Dr. J.J. Goicoechea is a fourth-generation rancher from Newark Valley, NV, whose expertise in the industry is far-reaching. His work and experience range from operating a commercial cow-calf operation, practicing veterinarian medicine and serving as the Nevada state veterinarian, to his most recent appointment as director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA).
In mid-January, Goicoechea was appointed by Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) to fulfill the director job, a role with which he is eager to get down to business.
Goicoechea’s plan as the new director is simple: “It’s time to do something different for ag again and get back to protecting, promoting and enhancing agriculture in the state of Nevada,” he told WLJ. “And that’s what we’re going to do.”
One of Goicoechea’s top priorities in his new role is to improve customer service and satisfaction. He said the department has shifted away from farm and ranch producers, who have been left feeling alienated. In addition, state employees have expressed frustration with internal processes. “If you’re not happy in your job, you’re not going to do a good job for that end user,” Goicoechea pointed out.
Another big-ticket item for Goicoechea will be in-state meat and poultry inspection, as the state does not currently have a program. Goicoechea said Nevada does not have enough plants in the state that are USDA inspected, and it’s time to change that. He said regulations are close, and the department is arranging to initiate plans to be selling meat and poultry within the state of Nevada by the fall.
“That’s gonna be huge for these guys here and open a little more of a niche market for some of them,” he said.
Another top priority for Goicoechea is making the department more modern and updating past processes.
“We’ve got to modernize the Nevada State Department of Agriculture—everything from our website and more needs to be brought up,” he said. Goicoechea added that the department also needs a laboratory information management system that keeps up across the animal industry, along with plants and pesticides.
“We’re just a little bit behind times,” he said. “We’ve focused dollars the last few years in other areas, and we’ve got to get those back over here to where they have some meaningful purpose on the ground.”
Breeding soundness ahead of turnout
Prior to serving as the director of NDA, Goicoechea was in veterinary private practice for 17 years, before being named Nevada’s state veterinarian in 2016. He served in the role until 2019 and also filled in as interim state vet from late 2022 until his new appointment as NDA director.
Goicoechea discussed with WLJ the importance of implementing a breeding soundness program during this time of year. There has been a record winter throughout much of the West, with large amounts of precipitation over the past few weeks.
With colder temperatures comes higher incidence of scrotal frostbite and defects in semen. If bulls have been exposed to frostbite, it is a minimum of 60 days before spermatogenesis is back to normal and generating healthy sperm. If there is another cold snap in February and a bull’s testicles are affected by the temperatures, it will be close to turnout before the bull’s fertility has recovered.
It also is important to implement a bull breeding soundness program regardless of the weather before turning bulls out. Exams should include evaluating a bull’s feet and legs and palpating the penis and sheath to make sure nothing is broken.
“We’ve had some mild winters, and producers have been running bulls for maybe a year or two longer than they normally would with the price of some of these bulls and input costs,” he said. “I would highly caution people not to do that this year unless you do perform a full breeding exam.”
He added that some producers in the West may be roughing it out right now due to higher costs, and feeding just enough forage to get by, hoping for a good spring that will flesh up their bulls.
“Just like with our cows, we don’t want them in a negative energy balance when we calve,” Goicoechea said. “We can’t have these bulls in a negative energy balance going into the breeding season because they’re not going to produce.”
Bulls won’t have the stamina to breed, and injuries will be more common.
“You’ve got to start thinking about these bulls right now. We’ve got 90 days to make sure these bulls are ready to go in a lot of cases. Producers need to start thinking about them, or we’re going to see some delayed calving or open cows next year.”
Producers who wait until the last minute to semen test their bulls could be left scrambling if the bulls don’t pass, and having to use their insurance bulls instead of following their original breeding program.
Goicoechea recommended scheduling exams now, and in the case of a bull being off—maybe he had a bout of frostbite—considering bedding them differently for a bit.
“I know that hay is expensive, and nobody wants to have a bull laying on hay, but good bulls are expensive too,” he said. “And genetic loss is even more expensive if you can’t keep him in, and you can’t replace him.”
He added that he is a strong believer in having a year-round mineral program, along with giving an internal parasite product.
“Simply using a pour-on that’s going to make the outside look good isn’t the answer either. Those bulls go out there and start working. If you haven’t taken care of them, they’re infecting those pastures and those fields that you’ve got your calves on as well.”
Goicoechea also discussed vaccine regimens and how there can be mixed feelings on vaccinations and bulls. In his herd, the bulls receive everything the cows do. The one thing he cautions producers against is giving TrichGuard to bulls.
“It makes sense to me that if I vaccinated a bull for trich, he could have a little bit of immunity of some kind in there,” he said. “When we test that bull, if he’s just got a low number of organisms, maybe we’re going to have a hard time culturing that before we go to PCR or if we are doing a microscopic read on that culture. So we might miss those if he had been vaccinated for trich.”
The state of Nevada’s current trich regulations are based entirely on exposure or contact, Goicoechea said. What they are seeing now in the state is there are pockets in certain areas that blow up every few years, and they get it tamped down. Right now, there are a couple of hot spots in the state, but the circle is getting bigger.
When Goicoechea was working as state veterinarian, they proposed mandatory statewide trich testing, similar to the state of Idaho’s program. The only bulls that tested positive in Idaho last year were bulls that came off Nevada pasture.
“That is a problem—an interstate commerce problem and trade problem that we are going to start experiencing with neighboring states,” Goicoechea said.
“We are getting a lot of pushback here for mandatory trich testing, but we’ve got to do something better. Our producers and neighboring states deserve it,” he said. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
