| Effect On
Incoming Cattle: The weight loss of cattle
during transport is commonly called shrink. There are
two types of shrink. One is exudative, which is the
loss of urine and feces. The second type of shrink is
tissue loss. Tissue loss is the loss of fluid from the
cells and cattle require more time to regain this type
of shrink. The following are five factors that affect
amount of shrink:
1. Time 2. Distance 3. Age 4. Sex 5.
Type-Condition.
The most critical factor is time in transit.
Therefore, truckers should deliver cattle as soon as
possible. The following are some estimates for shrink
with respect to time (Fox et al., 1985):
| Hours in a Moving
truck |
%Shrink |
Days required to
Recover Payweight |
1
2-8
8-16
16-24
24-32 |
2
4-6
6-8
8-10
10-12 |
0
4-8
8-16
16-24
24-30 |
Distance is included as a factor because some
people think in terms of distance rather than time.
One estimate is a 3% shrink for the first 100 miles
and .5% to 1% for each additional 100 miles.
Age, sex, and type-condition are interrelated
because the real factor is fat composition of the
animal. The fatter the cattle are, the less shrink
encountered. This is because fat contains less water
than muscle. Older cattle tend to have more fat than
younger animals. Heifers are usually fatter than
steers of the same age. Larger frame cattle have a
higher lean to fat ratio than medium frame cattle of
the same age. Of course health of the cattle will also
have an effect.
Preventing Shrink: You may not be
able to prevent shrink in cattle that you purchase
some distance from your feedlot but the following
practices may reduce the amount of shrink and minimize
the accompanying stress (Brownson, 1973):
- Avoid loading and moving cattle during inclement
weather.
- Insure careful and nonabusive handling is
practiced at loading and unloading.
- Inform the cattle buyer or trucker that the
cattle should arrive as soon as possible after
loading.
- Make sure trucks and all corral equipment are in
good working order.
- Provide adequate protection during inclement
weather while in transit.
- Dry feeds are more desirable than wet feeds for
cattle prior to shipping.
- Provide proper space allocation to each animal.
Truck Space Requirements For
Calves
|
Average Weight
|
Number of Calves
per Running foot of truck floor
(92 inch truck width)
|
|
200 lbs
300 lbs
400 lbs
450 lbs
|
2.2
1.6
1.2
1.1
|
(Grandin, 1988)
Source: Ohio
State Univ. Extension |
