A long time, so a few pics

[RSL]

We have been running, hence the lack of posting. We had a health wreck in our calves pre-Christmas so wound up spending a lot of hours treating, tubing, etc. The first time we have even had to treat a weaned calf in 5 years, but we made up for it. It was a very special time :shock: . We still have our calves.

I brought some cows home on Monday to vaccinate. We are using scourgard, multimin and a custom made vaccine for eae Ecoli and Cperf A after we had some problems with losing calves last summer and post weaning. We will booster again in a few weeks and will start calving around May 1st. I added some more purebreds to the mix this winter as well (also May calving).

Billy made it district 4H public speaking. No notes, just a 7 minute impromptu on GPS in Agriculture.

Our little church just before Christmas

Pre-Christmas Piano recital

Preg Checking. A crew of 3 (including the vet) averaged over 80 an hour including setup and cleanup time.

 

[Silver]

That's too bad about the health wreck in your calves. Those things are never fun. What was culprit if you don't mind me asking?
Those Northstar chutes are a pleasure to use, with a lot less banging and clanging than the others. I see the vet is using ultrasound, I've noticed the vets are getting very proficient with them the last few years and can really make good time. I bet their arms feel a lot better by seasons end.

 

[RSL]

Culprits... Our calves started with a couple of doggy calves on a Saturday and by Monday we were well underway. We had a coccidia overload, a Mann H., classic pneumonia, eae ecoli and a Clostridium perfringens A isolated from post mortems (There is not cperf A in the commercial vaccines). We wound up tubing some calves with electrolytes, giving draxxin to everything, amprol, drenching with safeguard, doing a pour on, AD shots and finally feeding pellets with rumensin.
From that fun we have now got a custom vaccine for the ecoli and c.perf and have started a scour guard program. We lost several calves to a rapid onset last summer as well, so we are hoping the ecoli and c.perf take care of that problem as well. Funny how we never lost any when they weren't worth anything.

I was impressed by the speed we preg checked, since our vet arms any that show up open on the scan. There is an extra charge if you don't process so many an hour so being cheap the pressure was on. I think based on some of the setups our vet works in that this is more than justified. My future plans are to have an air cylinder to power the sorting gate in front of the chute and save a few steps. I think we can pretty easily top 90 to 95 an hour with that in place.

 

[Silver]

Well that sounds like a real nightmare RSL. Sounds like you were right on the ball and went the distance to get it sorted out. Do you suppose the cocci overload lowered their resistance to allow the other culprits in the door? Just curious if the vets had any theories, might be a learning in here for me going forward

Our vet also arms anything that shows up empty on the scan. He says he's confident they are bred when he sees something, not so confident they are empty when he sees nothing. We always pay our vet by the hour, so we push them through pretty quick as well, so being cheap we load up on the free labour to ensure the paid help can stay busy. This year it worked out to 120 head an hour so we feel we go our money's worth out of him lol
I like your idea of the air actuator.

 

[RSL]

Silver, we have a few theories. The cocci definitely opened the door for some other stuff to emerge, although some of the diseases that came through on calves that were vaccinated and boostered for the specific bug (eg: Mannheimia). The other thing we have been working through is whether oilfield emissions or environmental sulfur (among other things) may be limiting the immune response to vaccines. We changed our vaccination product this fall when we boostered the calves because our vet changed brands. We will be special ordering the old brand ahead of time in the future. This ecoli and cperf A we think is a likely culprit in the young calf sudden death stuff we ran into last summer. We are going to booster calves with a shot of multi-min pre-weaning this fall as well when we do our boosters as we think it should encourage a better response to vaccination. Our weather also played a part as it was very bouncy and dry/wet/cold/warm etc. We are looking at changing our weaning protocols as well, but are not sure yet just what that will look like.

I told our vet (who has 7 kids) that I expected my name on their gifts right beside Santa Claus.

 

[PATB]

Did you do any blood work to check on selenium levels in the cattle? A small feedlot in this state and a few producers ran into major health issues because of lack of selenium with several diseases. The feedlot now requires everyone that they purchase calves from to be on a good mineral program or give shots of multimin.

Does Canada have any online resources similar to USGS site?

http://mrdata.usgs.gov/geochem/doc/averages/se/northeastern.html

 

[RSL]

I don't know if we have a site like that here, but our area is generally deficient in Se. We did not pull blood samples, but did livers on all of our post mortems. We actually have a pretty strong mineral program and everything checked out OK. We did have some low levels of Vit E in one of the tests we ran, but hard to tell as it oxidizes very quickly.
We consistently test water, feed, etc. I have come to the conclusion that things only die when the price goes up...

 

[leanin' H]

Man that is always a bad deal! But if you have livestock in any numbers, wrecks seem to come along from time to time. Sometimes they can be self-inflicted but many times it doesn't make much sense. From droughts to blizzards and medical disasters, if it hasn't happened to ya, you haven't been in this vocation very long. Your conclusion about things dying when prices are high fits nicely with my motto of buy high and sell low. That's for your pictures. I have forgot what snow looks like. You kids are sure growing!!! Have a fine spring and don't be such a stranger!