No Vaccination Herd

[aplusmnt]

Anyone have an experience or opinions on running a herd the way God made them? No Vaccinations, No medicine (except when sick). Just Water, Hay, Mineral and a Bull?

Curious how needed all the Vaccinations really are. And even if you lost some head that could have been saved would you in the end be more financially ahead if you did not spend the money or time on all the worming and vaccinating?

We use to worm our Mules and horses every 3 months but for the last two years we have not wormed them once. And they are all fat rolly pollies in perfect health. Makes me wonder how much is hype from pharmaceutical companies and how much is needed?

 

[C HOLLAND]

I asked a similar quetion of the local vet in my area, He is co-owner with his brtoher of a local sale barn and they run several hundred head of cattle.

I asked him if they gave any vaccinations to their cattle and he said they only vaccinate their brood cows and bulls and do not give their terminal calves any shots at all. He said they sell all their calves weaned from the truck on the way to the sale and that seems to be the norm in this area.

 

[Alice]

All other vaccinations aside...it would worry me to death to NOT vaccinate for black leg.

Alice

 

[MikeC]

I asked a similar quetion of the local vet in my area, He is co-owner with his brtoher of a local sale barn and they run several hundred head of cattle.

I asked him if they gave any vaccinations to their cattle and he said they only vaccinate their brood cows and bulls and do not give their terminal calves any shots at all. He said they sell all their calves weaned from the truck on the way to the sale and that seems to be the norm in this area.

Calves weaned on the trailer and shipped directly to a midwest feedyard can be a disaster. More often than not.

That is the norm in this area but should not be that way.

That is also the main reason southern cattle have/has a bad reputation.

The prices paid for ALL calves down here reflect this also.

 

[Bullbuyer]

My dad and none of his buddies have ever vaccinated the first cow in over 50 years of raising cattle - no problems reported as of yet. However, I myself use 7-way and wormer without exception.

 

[Farmgirl]

Loose one to blackleg and you will be singing a different song!

 

[curtis]

I vaccinate an worm every spring an fall, it would worry the be nice out of me if i didn,t.

 

[bigbull338]

Loose one to blackleg and you will be singing a different song!

we dont vacc the cows here.nor do we vacc any of the heifers.havent had any major probs from it.will dr the cows/calves if they are sick an thats it.

 

[C HOLLAND]

I asked a similar quetion of the local vet in my area, He is co-owner with his brtoher of a local sale barn and they run several hundred head of cattle.

I asked him if they gave any vaccinations to their cattle and he said they only vaccinate their brood cows and bulls and do not give their terminal calves any shots at all. He said they sell all their calves weaned from the truck on the way to the sale and that seems to be the norm in this area.

Calves weaned on the trailer and shipped directly to a midwest feedyard can be a disaster. More often than not.

That is the norm in this area but should not be that way.

That is also the main reason southern cattle have/has a bad reputation.

The prices paid for ALL calves down here reflect this also.

I do agree Mike, and thats not the way I plan to do my cows, all of mine have their shots and will be weaned prior to sale. I hope it will help me get a better price, but I wouldn't bet on it because the buyers know how the norm is in this area.

 

[Dave]

I use to do it that way. I learned that one dead cow or calf will pay for a whole lot of vaccine. Now I don't get too carried away but everything gets its shots.
On the calves with no shots. My calves get multiple rounds of shots before they leave. The last two guys who bought my calves said none of them got so much as the sniffles. After I sold this fall the auctioneer said I should be the happiest guy around with the price I got. Those buyers are willing to pay more for calves they know are vaccinated right. Sick calves cost them money.
Dave

 

[novaman]

Vaccinations may not be all that necessary. However, I can buy a lot of vaccine with the money that i could lose by an animal dying because of no vaccination program. Cheap insurance policy IMO.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

My dad and none of his buddies have ever vaccinated the first cow in over 50 years of raising cattle - no problems reported as of yet. However, I myself use 7-way and wormer without exception.

i got a neighbor that operates that way he dont report his problems either. just drags their dead ass too the back forty for the buzzards to eats and transport the diseases elsewhere

 

[randiliana]

We didn't do any vaccies other than blackleg on the calves. UNTIL, we bought a bunch of bred heifers, and the next summer one went down with BVD(persistent infection). Never had a problem before that (or so we thought) but we vaccinated everything the next spring before breeding. The next year we had less abortions (none compared to 2 the previous year) less scrubby calves (none compared to 5 or so the year before) and a generally healthier herd. Now we have had the odd abortion since and some smaller calves too, but none have been like what we had before we started to vaccinate!! Well worth the money just in the calves that were healthier.

We don't go overboard with the vaccinations either all we do is give the cows Breedback 9 before breeding, the calves Blackleg at branding and the replacements blackleg and Pyramid 4 with presponse at weaning. I sure wouldn't go back to no vaccinations. And I WOULD give the calves MORE vaccinations at branding and before weaning IF the buyers around here would act like they want those calves.

 

[Alice]

I asked a similar quetion of the local vet in my area, He is co-owner with his brtoher of a local sale barn and they run several hundred head of cattle.

I asked him if they gave any vaccinations to their cattle and he said they only vaccinate their brood cows and bulls and do not give their terminal calves any shots at all. He said they sell all their calves weaned from the truck on the way to the sale and that seems to be the norm in this area.

Well, now there's a vet worthy of great admiration... :x

Alice

 

[Frankie]

IMO, vaccinations are cheap. We had a herd health program, but when we lost a couple of sale barn calves (probably 400 pounders) to blackleg, it got our attention. We give our calves a round of shots and put them back with their moms. About two weeks later, we give them boosters and wean them. If the bulls go to test, they get another round up there. It's seldom that we have sickness here at home, though occasionally one on test will get sick.

 

[bigbull338]

vacc your cattle can be well an good.but doing so can ruin you an heres why.when we dairied.we vacced the cows for everything.but 1 year we got aholt of some bad anaplaz vaccine.well guess what happened.we ended up losing $30,000 in milking cows in less than 2 months.the vet said it was bad anaplaz vaccine,so pfhizer got hitt with a big law suit.an had to pay us over $20.000.an yall say vacc is good,but it wasnt that time.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Do you all give your heifers bangs vaccinations? I know VA is a Brucellosis free state, and I'm just guessing it got that status because people vaccinated for it, over time. Some Dexter people don't believe in vaccinating ("hardy, disease resistant," etc., blah, blah, blah). We vaccinate everything now, including Spirovac. A small breeding operation can't afford to take chances, IMO.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

The vaccination stone has been upturned again...lol.

We do a full component of vaccinations on all of our cattle and horses. Cattle costs per animal less than $20 a year. Horse costs (including WNV) about $75 a year. Our Vet costs to maintain our TAHC Accredited TB & Brucellosis Certified free herd just add another $15 or so a year to our cattle over 18 months of age.

Loss of even ONE "sale barn" calf will buy you a lot of vaccinations! Or, multiply that for registered foundation stock loss(es).

Just because someone has not lost an animal "yet" doesn't mean that WORSE won't raise it's ugly head at some point in time. And, in some cases, one sick/dying animal (yours or new additions) can cause others in herd to be infected. A producer definitely doesn't want Blackleg, Brucellosis, TB, wormy livestock, or any of the other "plagues" that can trash out one's livestock crop, plus give him/her a bad reputation for having sorry, sickly animals...JMO

"Pennywise, Pound Foolish"

On a Sidebar: Couple of years ago we had a #1 horse quality alfalfa hay supplier locally--he fertilized, irrigated, and used herbicides for weeds. He sold out to another hay "producer" who allegedly didn't believe in using pesticides. His first crop was full of weeds and IMO his hay would only be suitable for goat or cow hay. He couldn't GIVE me that hay, even if he hauled it to us.

Leaving things to nature and/or certified organic (lots of State and/or Federal restrictions plus lower yields from "nature's damage") in this day and age of weeds and insects usually leads to a poor crop of anything that is worth a fraction of a "good" crop. The products that are actually good then have to be sold for premium prices to enable one to come out financially.

 

[Frankie]

Do you all give your heifers bangs vaccinations? I know VA is a Brucellosis free state, and I'm just guessing it got that status because people vaccinated for it, over time. Some Dexter people don't believe in vaccinating ("hardy, disease resistant," etc., blah, blah, blah). We vaccinate everything now, including Spirovac. A small breeding operation can't afford to take chances, IMO.

We were a Bangs free herd for several years. Then Oklahoma became a Brucellosis-free state. We maintained our bangs free status for a year or two after that, but finally stopped testing. We still vaccinate our heifers for Brucellosis though. Better safe than sorry.

 

[andybob]

Diseases that cattle do not develop immunity to need tobe vaccinated against, Brucellosis, Anthrax, Blackleg and Tetanus in most areas, I also used to vaccinate for Botulism due to the large wildlife population resulting in old bones sometimes being chewed by the cattle. As the herd was naturally resistant to tick bourne diseases I never vaccinated for these especially as I supplied bulls to tribal areas where natural resistance is essential. With my new herd here in N.C. I am following the same policy 'though there are far fewer tick and fly bourne diseases than I had in the past.