Vaccination Time!

As we continue to teach the Greenhand more things, we try to include everything.  Calving, milking, machine repair and maintenance, herd health, and now, vaccinations.  Just about the time he thinks he's beginning to catch on, we throw something new at him!  We don't do it to be mean, but it's better to learn these things, than to get a few months down the road with your own herd of cows and find out that it's not what you thought it was. Machinery breakdowns, sick cattle, planting deadlines, fertilizer costs . . . it goes on and on.  It's kind of like running downhill from a huge snowball that's gaining speed and size the further it goes.  You keep trying to outrun it, but eventually, no matter how fast you go, or how good you are at dodging it, it eventually runs you over.

So, here we go, vaccinations.  Yesterday it was modified live BVD, IBR, PI3 and lepto along with selenium for minerals.  One of the most common, yet preventable with vaccine cattle diseases is the BVD, IBR, etc. complex.  The modified live version kicks in quite quickly and begins to build an immune response right away.  Soon after a cow calves, we give this vaccination, prior to the window of time that we begin to work on getting her bred back.  BVD and the others can quickly kill a developing fetus, or later on down the road, abort a well-developed calf.  In order to prevent this, we give the modified live version to get the immunity built up in the cow before we even begin to start the breeding process.  This also includes a leptospirosis 5-strain complex that also guards against many kinds of leptospirosis varieties.  Lepto also causes all kinds of breeding headaches if you don't keep it under control.  This can be carried by deer, dogs, rats, and others.  If cattle like to stop and drink out of a stream, standing water or pond, chances are, there's been a deer nearby who has contributed to the lepto problem.  We see our conception rate go up rather drastically as long as we keep up with this series of vaccinations.

So we loaded up our pockets with needs, syringes, medications and worked out way down the line of cows that needed attention.  I pulled the cards for the cows that contains all of their health information and identified which ones we needed to do, and off we went!  Showing the greenhand the proper technique and shot sites, we took our time, and helped him only as he needed it.  After the first couple of cows, he was catching on quite well!  Nobody cold-cocked him in the chin as he was giving shots or head-butted him, so he came out rather unscathed.  Good!  We also had him give selenium shots.  Selenium is a mineral that is rather deficient in our area.  Without it, cows also have a difficult time breeding back.  One of the first signs of selenium deficiency in this area is cows not delivering the afterbirth after calving.  That in itself can cause all kinds of sick cow problems if not taken care of right away.  So, in order to avoid this, we keep them up to date on their selenium.  We used a sustained-release product that keeps the mineral in their system for almost a year.  We usually only have to give this one vaccination once a year along with their modified live and these two are out of the way.  We have other vaccinations that we give, but these two are major.

So, as you can see, we had another busy day on the farm.  Our cows seem to receive more medical attention than we do, but once again, an ounce of prevention is worth 1400 pounds per cow!