All feed medications come with specific guidelines. These guidelines cover such things as inclusion rates, targeted organisms, slaughter withdrawal rates, and feeding time periods.
Before making any specific feed antibiotic recommendations, it is critical for the veterinarian to fully understand the client’s production practices. For instance:
1) What are the slaughter withdrawal considerations, and when are the cull animals removed from the system?
2) What is the destination of the animals after harvest?
3) What vaccines are used, and when in the feed budget?
4) What are the targeted diseases?
5) What feed medications will give the greatest return for the investment?
6) What, if any, are the restrictions placed on the producer by the feed supplier?
7) Does the planned medication fit within the feed medication budget?
Slaughter withdrawal considerations play a major role in determining which feed antibiotic will be used during the early growing period and the finisher stage. In recent years, an attractive light hog market has allowed producers to market light animals earlier, freeing up pens for pigs that will make the desired market weight.
The marketplace often dictates medications to be used, since many pigs raised today ultimately fill export demand. Restrictions placed on the pigs through packers include extended slaughter withdrawal times.
When planning a feed medication program, it is critical to consider the specific target. Initially it may be as simple as determining if there are gut issues or respiratory issues that need to be addressed. Many antibiotics available today can be categorized with those issues in mind. As we work with a herd longer and gain more detailed knowledge of disease agents present, we can apply more specific antibiotics.
Often, budgets specify a feed medication program in the nursery to be under 80¢ per head and a finisher feed medication program to be under $1.20 per head. For that reason we need to convince the decision makers that we cannot fix a $3 per head problem with a $1 per head budget.
The feed mill and/or feed supplier should be considered as well when making a feed medication recommendation. It is becoming more common to find feed mills with self-imposed restrictions on antibiotics. For simplicity, feed mills will, at times, restrict the number of products for easier inventory management and for simplification. Many mills have also gone to a sulfa-free status. Feed mills have gravitated to the sulfa-free declaration in order to minimize the risk of feed contamination resulting from a mixing error.
Implementation of a feed medication plan that fits into the feed budget is often the key to its success or failure. Relying on individuals to order timely feed medications will often result in failure. In order to improve the success rate, feed medications should match diets, or diets should match the feed medication plan. It will lessen the failure rate as a result of human error. |
