Weak Calf Syndrome Being Studied at WSU

Weak Calf Syndrome is devastating to a rancher who works so hard to raise his herd all year long, and now researchers at WSU are going to look at the issue.

Dr. John Wenz said they don’t have a good idea on how often this occurs, which is one of the reasons they want to look into it.

“Another part of the study is to try to characterize what we mean by weak calf syndrome. We read in textbooks, we can see a bunch of causes for it, but we want to get a better case definition so that everybody, all beef farmers and veterinarians are talking and they’re on the same page.”

To get a clearer picture and to begin to drill down on weak calf syndrome, researchers are going to work with producers who experience it as well as those that don’t to compare and try to find causes.

Wenz said one of their focuses will be on steroids created during the calving period designed to protect the calves from brain damage.

“And there may not be enough of that being produced when the cows are stressed. It could be nutritional stress, it could be a weather stress that then leads to decreased production.”

Wenz said he wants to work with as many producers as possible and if there are producers that would like to help him, they can reach out to him directly or through one of the county commissions.

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