Pressures on cattle producers to not use antibiotics will help producers save money, an ISU veterinary medicine professor said.

Many cattle feedlots are changing how they care for their cattle because of increased awareness about antibiotic resistance and food safety.

“There is a tremendous economic benefit to producers by not using antibiotics because they cost a lot of money,” said Michael Apley, associate professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine.

Apley said the general public’s awareness of food safety has heightened greatly because of the cattle industry’s increased ability to detect and report diseases. Yet, despite that ability, some are still calling for new management techniques in order to market animals without using as many antibiotics, Apley said.

Reducing the use of antibiotics has become a focus for cattle farmers because consumers have become concerned about antibiotics getting into the food supply.

Because of these concerns, Apley said, several practices are being stressed, such as lengthening the time it takes for animals to progress to higher feed rations, increasing the focus on animal rationing and nutrition and looking at whether vaccines are making a difference in preventing disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also released its Guidance for Industry 152 on Oct. 23. The guidelines state that prior to approving a new animal drug application, the Federal Food and Drug Administration must determine the drug is “safe and effective for its intended use in the animal.” The FDA must also state that the drug is safe with regard to human health.

Another possibility in the future is using a national individual animal identification system that would allow producers to trace disease back to an individual cow or bull, he said.

However, Apley said, the use of a national individual animal identification system is not set in stone. It is hoped that in the future consenting parties could use it for tracing data.

“The ultimate goal of these management practices is to end up [in] a position with an even safer beef supply,” he said.

Apley said that while the public expects a safe, wholesome food supply, other outside groups such as government, environmental and large corporate organizations also put pressures on the cattle industry to make more food safety and inspection guidelines and regulations.

He said animal welfare issues, including castration, dehorning, the herding of cattle and pen management, also are factors in how producers raise cattle in feedlots.

“People need to realize that you don’t gain economically by throwing cattle into a sloppy pen,” he said.

Daniel Loy, professor of animal science, said typical Iowa feedlots market 500 to 5,000 cattle per year. But, a number of cow-calf producers feed out their calves, he said.

Although the number of cattle differs greatly from operation to operation, specific management practices do not vary much, Loy said.

The only real difference is that there are more people per calf in smaller operations — the vaccines that are used do not differ much, he said.

Although there is a wide spectrum of cattle management intensities, Apley said, every producer’s goal is to pick what management practices and vaccines they can that do not use antibiotics.