Branding day gets all the attention, but the days after branding are when many calf health problems either settle down or start building.Across West Texas and the Southern Plains, branding season often lands just as the weather gets serious. Mornings may still feel decent. By afternoon, though, the heat comes on, the wind dries everything out, and flies start acting like they own the place. Calves that were worked, vaccinated, castrated, branded, hauled, or sorted may look fine when they leave the pens. That does not mean they are fully past the stress.
That is why branding season aftercare matters. The goal is not to overthink every calf or turn ranch work into a science project. Instead, watch the right things, reduce the stress you can control, and catch problems before they turn into a dead calf, a poor doer, or a bunch of calves that fall behind.
Heat, flies, dust, fresh wounds, dry forage, and dirty water can pile on fast after processing. One stressor may not hurt much by itself. Several together can really pull a calf down. A calf that is sore from castration, fighting flies, breathing dust, and trying to cool off in 100-degree heat is not in a great position to heal, eat, and grow.
Good aftercare is straightforward: provide clean water, shade if you can, control flies, handle cattle calmly, watch them in the pasture, and act quickly if something seems wrong.
Every spring in West Texas, there’s a point where calving is mostly behind you, and things finally start to settle down. Calves are on the ground, pairs are turned out, and after a long winter, it feels like you’ve made it through the hardest part of the season. The grass is starting to green up, cows are grazing again, and from a distance, the herd looks like it’s in good shape. This is often when producers feel like they can take a breath and let things run.
Pinkeye in cattle spreads quickly and can turn from a small issue into a problem for the whole herd. It moves from animal to animal through direct contact and flies, especially face flies. That’s why it’s important to spot it early and act fast. What begins as mild tearing or irritation can lead to cloudy eyes, ulcers, or even blindness if not treated right away. Once pinkeye takes hold, it’s much tougher and takes more time to control, so catching it early is your best bet.
Calf scours is one of those problems that instantly puts cow/calf producers on high alert—and for good reason. It’s the number one cause of financial loss in young calves, costing operations time, money, and sometimes entire calf crops if it gets out of hand. What makes calf scours in cattle especially frustrating is how quickly it can appear and spread. One day calves look fine, and the next you’re dealing with diarrhea, weak calves, and long nights in the barn. It can feel like a wildfire moving through a pasture, leaving producers scrambling to get ahead of it.
If there’s one myth that hangs around ranch country year after year, it’s the idea that a hard freeze wipes the slate clean on parasites. I get where it comes from—we see bermudagrass die back, flies disappear, snakes vanish, bugs go quiet, and everything suddenly feels…dead. But parasitology doesn’t follow the same rules as the rest of the ranch. A cold snap doesn’t magically “sterilize” your cattle or your pastures. In fact, for several parasites, winter is not a problem at all—it’s their 
If you wean calves in the fall, you already know it’s one of the most important—and sometimes most stressful—times of the year. Calves are adjusting to life without mom, their immune systems are under pressure, and the weather can’t seem to make up its mind from one day to the next. Those temperature swings, along with increased parasite activity and post-weaning stress, make fall a prime time for health problems to sneak in. Respiratory disease, in particular, can spread fast in weaned calves when their defenses are already down. The good news? A little planning now can save you big headaches later—think less weight loss, fewer treatment costs, and a lot fewer sick calves.
Bovine Respiratory Disease—better known as BRD—isn’t just one illness. It’s a catch-all term for respiratory diseases in cattle, most often showing up as 
It’s August—and at first glance, your cattle might look like they’ve weathered summer just fine. The calves are filling out, the cows are holding condition, and the pastures, while a little crispy, are still holding up well. But don’t let that surface-level calm fool you. One sneaky issue that could be dragging down performance and profits without making much of a scene is 
Trichomoniasis—Trich for short—isn’t just another hard-to-pronounce disease. It’s a serious and costly problem that can infiltrate your herd and significantly impact your bottom line. We’re talking fewer calves on the ground, lower weaning weights, and a longer, more frustrating breeding season. And the worst part? You often don’t realize it’s there until it’s already done the damage.
Internal parasites are one of those hidden problems that every beef producer has to deal with. You might not always see them, but they’re constantly working behind the scenes—dragging down productivity, health, and profits. These parasites increase maintenance energy requirements, mess with nutrient absorption, and keep the immune system working overtime. All of that adds up to lost performance.
