A good health program is one of the most essential elements of a successful backgrounding project. Understanding how vaccines work and how best to use them should result in more effective disease control. Expecting the vaccine to completely protect the animal from that disease is unrealistic.
Vaccines are only as effective as they are properly used.
Long-range weather predictions have reported that agriculture will be faced with similar environmental conditions in 2000 as in 1999. Current conditions and those of limited rainfall and snow the past winter offer little anticipation for normal moisture. In addition, temperature this past winter created one of the warmest on record. All of these factors indicate the strong possibility that Tennessee cattle producers will experience another long, hot, dry summer in 2000. In fact, the weather service says that Tennessee is among the states that may be the hardest hit.