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The Hidden Cost of Cattle Shrink The Midwest Cattleman · October 5, 2023 · P17

K-State cattle experts offer tips to minimize weight loss when traveling to a sale site

By Lisa Moser, K-State Research and Extension
While many people would the amount of time the cattle market where they are not unavoidable, but it is greatly
love to see their weight de- don’t have access to familiar weighed for another day or influenced by how we man-
crease when crossing the feed and water, according to two,” Larson said. “Even if you age the nutrition leading up
scale, beef cattle producers Larson. give them access to feed and to that point and then how
selling cattle by the pound “The worst-case scenario water at the new location, it we handle those cattle in the
prefer to minimize weight is to move the cattle from the will take time for them to re- transportation process.”
loss animals experience from pasture to a dry lot with little sume eating and drinking.”
the farm to the sale facility, access to feed and water, and The bottom line, White
said the experts at Kansas then take them to an auction said, is that “some shrink is
State University’s Beef Cattle
Institute.
This weight loss is termed
shrink.
“Shrink refers to weight
loss that occurs when bodi-
ly fluids or solids are excret-
ed by the calf between home
and the sale location,” said
K-State veterinarian Brad
White on a recent Cattle Chat
podcast.
White said this is often a
hidden cost because cattle
producers don’t always fac-
tor that into their marketing
plan.
“From a marketing stand-
point, shrink is the differ-
ence between the amount of
weight I got paid for at sale
versus the amount of weight I
could have sold if I’d done ev-
erything right,” K-State vet-
erinarian Bob Larson said.
How the cattle are man-
aged between home and the
point of sale can influence
how much weight is lost.
“When cattle are stressed,
they will increase the fre-
quency of urination and def-
ecation, which increases the
amount of shrink,” said Phil-
lip Lancaster, K-State beef
cattle nutritionist.
He added: “So when mov-
ing cattle be sure to remain
calm and go slowly.”
It is also helpful to have
good facilities to move the cat-
tle through, the experts said.
K-State veterinarian Brian
Lubbers added that even with
good facilities, well-trained
animal handlers are import-
ant in reducing shrink.
“You can have the best fa-
cilities in the world and yet
the wrong handlers will total-
ly negate what you are trying
to keep from happening in re-
spect to weight loss, so be sure
that if you use third-party
handlers that they are well-
trained,” Lubbers said.
The goal is to minimize