Survey your beef practices

Have you received the April 10 issue yet? It’s the one with the Brown Swiss on the cover. On page 248, our Farm Flash page, we describe a survey of Idaho dairies to determine their beef practices. This survey revealed that 68 percent of producers surveyed used the neck region for IM (intramuscular) injections.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently released dairy cattle and health management information from its Dairy 2007 National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS). One portion of the information included a survey of injection practices on U.S. dairies. Dairy beef quality assurance practices recommend giving all IM injections in front of the shoulder, as opposed to the hind leg. Hind-leg injections can be costly to the value of meat but are easier and more convenient to give. Yet, as reported in the study, 45 percent of producers still use the hind leg.

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