Fifty five percent to 75 percent of cattle slaughtered in the eastern U.S. have hardware in the reticulum. Cattle don’t usually sort their food, which means they can ingest foreign matter when eating hay or processed feed. This include pieces of fencing, nails, metals and more recently, plastic fibers used to bind hay. Magnets are used to remove metal objects, but plastics are more difficult and a growing challenge.
Prevention is key. It requires farmers and ranchers to be diligent in keeping feeding areas free of wire, plastic and twine. Recent slaughter delays have pushed producers to use feeding locations that have not been used lately and may contain risky wire and plastic.
We assembled these articles on this topic to help remind and educate producers.
Source: Prevention is the best strategy in hardware disease, BEEF, March 2012. Link.
Source: Hardware disease of cattle, Drovers, April 2015. Link.
Source: Plastic Disease; the new Hardware disease in cattle, Tri-State Livestock News, January 28, 2020. Link.
Source: Diagnosing and treating hardware disease in cattle, Countryside, June 15, 2020. Link.
INSIGHTS: Foreign matter ingestion is a ongoing problem for cattle. Share this information with producers on social media, in newsletters and during farm visits. They will appreciate it.