Sound management and a good herd health and vaccination program will reduce the chances of your calves contracting respiratory infection. Recognize that the critical period for detection of BRD is the three weeks immediately following weaning, placing on feed or shipping calves, or environmental stress, heat cold. Vaccines are available for several of the respiratory infection diseases. However, the available combinations and various brands make the choice very complicated. Consult your veterinarian on a vaccination program as part of your herd health program.
Pneumonia can be very costly in terms of medication, labor and death losses.
Reducing stress is about the only management alternative available unless you have a vaccination program to provide some immunity to the disease causing agents. Come and participate in field trips and lectures that will challenge your skills and knowledge. Guest speakers will provide the catalyst for conversation and the exchange of ideas. Our keynote speaker, Charles Kay, environmental consultant and photographer, has spent much of his career with aspen, national parks, aboriginal human ecology and the impacts of wild and domestic herbivores on riparian areas in the western United States, Alaska and western Canada. Other guest speakers include Bob Chadwick, retired U.S. Forest Service, now owner of Consensus Associates, will discuss ways of dealing with change.