Flexibility Should Fuel a Feedyard’s Implant Program
Efficient performance comes from keeping it simple and appropriate for the stage of growth.
When choosing a cattle implant, take an approach that proves true in the feedyard and beyond: Keep it simple.
Today’s implant market contains so many options that trying to set up a simple program can be overwhelming. However, if the implant program is too complicated, it becomes impossible to properly administer in the feedyard.
“Implant strategy doesn’t have to be complex to get the most return,” says Gary Sides, beef strategic technical services, Zoetis.
Sides advises sticking to a handful of basics when choosing an implant to meet your goals.
The first step is to match the potency of the implant to the animals’:
- stage of production: suckling calf, stocker, feedlot (arrival/grow/finish),
- energy availability of forage or feedlot ration, and
- estimated days on feed.
Zoetis offers an implant finder to help match your answers to these questions with the appropriate implant because management needs differ throughout an animal’s development.
“Implant strategy doesn’t have to be complex to get the most return.” — Gary Sides
As an example, Sides identifies four different opportunities for using an implant as the animal grows from a 40-day-old calf nursing its mother to eventually moving on to its last 100-200 days in the feedyard.
“We can identify the right implant for a specific feeding situation throughout the implant potency staircase to achieve the optimal response from the animal,” Sides says.
“As an example, use the lowest potency implant for a suckling calf and the highest potency implant for the last 80-100 days on a feedlot ration prior to slaughter,” Sides says.
“If you don’t match the dose of an implant with an animal’s age, weight, maturity and the energy density of the ration, then you may experience negative effects such as bullers or lower quality grade,” Sides says.
The guiding principle throughout should be one of flexible simplicity, and it has led Sides to identify an implant that stands out for feedyards looking to manage efficiently.
“I think Synovex Choice® is a flexible, all-around valuable implant in the marketplace,” Sides says. “We also have long-duration implant technologies — Synovex® One Feedlot and Synovex One Grass — that offer 200 days of coverage to provide additional management flexibility.”
Labeled for use in feedlot steers and heifers, Sides says Synovex Choice can be applied throughout the feedyard — from five-weight calves to eight-weight steers, as an arrival or terminal implant based on market conditions and desired feedlot or carcass response.
As with any product, availability and service in the challenging conditions of 2020 can often make a difference. Sides encourages feedyards with implanting questions to contact Zoetis support and technical service staff to discuss potential implant strategies.
For more information, visit NoStressSynovex.com or visit with your veterinarian.
Editor’s note: This article is provided by Zoetis. Do not use Synovex products in veal calves. Refer to product label for complete directions for use, precautions and warnings. Photo by Kasey Brown.
