RanchMan90
Well-known member
Does anybody pi test calves they buy? If so what's the most cost effective method?
Sort them off to prevent them from infecting othersDempster":2hkvl6cy said:What are you going to do with the positives?
RanchMan90":5tctnqmf said:Sort them off to prevent them from infecting othersDempster":5tctnqmf said:What are you going to do with the positives?
Dempster":1xlst61s said:It is not challenging to develop some herd wide immunity to BVD through vaccination, especially if your goal is to prevent PIs. It has been shown fairly clearly that having a PI calf in a pen of cattle will significantly hurt the performance of the group as a whole. You are going to end up with lower gains and more pulls when PIs are present. BVD in itself will generally not be that damaging to a calf, but when you start getting other diseases on top of it things get worse fairly quickly. I like the idea of getting them out of the group, just wish there was a decent way to manage them after that.
Dave":2a1crwd5 said:When I was raising heifers to sell as bred heifers I PI tested. All were individually sampled and labeled. I sent them to WSU. If I remember correctly it cost about $2 or $3 per head. In four years (240 heifers) I had one positive. I put her and a free martin I found in the herd into a separate pen and fed them out. I ate the PI heifer.
It was a good selling point that buyers liked. I vaccinated the heck out of them, AI'ed to a drop dead calving ease bull, pelvic measured, and when I got to the PI test the buyers were impressed that I had done everything I could to insure a good out come for them.