Beef Quality Assurance Notes

Clell V. Bagley DVM, Utah State University

Abstract

Most of us have felt that injections given to a calf early in its life would be of little problem by the time it went to slaughter. We were WRONG!!! Colorado State University has provided the data and the pictures to prove it. In fact, 90% of the lesions found at slaughter originated during the cow-calf, stocker or early feeding periods. And, injections given while the calf is young caused greater lesions than those given when it was older. The study followed calves injected at branding or weaning and found a high incidence of lesions and blemishes when they went to slaughter. Another finding was that the injections given into the neck caused much fewer and smaller lesions than did those given into the rear legs. The absorption from the neck region is probably better and faster, and it is certainly done with less muscle damage. Observation showed that injections into the neck muscles did NOT cause the calves to avoid the feed manger or water trough.