Black leg vaccination timing?

[Stocker Steve]

Is there any value in doing the black leg vaccination on retained calves in the fall?
Since we only see black leg in the summer - - it seems like the 7 way black leg plus pinkeye vaccination in the late spring would be more effective?

 

[dun]

The fall is when we do the blackleg nd booster. Get's it done and insures they have immunity when it may be needed. That way we only have to followup in the spring with a single shot

 

[Aaron]

I'll guarantee there is no value in a dead calf.

 

[Lucky_P]

What Aaron said.
I try to get an initial dose in those calves between 2 & 4 weeks of age, then booster 3-4 weeks later.

 

[Stocker Steve]

What Aaron said.
I try to get an initial dose in those calves between 2 & 4 weeks of age, then booster 3-4 weeks later.

So you vaccinate * spring * calves when they are a couple weeks old? or fall calves? or both?

 

[Lucky_P]

Both. Fall calves are usually easier, 'cause they're all here at the house from Oct-Feb. Spring calves are worked the next time the herd rotates past the barnlot paddocks.

 

[Aaron]

What Aaron said.
I try to get an initial dose in those calves between 2 & 4 weeks of age, then booster 3-4 weeks later.

So you vaccinate * spring * calves when they are a couple weeks old? or fall calves? or both?

When you were here and we walked across the road looking at some of the cows, some of those calves were only 3 weeks old and they already had their Blackleg and Somnus shots. Nothing goes to pasture before it gets it's shots (or to the winter paddocks in the case of the fall herd).

Now I am not timely on the boosters, so 3-4 weeks becomes 16 weeks in the bat-of-an-eye. But we have never lost an animal to blackleg in almost 30 years, and in the case that we did, the animal was not vaccinated at all.