybe something that would …

Kaylene Ballesteros (15:31):

For me from a personal perspective is I have, and I'll be honest, John Deere has really helped me open my eyes to this. Just the fact that we have everywhere from experienced farmers and ranchers to first generation farmers and ranchers. The first-generation farmers and ranchers, for me, are a thing of an interest. That's what I feel passionate about because we have to keep fostering that. And that's of course, like I've said, one thing with John Deere is we are trying to offer something at every level because we want that to be reachable and attainable by everybody. From a personal perspective, that is a passion of mine. We have a handful of acres that need to be rotated. Our alfalfa fields need to be rotated. This year, I had two or three farmers reach out to me that said they'd want to farm it. I had a set of 22-year-old twins from the town next to us that reached out. They're first generation, they want to try it out. They have some old equipment, they're just trying to get their feet under them. I gave it to them probably for next to nothing, but to just see them out there trying it, figuring it out? You can't put a price on that.

Shauna Hermel (16:53):

It's wonderful to see the next generation wanting to find a way to get into agriculture.

Kaylene Ballesteros (16:58):

It is. It is. That's what's neat about our community. We want to foster that. And I think that's really cool.

Shauna Hermel (17:08):

Well, thank you for sharing your time with us this afternoon and to be able to explain some of the new technology that's coming out of John Deere.

Kaylene Ballesteros (17:15):

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Lynsey McAnally (17:26):

Next up, we're joined by Steve Schram and Doug Shane from Solvet to discuss LidaBand, a latex rubber band designed to deliver lidocaine as a local anesthetic during castration of calves and lambs under 50 pounds (lb.).

Shauna Hermel (17:49):

Good afternoon! This is Shauna Hermel, editor of the Angus Beef Bulletin, and we are here with Angus at Work. We have a couple guests today that are visiting with us on some new research on a relatively new technology that we can possibly put into beef cattle production. So I'll let you give an introduction of yourself if you would. Steve, if you could start out?

Steve Schram (18:13):

Yes, hi. Thank you. My name's Steve Schram and I'm representing Solvet Animal Health.

Shauna Hermel (18:20):

And what do you do there at Solvet? 

Steve Schram (18:22):

So Cornerstone Animal Health is a company that was founded several years ago, and we've helped Solvet market their products into the United States market. Solvet is a Canadian-based company out of Calgary and we’re helping to position their new products like LidaBand. So I am a marketing person helping them get things into the market and making sure our customer base here in the U.S. knows about the products.

Shauna Hermel (18:45):

We got to visit a little bit about LidaBand when it hit the market at Association of Beef Practitioners, I believe? And we got to introduce that to our audience then. Can you give us a little recap on what that product is?

Steve Schram (18:59):

Yeah, so LidaBand was introduced, as you mentioned, at ABP. That was actually our first convention. The first introduction of SOLvet to the United States market. So LidoBand is a castration band. They've been around for many years for small animal castration. They’re called the Cheerio type of bands. But what's really unique is Solvet was able to impregnate lidocaine into this band so you can not only castrate the animal, but provide pain relief at the same time. So we introduced that about two years ago knowing that it's the right thing to do and a humane type of product. But since then we've got some really nice research that Dr. Shane can talk about that not only shows that it's the right thing to do, but also a nice return on investment for the product.

Shauna Hermel (19:42):

Excellent. Excellent. So go ahead and introduce yourself!

Doug Shane (19:45):

Yeah, my name is Dr. Doug Shane and I work with Steve at Cornerstone and helps support Solvet with veterinary technical support, [research and development], anything that requires a veterinary eye on it.

Shauna Hermel (19:59):

Awesome. Give us a little bit of background. Where'd you get your vet degree and all that good stuff?

Doug Shane (20:04):

Yeah, so went to Kansas State University. All my degrees came from K State: my bachelor's degree, my veterinary degree and I have a PhD in beef production medicine and epidemiology.

Shauna Hermel (20:14):

You're not wearing purple today?

Doug Shane (20:16):

And I'm not wearing purple today. I've got my Solvet shirt on today! Not being a good K-Stater today … So, I’ve worked with folks that now run the Beef Cattle Institute at Kansas State University and done a lot of work with cow-calf research, feedlot research, and worked at a couple different animal health companies after I graduated.

Shauna Hermel (20:38):

Okay. Well, today we're here to talk a little bit about the background of the LidoBand and what the technology is. It's lidocaine that's in that band. Can you explain that real quickly?

Doug Shane (20:52):

Yeah. So what Solvet did, and for those that don't know vet, actually the name quite literally is based off of solutions for veterinarians. That’s where the name Solvet comes from. And we know that providing anesthesia and analgesia or pain relief for castration continues to be a challenge, not just in the United States but around the world. A lot of the solutions are not easy to do and they don't fit into how we tend to normally do business and our normal husbandry practices. So the founders of Solvet and the co-inventor of this product, Dr. Merle Olson, had the crazy idea of, ‘Well, we can get pesticides into ear tags. Why can't we get lidocaine as a local anesthetic into castration bands so that we can at least address some component of the pain of castration?’ That's exactly what they did. Merle used his master's degree in chemistry paired with his veterinary and product development knowledge to figure out how to get this done. So simply put, there's a process that allows the lidocaine to be impregnated throughout the latex rubber of the castration band, and then there's also some lidocaine that sits on the surface. And once you place the band on the animal that lidocaine begins to be absorbed through the skin and acting locally there to provide anesthetic pain relief, making it so that the calf is not feeling that band once it's been placed.

Shauna Hermel (22:20):

So now that band is a little cheerio, like you described Steve. How do you affix that to the animal? You use a normal applicator?

Doug Shane (22:30):

Yep. You can use any commercially available four-pin band applicator. And so there's a number of companies that make those, but you just use your standard applicator that you would use for any normal cheerio. The only observable difference in how the band looks is that the LidoBand is white instead of green, and it's a little bit fatter because of that lidocaine that's infused throughout the latex rubber. But, otherwise, it looks just like a normal Cheerio.

Shauna Hermel (23:03):

So how long does that lidocaine actually have an effect?

Doug Shane (23:06):

Yeah, we actually have dissolution studies, so showing how long the lidocaine is released out of those bands that go all the way out to 42 days. And it's still releasing the lidocaine. So it's really providing that anesthetic relief all the way through the scrotal and testicular tissues fall off of the animal. And we know that it's important, and I think we'll get to this in a little bit talking about some of our research that we've done. There's that pain when the band is placed and that pain that comes in that short time thereafter. But then there's also another discomfort and painful event that happens about three or four weeks after the band is placed.

The tissues begin to become necrotic and fall off the animal, It actually causes some irritation at that time and it's still providing benefit at that time. And we've seen behavioral differences in those animals because they're just more comfortable as the tissues are preparing to fall off.

Shauna Hermel (23:59):

So is there any antibiotic in this as the tissue falls off if it opens a wound? Is there any problems that way?

Doug Shane (24:07):

Nope. Really how you use the product is just if you're used to banding, you're basically going to follow the same exact processes and procedures. What's different is that lidocaine component, but otherwise the banding that people are very familiar with, there's really no difference. Generally speaking with banding, there are fewer infections compared to open or surgical castration done with a knife conventionally, although most veterinarians will still recommend to give a tetanus vaccine.

Shauna Hermel (24:38):

Now, when the bands had first come out, they were for zero to 250 lb., correct? So basically for a producer to apply at birth if they can, as they're doing tagging and such. Correct.

Steve Schram (24:52):

Correct. Yeah. But what's exciting for us is we're here at this show going to be announcing this starting in April. We'll actually have additional bands available for every weight animal now over 250 lb.

So the first one's up to 250 lb. Then we have three other bands that we'll be introducing in April that are infused with lidocaine that really will take care of anyone that needs to do castration over 250 lb.

Shauna Hermel (25:17):

Now from a seedstock background, this sounds good for being able to keep bull contemporary groups together, but we also know that our commercial producers … a lot of times the first time you have a chance to be able to band those calves would be weaning time. Can you explain kind of the difference applying that at birth versus at a weaning time or branding?h

Doug Shane (25:41):

Yeah, we know, and as a company we like to speak to best practices and ideally we would castrate animals as young as possible. There are some veterinarians and folks that would say that the younger the animal, the less attached they are to their testicles. And so we do want to encourage young castration as much as possible because it does result in less pain and stress to the younger the animal is, and there's less that you're trying to remove from the animal at that point in time. 

Shauna Hermel (26:10):

Makes sense.

Doug Shane (26:10):

So we'll continue to promote that, but we recognize that not everybody is capable of doing that or there's legitimate management reasons why you would not castrate a very young animal. So a seedstock operation would be a great example where you'd have that. So the bigger bands will be applied. A lot of folks are familiar with the Triband brand and their kind of triangle-shaped applicator devices. Those bands will be applied with those devices, which are generally available for most folks. Not everybody's used them, but that's how those bands will be applied.

Shauna Hermel (26:49):

So for somebody who hasn't ever used a bander, can you describe it? I mean, we're putting that band on it and we're stretching it and trying to place it over the scrotum and to the top of the scrotum?

Doug Shane (27:00):

The applicator devices, they're simply stretching a rubber band so to speak, and expanding it so it can fit over the scrotum and the testes. You're going to, typically, you're going to grab the testicles and try to pull them down so that you can get the band over. It's always good to count to two and make sure you have both testicles. And then, yes, you will expand that band and slide it up and get it up onto the neck of the scrotum up above where the testes are, and then you're simply going to release the device and then that band applies pressure and it constricts back down to its smaller size.

Shauna Hermel (27:34):

Now with a calf, you wouldn't have to worry about doing any slice at the bottom of the testes. Do you have to for if you're banding at a larger weight or heavier weight?

Doug Shane (27:48):

Yeah, that's been looked at as far as whether or not to split the scrotum when you band, especially on our larger bull calves that were castrating. What I would tell folks is that really consult with your veterinarian on that and see what your veterinarian's judgment and discretion would be. I think there would be research that would support either position at this point in time on whether or not there's value in splitting the scrotum o  n the older bulls.

Shauna Hermel (28:11):

I take it a tetanus shot would be a lot more important?

Doug Shane (28:18):

Maybe more important. I mean, typically with any banding at any age we would recommend a tetanus shot.

Shauna Hermel (28:24):

Could you explain a little bit of what you found research -wise on how LidoBand might be a better mechanism for castrating these larger animals?

Doug Shane (28:36):

Yeah. So for these larger animals, we know, and I think most producers have experience where you castrate weaned calves or maybe a little bit older than weaned calves. And either with surgical castration or with the band you castrate, you send them out of the chute and you watch 'em and they go lay up in the pasture or they go lay up in the pen and they're clearly in pain and they're not moving. They go off feed for a period of time, and then eventually they kind of compensate and they try to come to their prey animals. That's what they're kind of designed by God to do.

And they get back around. But everybody kind of sees that in the short term. The work that we've done so far in these larger calves … we see those calves more apt to get back up on feed. They're not spending so much time being laid up in the pen and not wanting to move and being hunched up and they're getting back on feed, and they're acting more like a normal calf after they're getting castrated after that band placement and it's staying with them. And that's the beauty of it. There's a lot of great, older research that talks about band castration. There's pain and discomfort that lasts for weeks and weeks and weeks. And that's historically one of the reasons why some folks preferred surgical castration over band castration is they felt like it's painful, But it hurts now and the pain resolves faster and there might be some merit to that. This helps alleviate that concern so that we can have the clear benefits of band castration over surgical castration. Now we're addressing the chronicity or the duration of that pain associated with band castration. And in these older calves, this is a really meaningful solution for them.

Shauna Hermel (30:33):

So now why would somebody want to go ahead and castrate an animal that old?

Doug Shane (30:41):

Well, some of it is, especially our stocker and our backgrounding operations, they’re trying to get these calves ready to go to the finishing yard. They're going to have to do it to help get those calves cleaned up and ready to go to the finishing yard. So that's a really, really clear example. But it could be, depending on your management scheme, maybe those animals weren't handled until that point in time. Or maybe you're an operation that you're trying to make decisions on which bulls are going to make the cut and are going to be retained and used as breeding bulls in the future. And so you're trying to let them age up a little bit and you're having it timed with whatever your system is to make that castration decision. And that's why we sometimes get those older calves, especially when we get into the 800, 900, 1,000 lb. bull calves that have not been castrated. That's typically why we see those.

Shauna Hermel (31:34):

You bet. Is there a withdrawal time to the product? Do you have to look at that?

Doug Shane (31:41):

So the product is marketed as an unapproved drug, and so it does not have a labeled slaughter withdrawal on the product. What we can say is that once the band falls off, there's no longer any exposure to the lidocaine itself. And lidocaine is rapidly eliminated, but there's not a labeled slaughter withdrawal on the product.

Shauna Hermel (32:02):

Is there a recommended time period for say, going to those slaughter animals that you would want to have them banded so much time ahead of when you would put them on a truck and ship them somewhere?

Doug Shane (32:14):

Yeah, I mean, I think they're going to have to coordinate that within their system that they're selling and their buyers in the finishing yards. It's going to take, especially the older calf, it's going to take 6 to 8 weeks sometimes for all of those tissues to necrotize and fall off. So what I would say is that be clear in communicating your method of castration and the fact that we banded these calves and that we expect a lot of the times in a standard stocker or backgrounding operation, those calves might be sold after 50 to 60 days. And so it could be that the tissues haven't fallen off completely at that time. They'll be necrotic and drying out at that point in time, but just coordinate it and communicate the fact that, ‘Hey, we've banded, but those bands might still be present on those calves.’ I think that that'll help alleviate those concerns.

Shauna Hermel (33:07):

So have you looked into the maybe return on investment as far as the cost of doing the banding and how much it might save in better production, average daily gain, all that?

Doug Shane (33:23):

Yeah, that's right. And there's a lot of different ways to look at value and there's a lot of value in seeing your calves do better. I had a rancher from north-central New Mexico that called me after she had used the product and just was just so joyous to see her calves up nursing mom and playing the very day that she played bands. And to her, that was a really meaningful experience. And that means a lot. But we have run a couple of studies. One study we ran with Kansas State University, it was designed to be a bit of a smaller trial, really focused in on the behavioral aspects of castration and how do we try to quantify and monitor pain in food animals. This is kind of an ongoing conversation in the research in veterinary communities, but we also collected feed intakes and body weights. Those were young calves, week old calves. We compared LidoBand to just conventional bands.

But we did see numeric differences in body weight, especially in the first week to two weeks post banding. But all the way out. That study went out to 42 days and we saw no statistically significant difference, but we did see a body weight difference in those calves of about 3.5 lb. or so. They did have a statistically significant difference at Day 7. And that's one of the really interesting things about this research that really isn't out in the public domain at this point in time. When we castrate an animal, and I would say maybe even whenever there is a painful event for an animal, these calves actually will stop gaining weight and even lose body weight in that week post-castration. And what we've seen in our LidaBand research is we help those calves either maintain their body weight or maintain their growth, their growth trajectory. So we're kind of preventing that immediate negative loss of body weight associated with that pain in that week post-castration. 

We expect that study to be published here in the next couple of months. We also ran a trial with a consulting veterinarian with some calf growers in Pennsylvania. These calf growers, their management scheme was to perform surgical castration, and they do not have any anesthesia or pain relief in their system. And so we compared LidoBand to their current management of open surgical castration. These calves were two to three weeks of age. Beef/dairy cross calves. And we also saw about a 3 lb. benefit after about 28 days. And in that system, that's how long these calf growers kept those calves. They keep them for about a month. Then they're transitioning to their next phase. And those calf growers and the folks that work with that veterinarian are converting quite rapidly to this product because it's very apparent when you use the product, we're doing the right thing by the calf. And then even better when the band does more than enough to pay for itself.

Steve Schram (36:45):

We would generally say based on our initial data, we'd have about a 4-5 to 1 return that we'd see when you look at the price of cattle today. I think that's pretty beneficial. Solvet is also conducting a feedlot study, a pretty good size one, with the GrowSafe system. This calculates the feed efficiency and average rate of gain. And so they've started that study or just starting I think this next month. And so we are really excited about that. So we should have some data in five to seven months that gets published on larger animals, which I think will be really important to a lot of your customers that you work with.

Doug Shane (37:29):

Absolutely. And we expect that the impact on those bigger calves is just going to be even more pronounced for the reasons that we talked about.

Shauna Hermel (37:38):

Okay. What am I missing?

Steve Schram (37:47):

I think when you look at, I guess the trend, I think the U.S. is a little bit behind some of the other countries in the European Union, Canada and Australia. This product is also approved for sheep. And in other countries there's a lot of mandatory pain management that's required by officials and different regulations and so forth. We don't really have that in the United States. We've taken a position that we just believe that education's the best way to go, and we'll want to educate our producers that this is the right thing to do. But also as a company, Solvet is very committed to showing that return on investment that we all need to have to make the investment in LidoBand. So I think your readers and your customers in the Angus industry can feel comfortable that they have a very good company like Solvet to work with that is very committed to research and to the animal health industry. We're pretty proud to be working with them.

Shauna Hermel (38:46):

Have you had opportunity to work with some of the CARE and process verified program cattle as part of their protocols or any discussions of that sort?

Doug Shane (39:00):

There's been some conversations and as more data has come out, they've had a look at this. And really the position for the most part is that a lot of those organizations are evaluating whether or not they want to move from recommended pain relief for castration to mandatory to meet the standards of the program.

We're trying to really stay out of those conversations. We think that they should make those decisions based on their own merits and what the objectives of their programs are. But now we have a realistic tool for producers, we really view this as a grassroots effort that we want producers to believe in this product and to use this product. And something that I would say is call us, talk to us. We'd love to help get you started and look at trying the product, but at least try it and see what you think, because you might decide that you want to do it. Whether or not you participate in one of the audit programs or what have you. But directionally, this gives us a tool that's usable that can be done just normally how we manage animals. It's not an extra step and it fits very well, but we are really trying to just reach out to producers and tell that story and have it be a producer led story.

Shauna Hermel (40:15):

Wonderful. Well, thank you for joining me this afternoon. We like to wrap up our Angus at Work podcast with a look at something that's been good in your life. And it can be professional or it can be business-oriented, whichever you like. It helps us to kind of kick off with the high notes. So can you share something in your business or personal life that is a real positive?

Doug Shane (40:40):

The biggest change for me this year is I was elected to serve in the Kansas Senate. So I'm actually serving as a state senator in Kansas right now as we speak. So that's been the most exciting thing in my life this year!

Shauna Hermel (40:53):

Wonderful.

Steve Schram (40:54):

And I'm very proud of Doug in that area as well. But no, for me, my wife is my biggest fan and I couldn't do what I could without her. And so she's a big partner for me in my business as well as our personal life. And then I just really have enjoyed - since I've started not running businesses like I did before in my career - that I get to work with startup companies and new technology. I love bringing new technology to our producers.

Shauna Hermel (41:30):

Wonderful. Well, we appreciate it and thank you for sharing some insight into this new technology.

Steve Schram (41:37):

Thank you!

Doug Shane (41:37):

Thanks for having us.

Lynsey McAnally (41:37):

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!