I think you just had your first dose of reality to the meat and dairy industry. It is a hard life with a sometimes unforgiving nature.
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The farmer probably had the calves / steer out for the renderer or health inspector to collect. Welcome to livestock.
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My first concern after walking into a death-zone would be biosecurity. I would: Wash my hands and face, thoroughly. Then take off all my clothing and put it straight into the washer. Iâd wash my hands after handling the clothes. Iâd bleach the soles of my shoes before going anywhere around my farm. Knowing me, iâd most probably shower. WhatEVER bug is going around at that farm i would NOT want it at mine! oh, and i wouldnât buy his hay.
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I grew up on a dairy farm, married into a large beef operation and worked as a large animal vet in my earlier career, now mostly small animal having focused most of that time on shelter medicine/low income populations. I also am a certified expert investigator in animal cruelty and neglect cases. Nothing you describe sounds like it would qualify as cruelty or neglect.
- The facility was clean.
- Sounds like there was ample food resources in plain view and I suspect adequate.
- The operator of the facility wasnât hiding anything.
- The animals that were alive were BAR as you describe but demonstrating evidence of a disease outbreak which the operator explained.
Now a question, were the dead bodies decomposed, all extremely bloated? If they were not then what you describe is very common practice in herd health experiencing a disease outbreak. Growing up we were allowed to bury our dead livestock and would have the deceased positioned âto goâ, uncovered (not necessary to cover unless inclement weather and for some reason (frozen ground) we couldnât dig a hole within 24 hours).
Second, there is a HUGE shortage of large animal veterinarians. We have had a number of medications removed from the market, not just those limited in access by herd health operators/providers. Based on economics, I would assume from what you describe that this individual was handling the outbreak as best as possible, suffering significant economic losses but guess what? Day-to-day life must go on and business canNOT come to a standstill.
It is unsettling to see dead bodies especially in such number. The thought of animal ill and suffering is also painful; however, what would you have had him done differently? If he was going to be burying the bodies or in some areas the only legal option is to have a rendering plant pick up the bodies (can also be a choice of an operator) within the day, covering them to prevent them from being seen by others actually does waste time especially if youâre also trying to deal with the outbreak (treat, monitor actively ill cases, watch for new cases AND keep the place clean, animals fed and watered etc.)
Animal control and/or the authorities likely will not investigate unless thereâs been suspicion of the operation in the past or multiple complaints received. They might do a drive by but so far nothing youâve reported here would warrant them even entering the property. That isnât to say you wouldnât strike a nerve with a single individual and possibly get more of a response but most jurisdictions are overwhelmed and only have time to investigate situations not likely to result in normal, routine livestock management no matter how tragic their loss might be. You might, however, get more reaction out of the Dept. of Agriculture or State Vet Office simply because they often will reach out and/or track true disease outbreaks out of the concern for ECONOMICS and the potential impact to other farms as well as the source of where the disease originated. I would bet the operator of this place is already trying to dig to the bottom of the source/report it.
I also have recently received multiple reports of IBR and BVD outbreaks in some areas around the country as well as some additional diseases outbreaks in the South/Southwest specific to dairy operation just in the past week that have yet to be identified as to the causal disease. I know this may seem odd; but, my heart actually goes out to the operator. No successful or well-meaning individual wishes or welcomes such outcomes.
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This is an excellent point that I had not thought of before. Composting works better if there is more decomposing in the pile. A single calf does not produce the heat for it to work as well.
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I wouldnât say youâre too sensitive. I think itâs more accurate to say that you walked into a situation that you knew absolutely nothing about and because of that, you made unwarranted judgments.
And I was all set to write a long reply to the original post, but now that Iâve read through all the other responses, Iâll just say, âYeah. What they said.â
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Iâm of the mind, if your gut says âhey something is way off hereâ then report it. If itâs SOP, animal control will just push it aside (like when we get calls about us blindfolding our horses etc)
You are being sensitive which is not wrong. No, I would definitely NOT report.
I think Bluey and others have answered most of your questions really well so I wonât repeat. Iâll just add a couple of points.
Holstein calves are fragile, really effing fragile. Look at them wrong and theyâll keel over. Spend a TON of money and time on treating them at the first sign of NQRness and they may very well still keel over. Itâs a crap shoot. And I donât mean whether to treat or not! I mean itâs a crap shoot whether treatment will ensure survival.
There are a bunch of things (for instance Salmonella Dublin) that are quite quickly lethal and are also not fully understood/respected/treatable just yet. They may appear to be something else, farmer treats for that, but boom, dead calf because the pathogen wasnât touched by the meds it appeared to need.
Biosecurity would indicate that covering dead livestock is probably not a best choice. Nobody wants the deadstock truck driver touching anything other than the dead animal. Period. No touchy. No coming in the barn. No driving on driveways theyâve been warned off. Nothing. They will literally phone you when they can see you through a window so they donât even touch the outside of building.
Even if youâre disposing of deadstock on your own farm, no, no covering. Again, biosecurity for one, and for two, itâs a pain in the arse to get off your equipment to fart around to do a few extra steps. Covering is very much a horse thing - to protect humans from negative visual stimuli.
If the dead calves were not easily visible from the road, likely there was absolutely nothing wrong with the way they were placed to be either picked up or disposed of on property. They will be gone in likely 24 hours or sooner.
Lastly, with communicable diseases, it is not unusual to lose a couple/few in quick succession. Vaccinations donât take hold quick enough, as I said above some diseases can be misdiagnosed (even by a vet), and others are not yet 100% treatable. Itâs unfortunate and costly, but it happens. No-one wants it to happen, but it does.
BTW, pneumonia sucks. Itâs very, very hard on cattle. 
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Yes, absolutely. Me too.
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Depends on where he got the calves? Sale barn calves purchased have a high mortality rate. Since the calves were stalled I am assuming they are bottle fed and unless this was a big Dairy Operation the calves were most likely purchased and coming from all different sources.
This can make for some pretty high mortality and sickness run rampant even under the perfect conditions. Even calves born on farm and bottle fed are fragile.
Not reportable in my opinion unless the calves were skin and bones.
Were the calves you saw alive well fed? The stalls/ pens clean?
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I have no idea what constitutes a well fed bottle calf.
There were no buckets in the pens, which I guess could be a safety issue. I presume they put buckets in at feed time and take them out after. Their stalls were clean - they were bedded on corn stalks which I found interesting!
It sounds like I just looked at it from a horse perspective. I feel bad for the farmer - sounds like this will be a brutal financial hit for him.
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Thank you for your kind and well written response.
One of the cows in front of the barn was bloated. The other had obviously died within the past day - he was still stiff.
We can bury livestock here and the ground is not frozen. That being said, he has a smaller property - I presume a renderer might pick them up because of that.
I guess in my mind, I am very used to dead stock being picked up or buried on the same day. We have roaming dogs and coyotes in the area, so you definitely donât want to leave a body uncovered at night or youâll have an uncomfortable surprise. All the replies here have shown me a different way of doing things, which I respect and understand. Itâs just quite shocking to see so many dead and sick animals in one place.
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As others have already pointed out, youâre over-reacting. Thereâs nothing to âreportâ. The farmer has sick livestock. What is he supposed to do about that? You have no idea what heâs currently doing to treat them, or all he likely did (and spent money on) to try to treat and save the ones that ended up dying. I feel bad for the farmer. Thatâs a blow to have such a lethal sickness spreading through his stock. Farming / ranching is not for the faint of heart. I grew up on a farm/ranch. Some years we didnât lose any calves. Other years about made you want to quit.
Yes, things can and do happen. Heâs not obligated to âclean upâ just because he had someone coming over to look at hay.
Does he work during the day? Is ranching a side gig for him, or full time? Perhaps he was at work all day. Or maybe he just didnât have the time, if heâs got other sick calves that need treating. That is going to take priority over hauling the dead ones away. Happened lots of times that we let a dead calf lay in the yard for a day or two; sometimes even skinned because we ran over to the dairy farmerâs quick to grab a diary calf to spike onto the mother (which you do by skinning the dead calf, and tie the hide onto the spiker calf, until the mother adjusts to the ânew smellâ of her ânew calfâ so she will accept him and let him nurse).
I would imagine the sight of a skinned dead calf would have probably freaked you right out.
And no, we never laid a cover over the dead ones. Why bother? And yes, sometimes you lost a few in a row. Devastating, for sure.
I have a relative that had 14 cows killed last summer from lightning. A storm rolled through over the night, and he noticed them the next morning in the pasture as he was driving into work. Of course, they laid there all day until he could get home from work and take care of it.
And what would cause you to make such an assumption?
You said the place was overall well-kept and looked clean, correct? And the pens were clean? And he volunteered the explanation without you asking? That doesnât sound like a negligent rancher.
Sure, there are bad ranchers out there. No denying that. But I guess Iâm not the type of person that automatically assumes the worst in others, with no evidence to back it up otherwise.
Buckets or bottles are not left out. They suck down their milk serving quite quickly and then buckets/bottles are washed to be ready for the next feeding.
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Same as any other animal. Bright eyed, decently fleshed, covered ribs, healthy coat etcâŠ
With that many calves I imagine if they are young enough to be on milk they are probably fed by bucket and they wouldnât leave those in ( usually).
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The thing is depending on the breed, what is decently fleshed and covered ribs, can be different! Holsteins or other dairy breeds, can look pretty scrawny compared to a Hereford or Angus etc. Otherwise I agree with you.
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Beef rancher here and former pig farmer.
The old saying goes, âWhen you have livestock, you have dead stock.â
BUT, I would never leave anything dead out for anyone to see, and an entire barn full of coughing cattle is never good!
Any idea what this farmerâs reputation is? Do you know anyone who does business with him? Were there any obvious signs of negligent animal husbandry- thin animals, lack of water, lack of feed, lack of bedding, badly smelling barn, dark barn?
Calves kept indoors tend to pick up illness easier than those kept outdoors, just like horses. This farmer might be picking up day old dairy calves to raise as stockers or dairy beef because cattle prices are currently high, and possibly going to get higher because of what I say in the next paragraph.
There is an undefined illness running through the cattle industry right now that the industry feels originated in Texas. Many loads of cattle scheduled for shipping last week were either sent back to their point of origin or canceled because of it. The affected states are Texas, New Mexico, Kansas.
It does not present as respiratory disease, but will cause cattle to go off feed. The vector of transmission is unknown, but could be birds.
The dairy industry is not as vigilant about bio security as others like hogs, so there could be some catching up to do before this illness is under control.
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Many of us anticipated the change with drug sales, and stocked up before the change happened. But, we also keep a vet/client relationship that allows us access to drugs through our vet.
For those that think farmers have overused antibiotics, I can most certainly tell you that is incorrect for the most part.
Most farmers watch cost and added expenses quite closely. We operate on very tight margins to begin with, and donât want to make them any tighter.
Many try to avoid antibiotics and their overuse through good husbandry practices, and things like vitamin and mineral supplements, as well as probiotics.
Antibiotic overuse in production agriculture is not what many would have you believe!
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Holstein calves are all bone and Jersey calves are very fragile looking to begin with but anyone should be able to tell between a slim animal and an underfed / neglected one. I realize some people just cannot gauge animal condition and if they canât it is best to not judge.
Some used to seeing the neighbours Angus or Hereford calves and not realizing that dairy calves tend to look totally different than beef breeds might think the Holstein or Jersey calves are not perfectly healthy in comparison. Even growing up around numerous dairy farms, I often found them too skinny looking when compared to our beef cattle and I knew the difference.
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I know @jvanrens I have experience raising both beef and dairy cattle so it helps. I realize many have never seen a dairy breed up close and it would be a shock to see what OP did.
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