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Cattle Performance Begins with Strong Health Program and Quality Forage
Stocker operations have a specific role in U.S. beef production and are critical in the southeastern United States. A focused plan on animal and forage health is key to productive stocker operations.
“The stocker business is a unique opportunity, especially in the southeastern United States where our cow/calf operations are a lot smaller,” says Mark Alley, DVM, managing veterinarian with Zoetis beef technical services. “Those small calves, as they’re coming off the farm, are not prepared to go into the feedlot, and the feedlot is not prepared to take care of those calves.”
Alley spoke during the Let’s Talk Grazing and Raising event in Nashville, Tennessee, along with experts from Corteva Agriscience and John Deere.
“Stocker cattle have two phases: the survival phase and the growth phase. We have to help them get healthy and survive the on-arrival phase. Then, we can add pounds and frame during the growth phase,” Alley says.
John Sparks, who owns and operates a beef stocker business near Paris, Kentucky, buys many calves in Kentucky and the surrounding area that are 300- to 400-pound bull calves from the farm. “The average cowherd size in Kentucky is around 27 head,” Sparks says. “We have a lot of small herds and, a lot of times, those cattle are not vaccinated.”
One management strategy Sparks incorporated in the past four years is ear notch testing for persistent infection (PI) of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) at arrival time. Sparks explains the results are available within two to three hours and they can pull any BVD-PI positive calves right away.
“About half a percent of all the cattle we purchase will test positive for BVD,” Sparks says. “Those BVD-PI positive calves can really wreak havoc in a group of cattle. In our experience, if we have a BVD-PI calf in a group, we will triple our death loss on average and double our treatments in that group.”
Alley recommends that operations lean into their veterinarian and nutritionist for guidance on handling at-risk calves. “Whether we treat cattle on-arrival or we vaccinate them after they have time to settle, that helps get calves on a healthy path,” Alley says. “We also need to control the internal and external parasites, including coccidia. A nutritionist can help make sure the forage, whether grazing pasture or consuming hay, is supplemented correctly so cattle can respond to our vaccines, antibiotics and implants.”
Sparks adds that it is key to have access to high-quality hay during the first 35 days after calves arrive. “Once calves are ready, we count on high-quality pasture to meet their nutritional needs and keep the calves growing,” Sparks says.
To improve the quality of pasture or hay ground, weed control is critical. “With a good weed control plan, you can gain up to a pound or more of usable forage for every pound of weeds you take out,” says Abe Smith, range & pasture specialist, Corteva Agriscience. “I can tell you just historically from working in Nebraska, even going back to plots that I was part of in the nineties, we can put up to a ton to a ton-and-a-half of forage back into many pastures if they control the weeds.”
Smith recommends working with a local specialist when forming a plan for controlling key weed species to improve pasture and hay fields. He also reminded cow/calf producers not to overlook weed control in calving pastures. “As you are making trips across the field around some of these calving areas, take inventory of the weeds that you have or the problem areas that you have in some of these pastures,” Smith says. “Coming out of calving season, make sure you’re doing positive things for the calving pastures that have treated you so very well through calving season.”
When it comes to harvesting high-quality forage, Kaylene Ballesteros, marketing manager for hay and forage equipment at John Deere, says automation is one way to help producers improve bale quality and create confidence. “No matter who’s in the seat, automation helps give you the confidence that you are going to have a quality cut or a quality square bale every time,” Ballesteros says. “Whether that’s through automation or connectivity, we want to ensure we are reducing complexity and decision-making time, all in an effort to make sure that you’ve got quality hay and forage at the end of the day.”
The panelists encouraged producers to work with their local trusted partners to establish a strong plan of action.
The Let’s Talk Grazing and Raising event, hosted by Corteva Agriscience, John Deere and Zoetis, was held during the 2026 Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.