Monett Veterinarian Panel
ELDON COLE
MT. VERNON, MO.
I asked Drs. Voyd Brown, Cassville, Darren Loula, Clever and Ted Dahlstrom, Monett to discuss the major beef health issues in their clientele’s herd’s year-in and year-out. The first condition out of their mouths was pink eye. That subject took up a good bit of their time so each had some good comments.
The consensus was you need to sit down with your veterinarian and develop a pink eye plan as to what vaccine to use, when to give it, how to give it. They agreed there are several causes of the eye problem so it’s important to do culturing to identify the cause on your place. Autogenous vaccines can be a big help but they need to be boostered. If you can’t get them up to booster, consider the implant treatment. They recommended fly tags or some other effective fly preventive program.
A couple of other comments I liked were:
• Be on the alert for hairy heel warts.
• If you’re losing calves have your vet cut them open.
• Don’t keep open cows.
• Pregnancy test early.
• Preconditioning almost always pays if you provide details to your marketer. It just may not pay as much as you’d want.
• Castrate bulls early, before 3 months.
• Wean at least 45 days prior to your sale date. The markets now report short-weaned calves prices and they take a price hit. ∆
ELDON COLE: Extension Livestock Specialist, University of Missouri