The Helpline is a farmer helping farmer service of advice and referral. Calls received by the service are given to the appropriate commodity group(s) for follow-up.

Beat the Heat – A Guide to Hot Weather and Shade for Ontario Cattle Producers

This booklet, published in 1998, is a joint project of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, the Colonel K. L. Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare and the University of Guelph.
The 28 page manual focuses on heat stress and nutrition, the benefits of shade, cattle behaviour in the heat, pests and parasites, symptoms of heat stress as well as ways to construct artificial shade structures and other ways of providing natural shade. The booklet is free of charge and is available by contacting the OCA office. 
 

Four manuals and a recording notebook, produced in January 2000, are available free of charge from the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association or the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. Funding for the projects was obtained, in part, from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
The manuals include:

• Good Production Practices for Cow-Calf Producers
• Good Production Practices for Feedlots
• Good Production Practices Records for Feedlots
• Recommended Operating Procedures for Feedlot Animal Health
• Beef Cattle Medication Withdrawal Times and Recording Notebook

Manuals focus on such topics as

• Processing cattle – handling, parasite control, identification, de-horning branding, implanting and record maintenance.
• Treatment – feed medication additives, treatment
• Hospital Management
• Pen Checking – assessment and maintenance of animals
• Pharmaceuticals – purchasing, inventory, storage and handling
• Record keeping – calving, processing, feed prescription, medications.
• HACCP plans for cattle
• Calving
• Feeding
• Breeding