I was sold a cow with Johne's, what do I do?

[Fleming Farms]

Honesty makes you sleep better at night. If I was the one that sold you the cow I would want to know.

 

[djinwa]

You will notice the usual advice here is to sell your problem cows to the next sucker

I've never noticed that. In the thousands of posts I've read on here I don't think I've ever seen that advocated even one time.

Well I've seen many. Maybe I'm more sensitive to it and notice it more. It's all that "buyer beware" stuff.

Like one case where some inexperienced folk got a heifer at the salebarn that was really wild and people told her to "ship it". To who I asked. Back to the salebarn. People said that it's buyer beware and people can tell a wild cow when they see it in the ring. To which I replied that the people who posted their problem couldn't tell.

Maybe all the advice to "put wheels under her" means selling for butcher only, but I don't know.

 

[Sir Loin]

Re:

"put wheels under her" means selling for butcher only,

That's exactly what it means. It's called the "weigh pen or a "weigh cow" where the cows are bought for slaughter by the lb. as opposed to by the head based on some other quality.
If you buy a weigh cow, and I have bought many, you get exactly what you see fully knowing it is/was meant to be sold for slaughter.
It does not mean, pass your problem on to someone else.

SL

 

[angus9259]

i dont believe you can really eyeball one and tell,,, some may figure they got a heavy parisite load.. get em cheap, take em home and work em. to fatten up

Yup. In fact, most people don't know they have it when they send one to the salebarn - they just figure it's a hard doer. Look at all the literature and it'll tell you it's largely undetected because people cull them for "other" reasons before really knowing what it is. If the sellers don't know, the buyers won't know either.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

and how much mercy should be extended to the gambler,, when they buy one outa the weigh pen... or cull ?

 

[bigbull338]

honestly most bad johns cases never make it to the sale barn,because they usually die pretty fast.

 

[Goodlife]

Is it safe to slaughter cattle with Johnes for human consumption? I would think the ethical choice would be to put it down. I don't know about the rest of you, but I wouldn't butcher it for my freezer and would not sell my integrity over trying to get a few bucks selling it without disclosure.

Hopefully the guy you bought it from will work a deal of some sort as I assume he sold it to you by accident. Especially as you live local to each other. Around here we take offense to being cheated by a neighbor.

 

[ga.prime]

Johnes is not uncommon. To be tested Johnes free is not a requirement to pass inspection at a processing plant. I think you can figure out what that means. People eat it all the time.

 

[Beefy]

most people sell Johne's cows before they get too deathly ill, without even knowing its Johne's. maybe it was that thin cow that didnt breed back that you fattened up and got to looking good again before you sold her? keep in mind she doesnt have to have the squirts to be carrying. particularly a younger animal. i was reading an article about Johne's yesterday that recommended as a control measure culling, tilling the soil and letting it rest, OR running terminal stock on the infected area. i'm sure we've all had Johne's burgers and didnt know it.