CALF News Aug./Sept 2018

19 CALF News • August | September 2018 • www.calfnews.net The industry is changing; it’s time to take cattle feeding down a new road. Recent advancements in cattle nutrition have opened new routes to help limit pulls, treatment and positively benefit the health of an animal. Adopting a new measure of prevention through the feed is an important first step to help minimize delays on the road ahead. Take a new road with ProTernative ® - a proven probiotic that positively activates the immune system of cattle during times of stress. ProTernative works in the lower gut to influence the animal’s natural immunity through an internal active process that only a specific, robust and active live yeast can deliver. The road you’ve always taken doesn’t cut it anymore. Feed ProTernative and take a new measure of prevention. PROTERNATIVE-THE NEW MEASURE OF PREVENTION LALLEMAND ANIMAL NUTRITION Tel: 414 464 6440 Email: LAN_NA@lallemand.com www.lallemandanimalnutrition.com Not all products are available in all markets nor are all claims allowed in all regions. ©2016. ProTernative is a registered trademark of Lallemand Animal Nutrition. software umbrella includes, first, the basic inventory and management program. Next is Cattle Medical System, which involves a chuteside computer as well as an office system. Any Windows-based computer is compatible; it interfaces with all RFID readers and any scale module. The medical records are kept on an indi- vidual-animal basis. All health protocol is recorded chuteside and automatically sent to the home computer base in the feedlot office. Hair, skin scruff and dust in the work- ing area are an ever-present problem for humans and computers alike. Grimes recommends, instead of purchasing a unit specifically made to endure abuse, to just buy an inexpensive laptop to use outside, one that might be considered disposable or easily replaced. It is more efficient than fighting the ever-present dirt. Also available inViewTrak’s feedlot- specific software portfolio is Feed Bunk Solutions. It’s a newer addition that enables managers to create load sheets, generating loading sequence of rations and informing feedlot employees where to feed, within minutes daily. It can create customizable graphs showing pen feed intake over a period of time. Feed Bunk can actually read bunks, generating numbers your nutrition- ist would love to analyze. There are additional opportunities to interface with programs dealing with hedging, benchmarking and feed scales. Each of the newer programs may be purchased separately and added to the Feedlot Solutions basic package. Updates and installation of programs can be done remotely, as are many of the programs available through other software dealers. Who needs this, anyway? These products are especially good for small to mid-sized producers. Grimes has seen the business grow as these indepen- dent cattle feeders recognize the advan- tage of having records at their fingertips in a matter of moments. She added that she’s had a gradual shift of younger folks working into the industry who are anx- ious to take advantage of new products. Beyond the feedlot BIXS is an example of the limitless opportunities that new technologies offer. Another product within ViewTrak’s umbrella system, BIXS is currently working with McDonald’s Corporation on a tracking system, the Worldwide Sustainable Beef Program. McDonald’s pilot project aims to identify cattle from “birth to burger.” It shows the unfettered horizons of electronics and human imagi- nation. Scary or not, these ideas are the wave of the future and we need to accept their reality. Grimes’ final thought was a surprise to me. I had leveled a question to her that I thought, later, surely was stupid. It turned out to be her favorite one. Alluding to the aforementioned pencil and paper, I asked, “Why is technology more efficient than previously used record keeping? “Computers are better than hand-writ- ten records,” she answered.“You cannot improve what you don’t measure. Tech- nology provides tools to help produce the best decisions; decisions come from this data.” Well said. Let the avalanche fall. 