Livestock Wala'au

S2 Ep 07 Importance of trace minerals and preparing calves for the next stage of the production cycle.

• Season 2 • Episode 7

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Aloha and thank you for tuning in to another episode of Livestock Walaʻau! In this episode we will be talking with Dr. Caleb Reichhardt, who is the Livestock Production Professor with UH CTAHR. Listen in to learn more about trace minerals for livestock, impact to health and some tips on preparing calves for next stage of production. Dr. Reichhardt will also share about his position with UH and his research areas. 

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https://cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/forestry/Forestry-Agroforestry-Trees/Leucaena-leucocephala

Shannon Sand:

Aloha Today's episode is brought to you by the Western extension Risk Management Education Center rasp USDA NIFA, and the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and the livestock extension group.

Melelani Oshiro:

Aloha. Welcome to the livestock Bolla, our a podcast aim to provide educational support information, guidance and outreach to our livestock stakeholders in Hawaii. We are your hosts, Millie Oh, Cheryl and Shannon Sam. And today we're going to be talking with Dr. Caleb Reichart, who is a new faculty member with the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture in the hen fest department. So thank you so much, Caleb, for joining us today.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here and visit with you and hopefully get to my information out to some producers.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, it'd be great. Yeah. And I think it'd be so good to just kind of know a little bit about your background and your new position. And maybe we get you here. Yeah, we can start there. Yeah.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah. Perfect. Um, well, I grew up in Montana, actually. So the exactly polar opposite of Hawaii. Yeah. Did you like 60 days as their growing season, I think or something like that. So that was great. We had a small cattle herd and I worked my way up through the Montana four H program. And so I raised steers and market lambs and four h. And then I eventually, yeah, became the Montana for each state Ambassador president. So I got to see like, all. Really? Yeah, there's a fun way to do it. Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, I actually went and got my Bachelor's at Montana State University. So just had to drive over the mountain.

Shannon Sand:

Sure, that was more challenging than others. So especially Yeah, winter there, because I was like, I lived in like, Rapid City, which is way better weather wise, for about three years, like, but I was like, I've been over to Montana. And I'm like,

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Really, I lived on campus. I didn't have to, like do it every day. But weekends, I had a little Subaru it was the Subaru buzz bomb, it could go anywhere. You just like, put it into low gear and just go

Melelani Oshiro:

see us folks here like that. Probably have never, like I have never drove in snow. Like I've been in the car. But I've never been the driver.

Shannon Sand:

So it's gonna say you lived in New Zealand for a couple of years, don't think

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, but it didn't snow where I was

Shannon Sand:

snow. Oh, where you were at? I was like,

Melelani Oshiro:

every time I go to the snow, I'm not the driver. So it's a very different experience when you have to do that. So for somebody like us, we're like, Oh, you just have to drive with a mountain, you know, over here. It's over the mountain is not such a big deal. But anyway,

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

it's not like most of the time, I'd say like they get the plows out and like get this road ready to go. And so most of the time, you're fine. But there's been times where you're like, Oh, I probably should have just stayed home. Where did you go after Montana State? Yeah, then I actually went to Utah State. So Montana State is where I really found out that I liked doing research. And I'm really fortunate my experiences there and the connections I made. They led me to Utah State where I did my PhD. So Montana State, I did a lot of work with our beef extension specialists there and did some undergrad research, looking at replacement heifer development, for cattle producers. And that's is kind of how I ended up going down to Utah State to keep doing animal nutrition and growth research. So it was a fun time there at Utah State. We got to expose to everything. So my research focused on feedlot management mainly and cattle nutrition and growth. But we did breed trials. So we looked at how different breeds did, we did dairy trials, pig trials, I helped with a few sheep trials, but we did everything and then so we're either out in the field all the time, or we did skeletal muscle research in the lab. So we'd isolate primary muscle cells and then look at them from the lab standpoint. So we're all over down there. And so I got a lot of experiences down in Utah.

Shannon Sand:

Very cool. And you did both your masters and your PhD at Utah State then or

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

I didn't do

Shannon Sand:

a Masters actually. Oh, you just skipped just skip to say you're really smart. You skipped it right on to the PhD. You're just like we're done. Wow.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

I want to do a master's and then Have Montana State and then my PhD advisor at Utah State was like, you know, you probably don't need one. She's like a lot of schools are going away from them. If you wanted to get a PhD, just just do the PhD saves underwriting time. Oh, wow.

Shannon Sand:

Oh, I kinda wish someone would have told me that. I might not have gotten all but like, I'm tired of

Melelani Oshiro:

it. When I kind of feel to after you've done your masters and people asked me like, are you gonna do PhD? I'm like, No, why would I do that? Like in my head? I was just like, I was at that done time I was done like.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah. So looking back, I think I probably wouldn't have made it this far. If one of my friends just graduated with their PhD, and then they started an MBA the next week, and I was just like, why? Well,

Shannon Sand:

that's amazing. Yeah.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, I feel like when you're, when you're really like, into the research part of it, and that really excites you, I think after you've done a program, you kind of do want to start to get your own ideas, right about what research you want to look at, and kind of be able to focus it more on things that you want to look at. And you want to do so. Yeah, continuing on. Sometimes it's not always, you know, you want to continue on in the research, but not so much on the educational side of, you know, doing those types of programs.

Shannon Sand:

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

I love learning and all that news. Yeah. And learning all this new things. But yeah,

Shannon Sand:

I would say I don't think any of us would be here if we are born all fans have learning on some.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, exactly. But also, we also like to ask our own, like, like you were saying, ask our questions. Yeah, try and figure out what's next and go down our own path. Yeah. Really, like once you figure out what your passion is, yeah, you just kind of have to chase after. So yeah, I was really fortunate, MSU, Montana State University, they really helped cultivate that passion for doing research and animal nutrition. And then Utah State really trained me to pursue it. And here I am now. So I've been very fortunate.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah. So you, what's your current title right now at u h Manoa?

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, I am the Assistant Professor of livestock animal production. So it is a split teaching and research position.

Melelani Oshiro:

So you have are you teaching courses already, the semester just started, they literally like roped you in right when semesters already,

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

so I wasn't supposed to teach this. And then two days after classes started, they ended up having too many students or something. And I ended up co teaching a course but it just meets one day a week. And so it's pretty easy course to teach this semester. Probably a

Shannon Sand:

good way to kind of get your feet wet, though, really. And like see what it's like. Because I was like, you know, like the university settings differ in different states a lot. So culturally, and everything and like, Hawaii, definitely, like we have our have their own culture here. And I was like, it's definitely you know, so it's probably a good idea.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, it's been nice. I taught at USU. Also, I taught panel nutrition there before I came here. And even just like the software's different. So I think they Oh, yeah.

Shannon Sand:

Oh, yeah. Cuz the internal software here is completely different. Yeah, cuz it's all

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

I'll probably be doing next semesters when I really dive into my teaching. I'll be teaching introduction to animal science, and then beef management. It's exciting. My dream courses, you start the freshman and then you get to send the seniors off.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah. That's cool. Very good. So your other your other appointment time now is into research. So what what kind of things do you have on the front for your research program?

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, I'm still in the process of setting it up. And I really hope to work with producers to do some more applied research, when really the overall goal of my program is to improve our understanding of vitamins and minerals in livestock production. So

Shannon Sand:

any livestock in particular cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, we have everything here. So yeah, so that's, that's what we got the variety. We're kind of a great state because of that, you know

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

who Yeah, so my position is all livestock, so specifically cattle, small ruminants, and then pigs or swine, and so that was really nice. And one of the things that drew me to this is you can do everything. Yeah, yeah, I will be honest beef. I love cows. Cattle are my background. So a lot of my research will probably be good geared more towards beef cattle production. I like working with all. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I love vitamins and minerals. Because I still can't wrap my head around it. We actually don't know really anything about them. Like really? Yeah, like our requirement for dairy cattle for vitamin E. Yeah. was determined. So for a big lactating dairy cow or requirement for her was based off of requirements for bottlecaps. Really? Yes. And that's like all we know about vitamin E and what we should be giving it. And then like, things like that, and I just can't wrap my head around it. Yeah. So they're just like,

Shannon Sand:

nutritionally, it would be very interesting here because we have so many microclimates, those different literally everywhere. And there's a lot of grazing. And so it's, it's going to have its own challenges and, and like lots and lots of research potential I would imagine. So

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

yeah, that's, that's so great. Yeah, that's amazing. Because what one neighbor might be doing is going to have to be completely different than

Shannon Sand:

Exactly. Yeah. And Melis got a few years of experience in that.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah. Well, no. Yeah. And I think yeah, it's like opening a can of worms when you start talking about mineral supplementation and nutrition here. Because it does, it does vary, you know, we just, it varies across the island across the state. I mean, you drive. I don't know if Caleb you bend over to the Big Island yet. But these microclimates like shadows, different climates, basically, yeah. And it's just like an hour away, you know, so it's just, it's crazy how how quickly it changes, and then those impacts on the animal, not just, you know, the minerals and stuff that they may need in a different area. But then how does that impact them nutritionally and efficient, you know, in the efficiency of which they can use the forages and stuff that they get, you know, that they can consume in those areas. And what forage is growing? It's, there's so many different things, right, that impact but a great, I think, segue into our next little topic that, um, to, you know, talk with Caleb and kind of pick his brains about, you know, because I'm, you know, trace minerals, here is an important thing. And at any one, we did one paper, there was another livestock agent that used to be here that had a similar type of experience and background and on interest in looking at nutrition, especially, you know, she worked a lot in the feedlot area, but looking at trace mineral supplementation, and so it is important, you know, I guess, and I'll leave it to you there, Caleb, where, you know, you want to talk about that in livestock production and how those minerals impact that.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, they're, they're such a small part of our animal's diet, but because they're so small, I feel like a lot of producers and people are just like, oh, I don't need to worry about it, especially in Hawaii, it's one of the main imports for foodstuffs, so producers, it's, they're going to have to pay a lot of money for it. And so because of that, because there's such a small component of the animal's diet, producers often overlook them, but they're so critical. They're involved in like skeleton structure. So how the bone grows, they're involved in growth and feed efficiency, reproduction, meat quality, so what are consumers are going to get their immune system so that animals overall health, and so they really are just so important for all of our economically important traits, you know what, you're going to get that money back.

Melelani Oshiro:

Right, and that, that exchange between the cost of that mineral supplement versus what you get out of your animal, I think sometimes we're shouting comes in, right, because she's our she's our finance agent here, but that sometimes the trade off is just so worth it that I just, I don't think folks really realize sometimes how much it makes a difference, you know, and I mean, I see I just have a small little goat herd, but I noticed it in them. I mean, I can immediately see the difference when I should have been putting out mineral and I didn't.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, like I know this, like it's what I study and I still sometimes my dad will be like, oh, yeah, I ran out of mineral. We'll get to it eventually. Like our cows.

Shannon Sand:

Like a dad sounds like my dad.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, yeah, he's like, I know. I know. We'll get to it don't worry. Yeah. But yeah, they really is that trade off between like, Yeah, I'm going to have to invest a little money here but an open cow also is going to cost you a lot of money and time

Shannon Sand:

to love and money long term. Yeah.

Melelani Oshiro:

So if you had to choose I guess like an area or I should say growth stage or are of the animals of where it's the most important part for you to have minerals in. What would you say, base of of your new research or, you know, knowledge? I mean, we don't want to say just to supplement your animals. That's not what we're saying here. But we're saying that, you know, there are probably more important stages in their growth cycle right that it minerals play a bigger a bigger impact on Yeah, I

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

think there's several places. I mean, I think always supplement talk to you, like your local feed store, figure out what works for you, what you need to supplement for your area, like we talked everywhere is going to be different. Yeah, yes, do your water test your feed, test your animals and know their status. If you're buying something, make sure it's actually going to work for you don't, don't buy a cattle supplement to supplement goats or sheep.

Melelani Oshiro:

That's a very important, important concept, because there's toxicities that go across these different species, although they are all ruminants. They do process things differently. So

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

yeah, so copper, I think mela you worked on that is deficient in cattle. But if we gave that to sheep, we'd have a lot of issues. Yeah. So I think it's really important before we decide like, where, to what stage of production, we really want to supplement, we need to know our animals status. That being said, I think it's really important from a reproduction point. So making sure our cows or our use are going into that breeding season, with their nutritional requirements met and ready to go. Also, the other thing, I think the other stage where I think it's going to be really critical is making sure our calves so leading up to weaning, they have all their nutritional requirements. So weaning is going to be really a really stressful event. So these vitamins and minerals are going to play a role in the immune response in that stress response. So if we can make sure that when we get to these stressful situations, like weaning, or giving birth, or breeding, when that we're really calling on these animals to perform for us, that their nutritional requirements and their vitamin and mineral requirements are met, right, the other place we see it is when an animal's when use are undergoing parasite infections, they are mobilizing their vitamin A, E and C. And so we actually see there by fear of vitamin A, E and C, just plummet. So yeah, these vitamins and minerals, they just play such an important role in that immune system. So those us that are undergoing that parasite infection, their body's mobilizing their vitamin A, C, and E, because they need it. And so like during those stressful times, like a parasite infection, we're really going to want to make sure that we are supplementing our animals to meet their needs. We see the same thing when we ship calves on the mainland and those trucks, we see that their serum vitamin A and C, it just plummets because they're mobilizing and they need they need those stores for their immune system and stress response. So we want to really make sure that we're just preparing them when we're asking these animals to work are right, exposed to these stressful situations. Yeah, right.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, I mean, I think we see it too in the in the forage is when we're grazing and stuff, and especially when it starts to get a little bit drier, or some of the grazing trials that we did as these animals got into the lower portions of those pastures, you know, I mean, we just see them attack this mineral tubs, you know, and we normally see it full, you know, you'd go back there the next day, and it's empty. So very important.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, yeah, that's a great point, our forage stage that affects like the mineral requirement, how we store our forages. So things like that. So there's a lot of factors that can affect essentially what these animals are getting. And then we need to make sure that we're there to make sure they're getting what they need to support the economics and the animal health overall.

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah. So real quick, I mean, I know this can't be a real quick question, but so they always talk about this kind of what you call intuitive knowledge that the animals have knowing what minerals and if they even need minerals, right? So you could add live feed them the minerals, and they're going to consume it when they need it. Is that still kind of the

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, so like, you'll put out like a mineral supplement, and you should monitor how much they're getting each day. So your feed tag will tell you what they should get in if they're eating too much of it. There's ways that we can we could make salt in for example, to help limit that cuz we want to make sure they're not eating too much. They might really like it. And so again, it costs a lot of money. So if they don't need that much of it, from an economic standpoint, we want to make sure they're just not like a little kid in the candy store just being like mind,

Melelani Oshiro:

mind, mind, right? So is it better to like have mineral supplements out there that maybe don't have the molasses and all those bits that make it a little bit more tasty for them? And maybe to have a loose mineral over

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

block? So my personal preference is always loose mineral over block. Okay, that is just my personal preference. I was the reason I was taught that is, like I said, I grew up in Montana, it gets cold quickly, someone said, Would you like to be licking a popsicle and minus? So I was like, oh, obviously loose mineral?

Melelani Oshiro:

That's a good point. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, go ahead.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

I just think it really depends on your operation. If your animals aren't eating the mineral consuming it, I think a molasses tub is a great way to go. So I think we it's really monitoring those animals and monitoring that intake. So

Melelani Oshiro:

that's a good point. I think that's the important part there. So we talked about, I kind of threw that question to you about kind of the different growth stages, right of what maybe is more important to have the mineral supplementation out there. But to kind of lead us into another little topic here is talking about calving or calves, right, and that preparing those calves for sort of that production cycle.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, that's, that's great. That is from like, meaning to harvest is probably like my favorite stage of the production cycle. I don't know why it's something I've always just, it's really when we can develop these animals. And so I think it's important to remember that Hawaii is primarily a cow calf state, we raise these cows, we sell these calves, and about 80% of them get exported to the mainland, which you might think like, oh, once they're weaned, I don't have to worry about them. But we are really small community, the livestock, so those cattle, once they get there, they're going to be entering a feedlot, and they're going to know exactly where they are. And so really, we want to make sure that we're preparing our calves for that next stage of production, whether that be keeping our replacement heifers, then staying on island to go into a grass fed operation or shipping them so that consumers and the next stage of production want to come back and buy that product. Essentially, you're selling your reputation when you sell your calves, right. So you want to make sure that you're selling a good quality product. So if your calves get to the mainland, and some of them are dying, or they're always going to have to be treated, that's going to affect your prices in the future. So essentially, if all your calves are dying, they're going to be like, Oh, I'm not buying from producer so and so. Or if I am, I'm going to pay a lot less for his calves because I spent this much on medical visits. So if we can guarantee you that we're sending this quality product, you're going to have produced feedlots or buyers, who might be willing to pay a little more for that in the future. So really, what we do at this stage affects, again, those overall economics and making those people come back and may be willing to pay more or if something's going wrong, they might pay less for those calves. So we really need to be preparing them for that. And then also from if you're keeping replacement heifers back, obviously what how we manage them from weaning on is going to affect their reproduction. So it's going to affect them coming into puberty, it's going to affect them breeding that calf later on. So there's several things we can do there. One is mineral programs, if we can make sure when those calves are getting ready to be weaned there at a proper mineral status. That's great mineral deficient calves arriving in the feedlot. So even though we don't have feedlots here, they're getting shipped to the mainland where they're entering feedlots. They're considered high risk. And so they're going to have a lot higher death rate. And they're going to be more susceptible to diseases. So we so again, if we can make sure those animals are meeting their mineral requirements. That's one way we can help. Yeah, and then so essentially, what we can we can also if we can minimize stress, so I mean, it's necessary. It's a necessary component. If we can minimize the stress at weaning, and make sure those animals are ready to go at weaning. We can really help them into that next stage, whether that's becoming a cow and that cow herd going into grass fed up ration are getting shipped, what we do leading up to weaning is going to affect them for the rest of their production life. So we can do several things we could we have different weaning methods we can do. There's some people just round them up and send them on and sell them and send them off. I mean, they're not really ready to go. You're, you're sending them out to travel, essentially, at weaning, I get stressed traveling, and I know what's coming. I mean, if I'm, if I'm flying, I generally hang out the airport bar. It's mostly for people watching, I'll be honest, but you're never, you're never hurt for flying. But our calves can't do that. So if we can make sure we're minimizing their stress, they're going to perform better.

Melelani Oshiro:

So yeah, I think that's, I want to say this, like across almost all production cycles, but especially for our calves. And when you're winning, right? It's such an important thing. I mean, they just, they already have that stress, as you say, of the transportation, you know, going in there. And it's even before they even get into the trucks. You know, I think those are, that whole process is so stressful on the animals, that I'm preparing them ahead of time and having all that pre shipment, you know, things going in them as a very good, important part of making sure they get a good head on. Head Start to everything.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Even if you're retaining them and they're staying on the operation, then you're still separating them from mom, you're still being like, Okay, you're on your own. It's like headed off to college. No, they just call Yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

yeah, exactly. Right. So I, we see different weaning strategies, right, like how people just you say, some folks, so just take off chatting, I'm sure you guys have probably your own weaning strategy. And everybody does. Fenceline weaning it's not something that I've looked up recently. But is there a preference or one that you that they find does lead to less stress in the animals?

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yes, yeah. So we do have mainly three main weaning strategies. The first you mentioned fence line, we also have our leaning or rounding them up and sending them off. And then we have two step cleaning, which is where essentially what they'll do is they'll use like nose paddles, I don't know if that makes sense. So they'll put a little like paddle on the nose of the calf. And what that does is it makes it so the calf can't nurse off of the cow. And so essentially says like, Okay, I can't can't get food from mom, but I can hang out with mom. And then that second step, what they do is they'll either do a gate weaning, or Fenceline weaning. And so they found that that is one of the better methods, but it doesn't work for all operations. So you really need to tailor your weaning strategy method to your operation. So there's, I wish I could say there is a one size fits all, but at the end of the day, again, what works for your neighbor might not work for you. Yeah. But they did find that Fenceline weaning and two step, weaning, decreases vocalization and animal stress. And what they actually found is it improves lifetime reproduction of those heifers. It improves me quality, and it improves how the animal performs in that feedlot, so it's going to gain better, it's going to be healthier. So there's not as much sickness, we're not seeing as much death rate, and things like that. So really, what that saying is just minimizing those stress responses, gives us a better overall in product. So it's going to affect all stages, this stress situation, super stressful, we're going to see an effect. Like I said that reproduction all the way up to that consumer. So those stressful weaning decreases tenderness. And so it makes producers not consumers. Apologies, consumers not always want to eat a product. And so Fenceline weaning does require more resources, though, you have to have strong fences. If you have cows, you're going to have cows getting out and then if you have calves, they're going to show you like oh, yeah, that's the whole but yeah, why not think you have a hole in your fence and then you're going to separate? Yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

yeah, they get they get pretty creative, I think to like us, you know, I mean, you see some moms that just like scoot in but herself up next to that fence and the calf is like trying to nursery through the fence. You know it's it's,

Shannon Sand:

they call those helicopter moms right. Yeah. helicopter parents. Version. Real strong instincts,

Melelani Oshiro:

I guess. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But that you know, it's good. I think a lot of folks here do use Fenceline weaning too and I think it's it is a probably a more common practice across many, many areas. So, yeah, that's good. That's good.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah. And so it really just, it depends, it might not work for everyone you might need to gate me, it might just might be what you have to do for your operation. But we need to not the or winning strategy isn't the only thing that can help decrease that stress, we can pre condition those calves, what we could do is two to three weeks before weaning, we could make sure they're up to date on all their vaccinations, so their immune system is ready to go when they get that stressful event. It's exactly like us, when we get stressed, we tend to get sick more. That's what's going to happen with these calves. So if we can make sure their immune system is ready to go. And so if two to three weeks before we weaned them, we make sure they're vaccinated, that can help decrease that situations that might arise. We can also create theater Bonk Breaker caps, so we're going to be exposing them to a new environment. Yeah, weaning, they might have never seen a pelleted feed before, they've probably spent all their life out on pasture, just crazy. And so if we could get them used to maybe eating a pelleted feed, or just sticking their head through a bunk that can make them more willing to eat at weaning, when they get weaned, typically we're going to see them go off feed, they're not going to want to eat and so if we can make sure they know how to eat,

Shannon Sand:

right?

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah. So it's not something you think like, oh, I need to show these calves how to eat. But if they've never had to, say, stick their head through a feeder before?

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, it's true, though you don't think right? You think it's food, they're gonna see it, they're gonna smell it, they're gonna taste it, they're gonna want to eat it. But it's that whole concept of sometimes having to put their head in a bucket, and in a feed been through some rails or something like they sometimes just can't figure that out or know, right, what to do.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

The same with water. Like if they've been drinking out of like a stream or creek all their lives. And now they're like, oh, no, you have to drink out of this trough. They'll be like, what is that?

Melelani Oshiro:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Wow. I mean, there's so much we could just sit here and talk about all these things that we can help, you know, I mean, minerals is such a big topic, and it just a production cycle in general, you know, for calving for calves and things that lead up to the next stages of their life, whether their goal for a grass finished lot or to the feedlot being shipped off state on island, everything, just it's very important on how you manage in your management strategies for that. But

Shannon Sand:

to get you back on here at some point in the future,

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

I think, yeah, I think it's important. Like, I It's my like main, like main thing I'll always say is what works for one person, whether that's mineral supplement, weaning preconditioning, there's no guarantee it's going to work for another person. So you need to figure out what works for you. And your operation. Yeah, so absolutely. Yeah. Very, very

Melelani Oshiro:

good point.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

Yeah, I'd love to be back. This has been great visiting. So yeah,

Melelani Oshiro:

yeah, we'll definitely have you come back. And we can talk more about minerals or, I mean, I feel like there's lots of different things we could talk about. But for sure, I think that's definitely one thing. And I don't know, is there anything else? Shannon? Or Caleb, you want to add before?

Shannon Sand:

No, is there anything else that you want to talk about as far as like what you're working on and what you're hoping to start working on or plug coming up?

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

I'm hoping to hire an undergraduate researcher soon. So if any undergraduates at UNH are listening,

Melelani Oshiro:

or their parents are there, I know you're you know, someone that's in the U H program in Animal Science.

Dr. Caleb Reichhardt:

I'm looking to hire an undergraduate researcher, I'm hoping to be getting started on some live animal trials with some producers in the next six months or so. I'm still setting up my lab. But right now, that's my main goal is just making those producer connections so I can be a resource for them and getting on the farm to do some live animal trials with them. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate all this.

Shannon Sand:

Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Caleb, we hope our listeners found this informative, and it'll be useful to their herd management plans. Also, if you have not already done so please be sure to fill out our feedback fast. It lets us know your thoughts about this podcast and kind of where you want it to go in the future. And also some potential topics we can talk Caleb into visiting with us about hopefully, so we know what you want to hear more of things like that. Yeah, make sure to follow us on our social media pages the livestock follow and livestock extension group if you haven't already, and be sure to visit the UH CTAHR Extension website,

Melelani Oshiro:

and our YouTube channel listed in the show notes.

Shannon Sand:

And for additional information about this topic, see the show notes of the podcast that's in the description box of our YouTube page. Thanks for listening to the livestock Walaau and before we go show some love for your favorite podcast that's us by the way, by leaving us a review on Apple podcasts or anywhere you listen to this, and then stay tuned for next month's episode.

Melelani Oshiro:

Thanks again to our sponsors. The western extension Risk Management Education Center, WRSAP, USDA NIFA the livestock extension group and CTAHR Mahalo for listening. A Huihou