Implants

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DEA

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Say you bought your show calf in October and you are gearing for your county/state shows in July and August when would be the best time to implant him?  What are the best implants to use?

 

CAB

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The practice of implanting show calves has come up regularlly lately. In our area, we recomend not implanting show calves. It raises the H bone & can put a little bit of a larger neck, (hump) on them resulting in them looking a bit weeker topped. I know that some do implant, but we don't and gains have always been very good.
 

dori36

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CAB said:
The practice of implanting show calves has come up regularlly lately. In our area, we recomend not implanting show calves. It raises the H bone & can put a little bit of a larger neck, (hump) on them resulting in them looking a bit weeker topped. I know that some do implant, but we don't and gains have always been very good.


....and on that note, I'm wondering what all of you think is the percentage  of show calves that 'are' implanted?  I'm particularly curious about the calves that 4H kids will be showing at their local fair, maybe a state fair, but not a big time steer show.  I hear bidders every year when the market cattle sell at the various county fairs I've attended, here and in Wyoming, how nice it is to be able to get beef that is input  free.  I just keep my mouth shut as I'm thinking implanting is pretty common.  How about it?
 

CAB

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IMHO, the chemical companies did a great job promoting implants through the vets & extension service. We have not implanted cattle for years now & start marketing our cattle @ 12months of age weighing between 1250 & 1300 lbs. Our calves will be in the top 10 hd for rate of gain @ the county fair annually. Has anyone paid attension to the premiums being paid for natural beef, whatever that is, lately?
 

knabe

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on a mostly unrelated issue, but still with a little deception, though at the sale for show steers probably nowhere does it say the steers are implant free.  cool labeling for cattle is only for the 25% of beef you purchase at the grocery store.  all other beef supposedly doesn't need to be labeled, not restaurants etc.  hamburger only has to state it can come from a list of countries, so the beef from "america, will probalby only amount to about 12.5% of all us beef sold in us.  it seems that this is a small enough number that a free market solution could solve this issue through "value added" advertising, rather than a government program everyone must comply with.  again, america has a lust for policies which are discriminatory in nature.  what a joke.  go feinstein, boxer, et al.  we already see advertising "us beef" and if the consumer sees an advantage to supporting that industry, it should be good enough.  but no, we have to ignore 200,000 people die every year in hospital, 50,000 from car wrecks, who knows how many from their own diets, smoking, stupidity, but we have to get all uppity about labeling through the government.  the next generation will have no idea what america was.  in fact, it will probably be illegal to teach the next generation because it's blasphemy.  displacing jesus for gaia is still a religion with the same scare tactics, but with denial.
 

Ruchian

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What exactly are implants?  Either nobody in my area use them or they just don't talk about it, and if there is anyone who uses them around here it is just a few people.
 

REM

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Ruchian, implants are used to promote rate of gain, and feed efficiency in feedlot cattle. Most last around 100 days. They are placed under the skin in the middle 1/3 of the ear. Implanting also affects carcass traits such as yield grade (how fat or lean the carcass is ) and quality grade (marbling ) usually makes the carcass leaner and decreases marbling. Also improper placement can lead to stags. Hope that answered your question.
 

dori36

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REM said:
Ruchian, implants are used to promote rate of gain, and feed efficiency in feedlot cattle. Most last around 100 days. They are placed under the skin in the middle 1/3 of the ear. Implanting also affects carcass traits such as yield grade (how fat or lean the carcass is ) and quality grade (marbling ) usually makes the carcass leaner and decreases marbling. Also improper placement can lead to stags. Hope that answered your question.

If I may, I'll just clarify that they're put into the outside 1/3 of the ear, not the inside!  One of the commonly used brands is Ralgro. You can go to www.ralgro.com for more info.  Interestingly when I was working on a medium sized  cow/calf operation east of Casper, WY, (1000 mother cows), we did the implanting right along with branding and castrating and shots.  The ranchers would chuckle as the castration proceeded and the Ralgro was put in:  "We take 'em off one end and put it in the other end"!    (lol)
 

TJ

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May 15, 2007
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CAB said:
The practice of implanting show calves has come up regularlly lately. In our area, we recomend not implanting show calves. It raises the H bone & can put a little bit of a larger neck, (hump) on them resulting in them looking a bit weeker topped. I know that some do implant, but we don't and gains have always been very good.

Those are a couple of reasons why, if you are going to implant a show steer, it is best to wait until about 45-60 days before the final show to put in the implant. 

Ralgro is the most popular overall, but Revelor is what most show steer people use. 
 
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