76 Shipping calves to the Southern Great Plains: Impact of mode, timing, distance and cattle type

Abstract

Abstract This presentation will discuss historical transportation information, recommendations and available transportation data. Stocker and feeder cattle transportation in the U.S. is virtually unchanged in the last five decades. Transportation stress continues to be accepted as an important factor in the morbidity and mortality of cattle shipped to Southern Great Plains feedyards and stocker operations. Transportation research has occurred in bits and pieces that provide glimpses into mechanisms involved but in general the results are puzzle pieces that have had little influence on transportation techniques. The Electronic Logging Device (ELD) use mandate in livestock hauling will impact stocker and feeder transport to the Great Plains. The extent of which is not yet known and recent delays in implementation with concurrent “exceptions” and “adjustments” make it unclear what the future will hold for stocker and feeder cattle transportation. The Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) has in recent decades developed voluntary livestock handling and transportation training for their customers. Some of the training has been accomplished in a partnership with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The first of these were the “Focal Point” training and “Master Transporter Guide.” More recent, NCBA has developed Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Transportation certification training for both “Farmer/Rancher” and “Professional Drivers.” Packers have embraced this effort and the major packers currently require all drivers delivering livestock to their operations to be certified. The NCBA BQA Transportation training certification is applicable to stocker and feeder drivers hauling cattle to the Great Plains, but currently it is rare that stocker and feeder operations require drivers to have transportation certification that bring cattle to their operations. Interesting and useful data will be reviewed, such as transportation data collected from Dr. Richeson and Dr. Lawrence at West Texas A&M University. Finding examples include; cattle during transportation can take thousands of steps while on in the semi-trailer with differing number of steps and G-Forces being recorded for cattle on the top deck compared to cattle on the lower deck.