Resurrecting the Bloat issue

[SWMO]

I am intrigued and more than alot disgusted about one of the kids steers.  We have three steers on feed for the county fair which is the second week of July  all three are doing great.  HOWEVER, one of the steers had become a bloater.  Will bloat for a few days and then not for a few days.  Anyway, we have so far been able to manage this but the intrigueing part of this involves a previous post regarding pedigrees of a few of the bloaters that other posters have talked about.

This particular steer is out of our Habanero bred bull.  I know that some of you that have talked about your bloaters have indicated that they were out of Kadabra.  I not great on the lineage on Maine's but is there a trend out there involving this particular bloodline?

What's a smarter  persons take on this?

This particular steer is a great eater.  I am going to feed him separately from the other two for a while and cut some of the corn out of his diet and try adding baking soda to his diet  Have been using Fastrack as a topdress.  He is well on his way to being finished.  As long as we keep him with all four feet on the barn floor and not all four's in the air!

 

[CAB]

I personally don't believe that any pedigrees are more susceptible to bloat than another. If they were, we wouldn't have as much bloat as we do, evolution would have cured it for us. It's caused by the rumen getting out of sync. JMO

 

[red]

I can see it now, a defective gene for bloating! Dr B & Barrel Racer would have their work cut out for them!

Red

 

[ba]

I believe that genetics do play a part in the problem. Lets just say that we have had
a problem with a certain line and after losing one and some close calls then to hear 
people started telling stories of their horror stories I believe it to be true aleast
to some extent. One thing you might want to consider is to put mineral oil in their
pan of feed , cut back on the amount given and plenty of grass hay. I also feed a
little early  to let them out to run a bit before dark as exercises helps.

I have been there done that plenty of sleepless night worrying about what I might
find the next morning and get up and walk the lots all hours of the night and weather.

 

[shortyjock89]

Putting baking soda in their feed will keep them from bloating too.  Yeast will help too, and it's just a good thing to have in all show calves' feed. A bunch of the big time feed supplements have yeast in them.

 

[chambero]

I've never been able to detect any trends with bloodlines and bloating.  I think it just happens on some.

Don't forget to consider using the bloat blocks.

 

[justintime]

A few years ago I would have agreed that there was not much  link between pedigree ( ie: genetics) and bloat. Now I am not so sure. The reason I say this, has to do with discussions I have had with some Australian producers.

A few years ago, I was touring an Australian  breeder around and we were heading for Wyoming to see a couple herds. I asked him what grasses they used for pasturing there cows. He responded that most of their pastures were straight alfalfa, and some were irragated pastures. I then asked him how much problem they had with bloat in their cattle? He then responded that they had virtually no problems with bloating animals on alfalfa pastures. I then asked him if they had different varieties of alfalfa than we did her in N America, to which he said , that as far as he knew they used similar varieties as we did. I then said... then why do you not have trouble with bloat ? He responded that they used to have bloat, but once they eliminated all the cattle that bloated on alfalfa ( by either death or by selling any bloaters) they had no more problems. I was not certain if I believed this man or not so since then I have had two other Australian breeders stay here and I have asked them the same question. They have said the same thing... that if you eliminate the cattle that are prone to bloat, you will eventually end up with a set of cattle that have very little problems. One of these Aussies had ran an operation of over 100,000 cows and he said he was convinced that there was a genetic component to bloat, as some bloodlines tend to be much more prone to bloat than others do.

So... is there a genetic connection to animals that are more prone to bloat?  I still am not 100% certain, but I am leaning to the side that says there may just be.