A survey of US Cow-Calf Producers to Investigate Cattle Health and Production Records

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by Dr. Isaac Jumper, a clinical instructor at Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Jumper is the principal author of three papers recently published in the AABP peer-reviewed journal, The Bovine Practitioner. We discuss the journal and our new submission, review and publication process. The Bovine Practitioner is open access and published online at this link.  

This series of papers was published after Jumper et al. administered a survey to 14,000 cow-calf producers in the U.S. who were members of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association with a 25% response rate. One interesting response to the survey was the question asking what was the producer’s motivation for being in the cow-calf industry. The number one response was that they enjoyed taking care of cattle and number two was that cattle had been in their family for generations. The results of the survey provide multiple opportunities for veterinarians to be involved in their client’s operations to develop consulting on cattle health, production and welfare. The majority of responses (2/3) stated that their veterinarians was influential in management decisions. The survey was used to ask producer’s questions about the use of cattle health and production records (CHPR), what were the odds of using CHPR based on various demographics, how did they use and access technology for CHPR and what is the veterinarian’s involvement in CHPR on their operations.  

The results of this survey can be used by veterinarians to develop questions for their clients, identify the challenges and bottlenecks to CHPR on their client’s operations, and identify opportunities for them to help their clients develop CHPR practices to incorporate consulting services to help the client, their cattle, and the veterinarian. Jumper reminds us that for clients that do not have CHPR, it is best to identify some simple yet important pieces of information to record and build the CHPR from there. Veterinarians are an investment in cow-calf operations and we should work to develop consulting relationships to help these clients enjoy their cattle even more!

Jumper, W. I., Huston, C. L., Willis, R. W., & Smith, D. R. (2022). Survey of U.S. cow-calf producer methods and opinions of cattle health and production record-keeping. The Bovine Practitioner, 56(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.21423/bovine-vol56no2p1-15

 Jumper, W. I., Huston, C. L., Willis, R. W., & Smith, D. R. (2022). Survey of U.S. cow-calf producer access to and use of technology for cattle health and production record-keeping purposes. The Bovine Practitioner, 56(2), 16–28. https://doi.org/10.21423/bovine-vol56no2p16-28

 Jumper, W. I., Huston, C. L., Willis, R. L., & Smith, D. R. (2022). Survey of veterinary involvement in cattle health and production record-keeping on U.S. cow-calf operations. The Bovine Practitioner, 56(2), 29–37. https://doi.org/10.21423/bovine-vol56no2p2-37