22 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN August 2024 ‘Bird’ Is the Word Managing Birds in Feedlots TRESSA LAWRENCE | CONTRIBUTING WRITER BEEF UP Beef up with BOVAMINE DEFEND® Plus. An innovative combination of four proven strains of good bacteria, BOVAMINE DEFEND Plus supports cattle gut health and immunity, allowing cattle to be more productive. Research also shows improvements in feed efficiency, cattle performance, dressing percentage and hot carcass weight — all helping to beef up your profit potential, too. It’s the power of good bacteria at work. Scan to learn more. YOUR CATTLE. YOUR OPERATION. YOUR BOTTOM LINE. Chr Hansen BDP_Half page_NECattlemen_Fall2023.indd 1 10/10/23 11:07 AM For feedlot managers and workers, bird has been a troublesome word for decades when discussing problems in the yard. Migratory birds such as starlings, blackbirds and pigeons (also referred to as rock doves) are known to wreak havoc in feedlots and other livestock facilities. The Cost of Infestation Consumption and destruction is the name of their game, consuming valuable livestock feed and destroying remaining feed and infrastructure with their highly acidic feces. You may be wondering how much one of these birds eats and if it really makes a difference. Charlie Lee, former Extension wildlife specialist with Kansas State University, explains that feedlots can oftentimes attract large flocks of 300,000 or more of these migratory birds. When talking about starlings specifically, if each bird consumes one pound of feed in a month, a flock of 300,000 starlings would consume 150 tons of feed in one month. With the ever-increasing price of feed, it is easy to see how these birds become a financial burden very quickly. It is not uncommon to have these infestations for four to five months each year. “Starlings are a slow-moving migratory bird, meaning you could remove all the birds that are in a feedlot and maybe a month later have the same number of birds back,” Lee explains. “They move north and south, more slowly and over shorter distances compared to other migratory birds that you might be aware of that move primarily because of weather.” These starlings are European starlings, an invasive species that was brought to the United States in the early 1890s. PRODUCTION
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