Last month’s column laid out some of the recommended practices that 11 large-scale research studies said were the most effective for reducing preweaning death loss in beef calves worldwide. Over half of those research studies had been done in Canada, but only three of those Canadian studies had been done in the past 20 years. Canada’s a huge place, and herd sizes and calving dates have shifted over the past two decades. So, which calving practices work best for Canadian cow-calf producers in 2026?
Claire Windeyer of ACER Consulting and coworkers from the University of Calgary and Western College of Veterinary Medicine surveyed producers participating in the Canadian Cow-Calf Surveillance Network (C3SN) to identify on-farm practices that reduced the risk of scours, pneumonia and mortality outbreaks in Canadian beef calves (Benchmarking management practices that impact calf morbidity and mortality in Canadian beef cow-calf herds; (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2025.106725).
What They Did
Producers participating in the C3SN (84 from BC and the Prairies and 41 from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes) responded to a survey. Producers were asked if they had experienced an outbreak of preweaning calf scours or pneumonia (at least 5% of calves treated) or mortality (at least 5% of calves died) within the past three years. Answers to additional questions regarding herd management practices were compared between those who had experienced one or more outbreaks and producers who had not.
What They Learned
Outbreaks were equally common in both western and eastern Canada. Of the 125 producers surveyed, 24% reported a scours outbreak within the last three years, 26% reported a pneumonia outbreak, and 8% reported a mortality outbreak. Most of the mortality outbreaks were associated with outbreaks of scours, pneumonia or both. Over 40% of herds had at least one outbreak between 2019 and 2021.
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