The Hidden Cost of Liver Abscesses for the Cattle Producer

Jul 18, 2025

By Jerad Jaborek

Liver abscesses are characterized by the accumulation of pus (bacteria, tissue debris and white blood cells) caused by the abnormal colonization of bacteria, most commonly Fusarium necrophorum and Trueperella pyogenes. While the exact root cause of liver abscesses is uncertain, it is commonly believed that liver abscesses are the result of ruminal or intestinal tissue damage caused by a low pH from the consumption of high-grain-based diets containing insufficient roughage over an extended period of time. Liver abscesses in cattle are typically identified post-slaughter when the liver becomes available for visible inspection at the beef processing facility. Cattle livers containing an abscess, regardless of size, are condemned at the beef processing facility, resulting in a direct economic loss.

Recent estimates published in the Journal of Animal Science by Taylor and others, predict the United States beef industry loses approximately $256 million annually to liver abscesses or $9.07 per animal sold. At the beef processing facility, this includes losses to liver condemnation ($26.4 million), losses to other offal condemnation ($45.9 million) and processing speed delays ($11.6 million). These are costs incurred by the beef processing facility due to liver abscesses.

Currently, the cattle producer doesn’t receive a direct discount from the beef processor due to their cattle having liver abscesses. However, there are indirect or hidden costs associated with liver abscesses that affect the cattle producer as well. First, additional carcass trimming due to adhered or ruptured liver abscesses will reduce hot carcass weight. Reduced hot carcass weight will reduce the pounds of saleable beef for the producer. This cost will affect the cattle producer if the cattle were sold on a carcass or dressed basis, or it will affect the beef processor if the cattle were sold on a live basis. Excessive carcass trimming due to liver abscesses was estimated to cost $35.1 million annually. Because liver abscess data isn’t typically reported back to the producer, this loss in saleable carcass weight remains hidden from the cattle producer.

Source : msu.edu

Video: We Let Dad Drive a 50,000 Pound Dump Truck

There's old hog barns under that field now. The old hog barn site on the farm has been sitting there for decades, and this is the week it finally came out: concrete pad, burn pile, charred lumber, all of it loaded into a CAT 725C rock truck and buried in a pit we dug back in the timber.

Tork's been waiting his whole life to drive one of these, so he gets the keys to a 50,000 pound rock truck and I ride shotgun. The excavator loads, the dozer clears the timber, the drone shows the whole site from above, and by sundown there's nothing left of the old place but a smooth patch of dirt. It's a weird feeling erasing something that was here before either of us, but the farm has to keep moving.