CALF_News_April_May_2018

30 CALF News • April | May 2018 • www.calfnews.net T here are ways to prevent bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in cattle, but there’s not a “miracle-mycin” that magically keeps BRD from hurting a herd and keeping chronics out of the feedyard. David Bechtol, DVM, founder and owner of Palo Duro Consultation, Research and Feedlot, and Agri Research Center, Inc., outside Canyon, Texas, lives by those words in describing results of his four decades of testing cattle vac- cines, antibiotics, wormers and other animal health products. His 3,500-head research feedyard remains a key resource for pharmaceutical companies and others who hope to make new or improved products available to cow-calf producers, stocker operators and cattle feeders. Bechtol was raised in Amarillo and served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 1950s. He later attended Texas Tech University, West Texas State University (nowWest Texas A&M) and graduated from the College of Veterinary Medi- cine at Texas A&M University. He has worked with virtually all bovine pharmaceutical companies since large-scale cattle feeding exploded in the Texas Panhandle and High Plains in the 1960s. From 1966 to 1974 he had a private veterinary practice in Dimmitt. He also began specializing in feedyard herd health consultation. “Pharmaceutical companies came to us to do research in commercial feedlots,” Bechtol remembers.“It was hard to do that efficiently. So we built this facility in 1979. I continued my consulting practice and, at one time, had seven people on the staff. As the company grew, I started doing more research and less consulting.” Along with BRD, the Agri Research Center has studied ways to treat and control BVD, internal and external parasites, liver flukes and other diseases. It was also part of early research to develop implants, ionophores and other products designed to promote better performance and more efficient cost of gain. “Our first trial was on the Synovex® implant,” Bechtol notes. However, BRD has had most of the research yard’s atten- tion. Bechtol and yard manager Audie Waite have worked together since nearly day one.“We’ve done over 600 studies at this facility. We developed a respiratory disease model where we could assimilate how the disease complex impacts a herd or pen of cattle,” Bechtol says.“We worked on prevention through vaccines, along with control with antibi- otic-type products. We’ve done some kind of work on just about every product approved in the U.S. for respiratory disease.” He follows pro- tocols designed for the use of animal health products. The research yard also takes extra steps to help confirm research techniques and findings.“Nearly all of our research is confidential,” Bechtol says.“We have standard operating procedures set up to show how we handle cattle when they come in, how they’re fed, records we keep and other data. Some individualized protocols require us to write up a standard operating procedure to meet their needs.” Antibiotics resistance is a hot topic these days, but it’s noth- ing new to Bechtol.“I’m a little old school. One of the first seminars I attended after graduating veterinary school was on drug resistance,” he says.“The consuming public needs to For over 40 years, Dr. David Bechtol has been doing research for pharmaceuticals and other animal health companies.  With a 3,500-head feeding capacity, Bechtol and Agri Research Center can handle all types of research trials. By Larry Stalcup Contributing Editor Agri Research Center Home of Feedyard Pharmaceuticals Research