By Tyler Trieglaff

Notes from the Chief

Notes from the farm…Last Sunday, we vaccinated the cows to protect the calves from scours in the spring. What is scours? Plain and simple, scours is diarrhea. The cattle industry has routinely used the term scours to refer to diarrhea in young animals for as long as anyone can remember. Scours causes dehydration in calves and is the leading cause of death in calves under one month of age. 

Ninety-five percent of infectious calf scours is caused by rotavirus, coronavirus, or Cryptosporidium. Dehydration is what kills calves, and correcting with supplemental electrolytes is the most crucial part of any treatment protocol. To prevent calf scours, use a system-wide approach that includes, cow health, colostrum management, calf nutrition, cleaning and sanitizing, and vaccination. We have had our bouts with scours in the past but have been very fortunate the last several years. We are calving on large open areas of grass rather than in the cow lot with lots of mud. The clean calving area along with the Scour Bos 9 vaccine has brought our scours losses to almost zero.

We also made sure all the cows had ear tags that were easy to read. Some of our cows are going on 13-years-old and have their original ear tags. The writing can become faded or tags were missing. Each cow has two ear tags in case one falls out. We number the cows by their birth year so we know how old the cows are. When the calves are born we tag the calf to match the cow so the cow knows which calf is hers.

We hauled 18 steers to the sales barn last week and we had a nice showing at the sales barn with the feeder market being very strong. The futures market seems to be maintaining and will be going higher in the next year. I hope that trend continues as a producer but also hope it does not affect the end product at the grocery store. I have not been shopping for steaks or burger lately, so I do not know the current retail prices. 

The reason for the higher futures market is because the U.S. total beef numbers are still falling, and I am not sure what the answer is. Several years of drought across the US have caused many farmers to reduce their herd sizes and it can take several years to get those numbers back.

Have a nice week.

Friday Feb. 2

4:08 p.m. Report of a high school student making threats. Incident was investigated by officer and the threat was negated.

6:48 p.m. Grandmother in town to pick up her legally adopted grandchildren. Officer and grandmother did not locate the kids. Under investigation and continuing to look for the kids.

Saturday, Feb. 3

7:39 p.m. Report that a semi hit a light pole while turning.

Sunday, Feb. 4

10:06 p.m. Parking warning given to parties dropping person off on Lake St. N.

Monday, Feb. 5

9:48 a.m. Assist with a medical.

11:04 a.m. Assist high school student who was having emotional issues. Officer was able to get the student back to school and to the counselor’s office.

11:42 a.m. Report of female in a business who had been trespassed.

12:17 p.m. Welfare check on female on Main Ave E. Female was given a ride to a friend’s house.

12:38 p.m. Assist with a gas drive off.

Tuesday, Feb. 6

1:16 a.m. Report of a suicidal male. Officer talked with male and all was well.

8:29 p.m. Assist with a welfare check/suicidal party in the county.

11:26 p.m. Report of a sexual assault that happened in Detroit Lakes. Info taken and sent to DLPD.

Wednesday, Feb. 7

4:25 p.m. Release of a motorcycle that was in PD impound.

Thursday, Feb. 8

12:53 a.m. Carbon monoxide alarm at a residence.

4:51 p.m. Disturbance reported on Lake St. N. Jeneanne Knox, 54, Frazee arrested on Mahnomen County warrant.