Vaccinations make healthy cattle


It is vaccination day on the ranch...I remember taking my kids in to get their vaccinations and how important it was to good health. I treat my cattle the same way! So last weekend, we vaccinated 120 cows and calves on Saturday before Prom....that is a story in itself!  And on Sunday we vaccinated another 150 cows and calves once the boys woke up from spending the night partying at Prom!!

The first step in vaccinating cattle is to get them all caught in a pen where you can handle them.  So we push them up to our working pens between the barns, and put the mama cows in one pen, and the baby calves in another pen.

Calves receive different vaccines than cows. This is their first time to get shots, so they get a modified live vaccine for many different diseases--including respiratory disease, diarrhea, and other known bovine diseases.

Unfortunately, the cows and calves don't realize the separation is temporary, so they start bawling at each other...it reminds me of a mother at Walmart who's kid has hidden under a clothes rack...she hollers for him to get out and then yells at him for doing that. The cows make me laugh as they peer through the pipe fence, bawling out their calves for being in a separate pen!
We work our cattle in a chute--that is designed to hold them still with minimal difficulty and stress to the animal or the person! It works very well when you have teenage boys to help!! These boys worked very hard before getting ready for Prom.

When we were nearly finished and only had the cows to run through the chute for their vaccine, my husband had a few friends show up to help! They are guys who live in our little town, but are in the military stationed at Ft. Riley, Kansas. We are a great town for military families and these guys all are from different areas far from Kansas. One guy has experience with cattle, but the other two do not.....after this weekend, they definitely DO have experience! They were lots of fun to work with and teach about how we take care of cattle. They had a great sense of humor and the work went even faster with 3 more big guys pitching in!
The last thing to do is to turn the cows and calves back together. They all frantically find each other and the calf usually goes directly to nursing. Even though they've only been separated by a pipe fence for a couple of hours, they are greatly relieved to be back together!  Finally when we were finished, the boys hurried up and got cleaned up to head to our little town for Prom. It is a small event, but nearly every kid attends! They did a good job cleaning up and I think they had fun dancing all night!

9 comments:

  1. I grew up in a small farming community in Ohio in the early 60'S. Our dances and the prom parking lot looked more like a cattle sell then a dance. This was before people started using stock trailers and had cattle racks on there trucks and all we had was the truck,no car. the farm kids drove the farm truck to the prom and never thought about washing it or taking the racks off. like your boys it was back to the farm and work the next day but it was a really good life. lots of good memories and good clean fun, I love small town life. we now live in a small farming community in Florida and love it. love your blog.

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    1. We are very blessed to live in a small town! I love the people and the sense of community is very strong. Thanks for your comment on the parking lot of prom! I can almost see that!!

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  2. Working cattle is a hard job. I just wish they knew we are trying to help them. We live in a small town too and thank goodness we have friends that show up to help. Small town proms and graduations are the best!

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    1. Haha...I always try to explain to the cattle what we are doing and why, but they really don't seem to care!

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  3. Dear Debbie,

    I enjoyed your webinar today and learned lots of facts about beef production and nutrition.

    Thank you.

    Alice Jo Rainville, PhD, RD
    Professor
    Eastern Michigan University

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    1. Thank you! I was hoping to hear from a participant of the webinar! I hadn't heard if it was okay or not. Thanks for your comment!

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  4. Stopping by from reading about your ranch in the book No More Food Fights. Glad I have discovered you and I'll be looking forward to future posts and reading past ones.
    By the way, nice looking boys. Hope they had fun at the prom.

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    1. Thanks a bunch, Tamra! I think the boys did have a good time at prom and AfterProm party--we have an organized party that all the kids participate in planned by the senior parents. They always get a kick out of staying out all night and not getting in trouble!

      I peeked at your blogs--is the Front Porch Reviews your main blog these days? It looks great, although I noticed a great recipe on one of your others that intrigued me!!

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  5. The bleach blonde hair looks good already too. We had a kid show up a Prom in a helicopter. Working cattle is hard work. We can't run ours through a shoot because of their large horns so each one has to be squeezed up against another panel. Little more stressful but we also don't have some 200 head. It is great when the kids can pitch in and help. I know we couldn't do what we do without them. Thanks for sharing.

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