Man! I've been busy

[plumber_greg]

I'm in Houston, Tx. visiting my son. Been gone awhile, I've learned a few things this summer
1. Over 100 degrees is really hot weather, especially if it hasn't rained since the 1st of May
2. Pinkeye sucks, a successful treatment means they don't lose the eye. I've probably treated 90% of my commercial calves, as well as 50% of their mammas.
3. I followed some advice, sold 70 cows, will deliver after I wean the calves. Got a really good price, but you can't find, what I feel is the quality of my cows, in the sale barn. It will leave me with 25 registered cows, 31 commercial bred heifers, 11 reg. bred heifers, and this years' heifer crop.
4. Weaned 50 head with the weaning flaps in their nose. They will eat a LOT of creepfeed after you do that.
5. 50 head will so far lose 7 nose flaps, so you still gotta wean some of them.
6. Pinkeye and hot weather sucks, again.
7. And the most talked about----If you give someone you never have met $1000, to train a border collie you have never seen, don't own, and don't know what it will cost when trained, your friends will constantly tell you they have a dog for sale.
8. Sara, my employee, blames all things, including drought and hot weather, on me.

 

[chippie]

You have been busy. Hope you enjoy your visit. : )

 

[bigbull338]

all of that is just the normal life of a cattlemen.

 

[plumber_greg]

Yes, BB, but usually I don't have all this eye trouble. I've spent every Sat., up rounding cows at 5AM, just to treat bad eyes. It's been a real problem this year. gs

 

[kenny thomas]

If Sara is unhappy she can always come to work for me. :nod:

 

[plumber_greg]

She won't quit, she likes the 25 hour work weeks too much. gs

 

[bigbull338]

Yes, BB, but usually I don't have all this eye trouble. I've spent every Sat., up rounding cows at 5AM, just to treat bad eyes. It's been a real problem this year. gs

sounds like you need to shredd your pastures to cut down on the pinkeye probs.

 

[john250]

Are you giving pinkeye vaccination? It works real well for me.

 

[plumber_greg]

Yes John, I do give vac. to everything. The problem is on the south place, at home I have had none. Don't have many cows at home tho'.
The local vet, I don't use him,but we get along really well, told me that my neighbors have been having a lot of trouble. He cultured the virius and came up with a vaccine for that partictular one. Will be ready in 6-8 weeks. I will vaccinate with it next spring. He said that the more people around there he could get to use it, the better the response will be. Seems that there are 1,ooo's of virisus that cause pinkeye, the problem is what one does this group have.
He also told me that, I think he said Merial, is coming out with a vaccine that will treat a broader spectrum of the virises than we have been using. May not get them all, but will get some of them. You may watch for it next spring.
BB, my grass is about 1" tall, can't shred it, my mower cuts too tall. Thanks for trying to help tho'. I am always open to suggestions.
The thing that make me the most upset about pinkeye is the fact that it is not hard to treat, and the treatment works, it is just such a pain in the ass to get them up all the time to treat them. Looked into a gun, but they won't deliver enough vaccine.
I ain't got no problems tho'. Got home from Tx. to find out one of my good friends and customer didn't get his tractor in park while feeding hay and both tires ran over him. He walked to the life flite chopper, but had internal bleeding and died a few hours later.
We all gotta' be careful out there. Rest in peace, Ronnie. gs

 

[LazyARanch]

Greg, Very sorry to hear about your friend... my condolences

 

[Kingfisher]

I'm in Houston, Tx. visiting my son. Been gone awhile, I've learned a few things this summer
1. Over 100 degrees is really hot weather, especially if it hasn't rained since the 1st of May
2. Pinkeye sucks, a successful treatment means they don't lose the eye. I've probably treated 90% of my commercial calves, as well as 50% of their mammas.
3. I followed some advice, sold 70 cows, will deliver after I wean the calves. Got a really good price, but you can't find, what I feel is the quality of my cows, in the sale barn. It will leave me with 25 registered cows, 31 commercial bred heifers, 11 reg. bred heifers, and this years' heifer crop.
4. Weaned 50 head with the weaning flaps in their nose. They will eat a LOT of creepfeed after you do that.
5. 50 head will so far lose 7 nose flaps, so you still gotta wean some of them.
6. Pinkeye and hot weather sucks, again.
7. And the most talked about----If you give someone you never have met $1000, to train a border collie you have never seen, don't own, and don't know what it will cost when trained, your friends will constantly tell you they have a dog for sale.
8. Sara, my employee, blames all things, including drought and hot weather, on me.

 

[Kingfisher]

Just drop some of that bad luck off in Brownwood.........can't get no worse from what you believe....

 

[pdfangus]

the thing that turned around pinkeye for us years ago was when we switched to a good mineral with Chlorotetracyclene in it.....

I used to battle pinkeye daily....not weekly....every afternoon after work was a gather and treatment....treatments today are a LOT better than they were back then....we were injecting eyes with penecillin back then and iodine on the erosions.....

Finally the vet had us do three things.

vaccine
fly tags
upgrade mineral....
we quit the fly tags years ago.....
we quit the vaccines 7 or 8 years ago....
still using the mineral....
I dorve thirty miles each way this past weekend to get the mineral that works for us....and I will continue to....it will also aid in preventing loses due to ananplasmosis.....that one will give you a sudden outbreak of cows with their feet in the air.....

 

[plumber_greg]

What is Chlorotetracylene? Guess I could google it, but may still not know.
I needed to battle it daily, just didn't have the time. Each weekend when I had them up I sprayed for flies. That actually worked better than any cattle rubs or fly tags I ever used. The cows learned that it would get the flies off, and got so they kinda liked it, not all but a lot of them. I finally just quit filling the rubbers. gs

 

[john250]

What is Chlorotetracylene? Guess I could google it, but may still not know.
I needed to battle it daily, just didn't have the time. Each weekend when I had them up I sprayed for flies. That actually worked better than any cattle rubs or fly tags I ever used. The cows learned that it would get the flies off, and got so they kinda liked it, not all but a lot of them. I finally just quit filling the rubbers. gs

LA 200 in one of its forms.
Some mineral, usually labeled as "fescue fighter" contains a dry form. In Missouri you may have fescue? Pink eye cost me half of a calf crop about 3 yrs ago. I haven't had a repeat since I got religious about vaccinating, tags, and spraying as a last control. That year was just a terrible fly year. Haven't had a repeat and I hope it's just a one bad year thing for you.

 

[plumber_greg]

If they have a constant dose of LA 200 in mineral, will the treatments be as effective with a shot of LA 300, if they get pinkeye anyway? I hope it's only a one year thing too!! gs